The Shadow of the Mandatory Education System in Cambodia
May 19, 2013 By Nako Yoneyama (16)
During my stay in Cambodia from March 24 to 29 of this year, I was fascinated by the views of gorgeous hotels decorated with exquisite carvings, the skyscrapers, flashing neon-lighted buildings, and streets flooded with foreign cars and motorbikes. Though Cambodia displays signs of remarkable development, its education system is still struggling with difficulties. I explored the present state of Cambodian education by interviewing Mr. Kevin Doyle, chief editor of the newspaper Cambodia Daily, and by speaking with currently employed school teachers.
The standard way to become a teacher in Cambodia is to complete the governmental teacher training standard curriculum to obtain an official teaching certificate. However, according to Mr. Doyle, there are non-official teaching certificates which are not properly authorized by the government, some of which can simply be purchased. Such purchasable certificates and diplomas include PhD and Master degrees not certified by the government. So, the academic backgrounds and teaching certificates claimed in candidate-submitted resumes are not reliable. Actual interviews are necessary to judge candidates’ qualifications.
Supported by high tuition fees, affluent private schools can hire talented teachers through careful selection processes. By contrast, public schools often employ teachers with non-official certificates leading to low quality education. When a national education system was introduced after the Pol Pot regime, those who had only finished secondary school were able to become teachers. At present, high school graduates are supposed to enroll in a public training center for two years to obtain a teaching license.
I visited two public primary schools, Tropienspai Elementary School in Phnom Penh and Bankyuan School in Kandal province and found both of their classes very dull and monotonous: one student answered a teacher’s questions and all the rest of the students repeated the answer. Except for answering the question posed, students are not given any chance to think, simply repeating the same answer over and over. According to Mr. Doyle, this is the method typical of the majority of public elementary schools.
The low salary for public school teachers is another problem. Mr. Chim Didah (20), teaching at Bankyuan School, and Mr. Sau Wannarom (53), teaching at Tropienspai Elementary School, both admitted that they cannot afford to live on their school salaries alone. Mr. Doyle pointed out two reasons why this is so.
First, the government education budget is insufficient. Greater budgets are allocated for military expenditures and public security costs, which shows the government‘s priority on military affairs and public security over national education. Another reason is the corruption at the local bureaucrat level. Money for teachers’ salaries is sometimes stolen by local government officials while being transferred from the government to individual public schools. Payment is often delayed for two to five months.
Cambodian teachers often farm the land or run small businesses with family members to supplement their meager salary. They also receive money from their students through various means. Although public school tuition in the primary and secondary schools is free, students’ families donate some money every morning to their teachers knowing that teachers’ salaries are not sufficient. The amount of such donations is not fixed but depends on the household. Students are also charged for an examination to advance to the senior class. If they cannot afford it, the students automatically fail to be promoted to the next grade level. To avoid such a situation, some parents are forced to borrow money for the examination fee. Children from poor families cannot manage to pay for the examination and have no choice but to stay in the same grade or drop out of school.
The issue of such payment to school teachers has been objected to by the Cambodia Daily, and many others. During my flight from Seoul to Phnom Penh, I had the opportunity to talk about the problem with a Cambodian woman and Mr. Marin Sok, grant director of the Asia Foundation. The Cambodian lady related stories of teachers selling answer sheets submitted by outstanding students, and of teachers’ wives selling lunch to children. Such sales are not approved by the Ministry of Education, but regarded as “informal practices” like “a sort of tax” according to Mr. Doyle. Corruption is rampant among Cambodian officials due to the suppressed salary level, a regrettable fact that is widely acknowledged.
Cambodian mandatory school education is divided into morning classes and afternoon classes. Teachers work either in the morning or the afternoon, and teach students for examination preparation during the rest of the time, during which children must pay tuition. Teachers pursue lots of activities to supplement their income. Many teachers wish to be employed in the big cities populated by wealthy households, avoiding poor rural areas, which face a severe shortage of teachers.
Mr. Doyle insisted that lifting the salary level of teachers and public servants is necessary to solve these problems; corruption would be reduced and teachers would be paid sufficiently. Once they can live on their salary alone, they will not expect any money from their students, and more teachers will work in rural areas. If children are robbed of their chances of education, especially in high-economic-growth modern Cambodia, their future and the prosperity of the country dependent on them will be significantly diminished.
プノンペン国際空港から都心への道は、立派な首相官邸をはじめとする多くの高層ビルが立ち並んでおり、舗装された道路には外国の高級車が走り、日本に見られるようなスーパーマーケットもあった。想像以上に近代化された、経済成長率7.08%(2011年、出典: IMF – World Economic Outlook Databases)のカンボジアを象徴する姿があった。
A news article about the University of Tokyo planning to change its enrollment of undergraduate students from spring to autumn caught my eye. Then many questions emerged: What exactly does autumn enrollment mean? Will it have a positive impact on junior and senior high school students? What kind of problems are anticipated?
I had interviews with the University of Tokyo, business people, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Tokushima University to study this issue.
