The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has renewed its call to parents and guardians to help their children with online learning in all forms during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As of March 15, six educational institutions in the capital and five provinces have temporarily suspended in person classes and continued their lessons online.

Ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha told The Post on March 16 that in the 2020-2021 academic years students would have to learn through short courses – classroom learning and distance learning, self-study, assignment and summarised lessons.

“The Ministry of Education would like to thank and call on parents to continue to help their children with online learning,” he said.

Soveacha said that parents should spend time reading with their children and having their children read to them. They should choose books to read which their children will enjoy – whether in a physical or digital format – in addition to their school books.

He added that as of March 15, educational institutions under the ministry had temporarily suspended in person classes and continued to learn online. The institutions under suspension were located in Phnom Penh, Kandal, Prey Veng, Koh Kong, Preah Sihanoukville and Stung Hav district of Preah Sihanouk province.

Another eight educational institutions in Samrong district and nine educational institutions in Bati district in Takeo province had also been suspended.

Soveacha stated that schools in some provinces had not been linked to the February 20 event and they are still successfully teaching students in classrooms while carrying out the health measures consistently.

In a notice on the temporary suspension of state and private schools in the capital and five provinces, Minister of Education, Youth and Sport Hang Chuon Naron said that all of the schools had to continue to offer courses online.

One University student in Phnom Penh named Siv Narith said that he understood why the schools had to shut-down due to Covid-19, but given the money the school would be saving in lower electricity bills and other costs, he questioned why the school’s fees remained the same.

“As for the quality of education, some teachers now just show pre-recorded videos of themselves. So they can keep reusing the same videos for many different classes.

“I asked why they don’t broadcast their lessons live and they answered that they are too busy and have no time,” he said.

Pech Bolen, president of the Federation of Education Services in Cambodia, said on March 16 that the experience of learning and teaching online for over a year now following the Covid-19 outbreak, private schools who prepared online learning for students were not a problem.

“But small children at the pre-school and primary levels still have certain problems because they aren’t able to study by themselves effectively. So, we try to help them by teaching [them with a live instructor],” he said.

He added that the private schools of the Federation of Education Services in Cambodia had actually helped their students by lowering school fees by 20 to 30 per cent. But some parents and guardians had yet to come to pay their fees even then.

“New courses at our private schools will start in April and May and we will continue to offer fees reduced by 20 to 30 per cent,” he said.