About 200 teachers gathered in the capital’s Freedom Park yesterday to mark World Teachers’ Day, requesting their salaries be upped to $375 a month to improve quality and living standards.

The teachers, part of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, demanded the increase in several speeches they gave at the meet, lamenting that they could barely get by without taking on other jobs.

Chiv Buntheng, who teaches primary school in Phnom Penh, said that because teaching brought him about $200 a month, he was considering working an additional job.

“I recognise that by doing this, I wouldn’t have enough time to prepare for class, which would affect quality, too,” he said.

Yim Sovann, a lawmaker for the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party who was present at the gathering, promised to raise the issue with the government.

Teachers currently make anything from $160 to $290 depending on the level they work in, said Ministry of Education spokesman Ros Salin, adding that primary schoolteachers’ salaries would be raised to at least $200 by next year.