Ms. Taeko Onodera, Manager for Long-term planning, General Affairs and Planning Department, University of Tokyo stated “we have not yet officially decided to change to autumn enrollment, but we are considering this system quite seriously. Mr. Junichi Hamada, the President of our university is eager to support students to be more global minded, having the intelligence and social skills necessary to challenge world taking risks. He believes that autumn enrollment is instrumental towards this goal.”
There are some issues to be resolved in regard to this change including a so-called “gap term” and conflict with the current employment process. Gap term is a new phrase coined by the University of Tokyo meaning the period between April to September when students graduating high school do not have classes to attend. Students are encouraged to participate in volunteer activities during this term. Ms. Onodera explained the university’s strong commitment saying “We would like to offer students volunteer activity programs and study programs including activities in foreign countries with financial support. Then students can make valuable use of this time. As to employment, companies’ policies are becoming more flexible to hire graduates throughout the year. It is necessary to change our current education system otherwise Japan will lose global competition. The University of Tokyo is expected to take leadership in globalizing our academic system and driving Japan to reform itself entirely.”
Ms. Tomoko Hasegawa, Deputy Director, Public Relations Bureau, Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations), said Keidanren is also aiming to support the cultivation of globally-minded people and welcomes the autumn enrollment as a measure for internationalizing Japanese. However, she does not agree with all Japanese universities’ changing to fall enrollment. Keidanren is ready to support those colleges which are heading for internationalization.
According to Mr. Shun Shirai, Deputy Director, University Promotion Division, Ministry of Education, the Ministry is going to endorse the introduction of autumn enrollment. However, they need to work with the business community and other relevant ministries to solve the conflict with current recruitment procedures and the national examination calendars. In addition, it is not easy to provide a subsidy for the operational cost of such introduction because such subsidies come from taxpayers. That said, making Japan adopt a global standard is significant and the Ministry is going to cooperate with universities as much as possible.
Mr. Yoshihisa Takaishi, Vice President, Executive Director for Education and Students Affairs, the Tokushima University said “Today the issue of globalization is a common topic throughout Japan. As a whole, the country must move forward to become global. Our graduate program has already started to adopt the autumn term enrollment as a measure of globalization.” The Tokushima University is ready to introduce the autumn enrollment system for undergraduates, too if there is public support to cover transitional costs and solve the national examination scheduling problem, the Tokushima University is a regional public university which has many science courses including medicine, dentistry, pharmacology, and engineering.
What obstacles are expected from the introduction of the autumn enrollment? One is the corporate recruitment procedure. The University of Tokyo and Keidanren realize that many corporations are hiring new graduates throughout the year, but the Ministry of Education said that most newly hired employees start working from spring and recruitment throughout the year is exceptional. As to the national examinations held only once a year, graduates in the autumn enrollment system would have to wait for the next year’s examination. Students who finish high school in spring will not have a stable position nor identity until autumn and this point must be clarified. If they find temporary jobs and gain some income during the gap term, they would surely have to pay social security tax. Can we solve all these issues?
Throughout these interviews, the recognition of the autumn enrollment system was the same; it is a measure to globalize Japan. Japan is aiming to be more global to beat competition with foreign countries. Some universities are for the autumn enrollment and others seek alternative measures to be global. We should keep tabs on their various approaches.
According to the survey conducted by the Cabinet in 2001, 29.9 % of the respondents felt that married couple should always use the same surname and opposed any revision of the current law, down from the 39.8 % who felt this way in 1996. The percentage of those who favored allowing married couples to use separate surnames even in the household registers, however, rose from 32.5% to 42.1%.
The result indicates an increased interest in dual-surname system in Japan. So I interviewed three people on this issue; Fujiko Sakakibara, lawyer and professor of Waseda Law School who advocates for the change, Tsugio Watanabe, who is married but not registered to keep individual surnames, and Lower House member Shizuka Kamei who opposes any changes.
Sakakibara said there are three major advantages to dual-surname system. “First, people do not need to give up their original names which may be the symbol of their identity. They also can protect from others their privacy on marital status. Next, changing surnames risks losing credibility on past business performance but the dual-surname system allows people to avoid such troubles and encourages women’s social advancement. Finally, under the single-surname system, the custom of women giving up their original names persists, but the dual system fosters the sense of gender equality, symbolizing the equality between husbands and wives.”
Watanabe said, “All we want is the right to choose separate surnames. It will not affect the couples who favor single surname, so I see no disadvantages.”
On the other hand, Kamei was the one who virtually blocked the implementation of the dual-surname system amid the big chorus of politicians demanding the change during the Hatoyama administration. Kamei, who has been active on the front lines of this issue, said, “I don’t see the point of discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the dual-surname system, since it is not an absolutely necessity. The current system is convenient so why should we abolish it and cause needless chaos?”
On May 16, 2012, The World Health Organization (WHO) announced in “World Health Statistics 2012” that the birthrate in Japan was 1.4%, ranking 175th out of 193 member nations. With the falling birthrate, marriages of people without siblings increase, causing the ends of “family names.” Sakakibara pointed out that “Many couples want to retain their surnames because they regard the names as inheritance from their parents and ancestors.” Dual-surname system is an incentive measure for marriage and birth. It is time for us to take some concrete steps.