A teacher instructs her pupils at Prek Leap Primary School in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar district last year. Hong Menea
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has partnered with UNESCO to disseminate the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report focusing on the roles of both non-state actors and state actors to ensure sustainable education for all.
The 2021-2022 GEM report states that this year 350 million children were educated by non-state actors – i.e. private schools – globally.
Therefore, the report said, it is crucial to understand the environment and systems in which public and private schools operate in each country to ensure that the right to education and the educational needs of children, youth and adults are met.
The report details that in Cambodia private schools are present at all levels of education starting from the preschool level. Private institutions are especially prevalent in higher education, which is the only education level in which non-state provision is higher than state provision – with private higher education institutions making up over 60 per cent of the total in 2018.
Sardar Umar Alam, UNESCO Representative to Cambodia, said that private education was not a new phenomenon in Cambodia and was prominent in the Cambodian education system and it provided education services at all levels, which is indispensable.
“It is evident that it has already contributed – together with state institutions – as part of a single education system to support the country in achieving its fourth sustainable development goal on education," he said.
He also praised Cambodia's commitment to providing quality and equitable primary and secondary education for all children. In 2020, the actual primary school enrolment rate was 97 per cent, reflecting the significant progress made by Cambodia in providing universal access to education.
Nath Bunroeun, secretary of state for the education ministry, said on that occasion that private sector actors and NGOs had played an important role in contributing to the sustainability of education in Cambodia.
"The government’s strategic goal is to develop a 'quality education, inclusive equity and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all' in a system focused on science and technology, orientation for the labour market and on physical education to support social-economic development," he said.
He added that the ministry was also focused on poor families, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, natural disaster and epidemic victims and gender disparities as factors affecting equal access to education.
UNESCO’s report provided some recommendations to address challenges: Increase efforts to guarantee free and publicly funded access to a year of pre-primary education and 12 years of primary and secondary education for all children and young people; establish quality standards that apply to all state and non-state education institutions; strengthen government capacity to monitor and enforce regulations; encourage innovation for the common good and bring together all actors who develop them and protect education from narrow vested interests
The report reflects the challenges Cambodia faces and the policy recommendations it makes to improve private education are relevant, but it will require the participation of the private actors in the Kingdom's education system as they will inevitably have to answer the difficult question of "who chooses and who loses?" when faced with tough decisions.
