OFFICIALS from the Planning and Education ministries met Thursday to discuss reforms laid out in the updated National Strategic Development Plan, with education officials calling for increases in staff members and facilities to meet the Kingdom’s goal of achieving universal public education by 2015.

“To respond to the [Millenium Development Goal] of ‘Education for All’ by 2015, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport needs to hire about 5,000 new teachers at all levels and must build 1,000 new schools,” In The, spokesman for the Ministry of Education, said after the meeting at the Hotel Cambodiana.

Although 2010 will see restrictions on the hire of personnel throughout government, the ministries of health and education are exempt from these rules.

In The said new teachers were necessary because of the high number of retirees in the education sector, which he said totalled about 2,000 per year, and because of an increasing number of school-aged children.

Pich Bunthin, secretary of state for the State Secretariat of Public Functions, said that of the 3,923 government workers who will retire this year, about two-thirds are teachers or health staffers.

“In early July, we will finalise the selection of between 5,000 and 6,000 new teachers, nurses and doctors to work in the health and education sectors,” he said.