A student studies in her classroom at Tuol Tompoung Secondary School in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district. Heng Chivoan
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the secretariat of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT) have cooperated to incorporate human trafficking-related lessons into the primary school and high school level curriculum next year.
Education ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha told The Post on December 16 that the ministry has disseminated contents on the relevant rights, laws and international conventions into some subjects such as social studies, ethics, civics in Khmer language and science.
“Hopefully, students learn about the ways to stop human trafficking in school and among youths eveywhere,” he said.
Soveacha added that other than the human trafficking containment measures, the ministry had also incorporated other relevant contents such as drug, criminal, and sexual and human trafficking offences into the curriculum.
Chou Bun Eng, Ministry of Interior secretary of state and permanent vice-chair of the NCCT, told The Post on December 16 that the NCCT had participated in preparing and finishing relevant documents.
“So, they [education officials] will publish them and train school teachers how to incorporate these documents into the school curriculum.
“We will start letting students study [these documents] next year. I think that this is a program that can educate everyone in Cambodia.
She said no matter if they are old or young, or if they are students, we want them to learn about human trafficking and defend themselves when necessary.
She added that incorporating knowledge on human trafficking containment and sexual exploitation into the primary school and high school curriculum is a good method.
Bun Eng said the human trafficking situation is still active because it is a cross-border crime that happens not only in Cambodia but also in many countries.
She pointed out that criminals had methods and tricks to persuade and encourage people to engage in their activities to their advantage.
Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA) president Ouk Chhayavy welcomed the move, but she wanted human trafficking-related information to be disseminated to parents, guardians and citizens.
“It will enable our children or students to defend themselves from human trafficking or from being cheated and exploited as forced labour.
“Parents and citizens in communities should learn about how to defend themselves because the problem of human trafficking isn’t the fault of those little students,” she said.
She added that all people including children, adults and the old generation have to learn about how to prevent human trafficking.
