Education in Cambodia: highland minorities in the present context of development

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Paper prepared for the HPP/ILO Conference on Grass Roots Development, 1997. Project Activities for Highland Peoples Development in the North‐east of Cambodia. Chiang Mai Workshop, 17–21 November 1997. In July 1954, the Geneva Conference on Indochina accorded recognition of Cambodia's independence. The period of 1941–1955 is called the first Kingdom of Cambodia. In March 1955, Sihanouk left the throne to his father and established the popular socialist society called Sangkum Reastr Niyum, or ‘Sangkum’ (‘the society that people like’) ( CCCP. , 1981). The Sangkum Reastr Niyum era extended from 1955 to 1970 (Pen ). Vaizey writes, ‘In conjunction with the modernization paradigm of development, Sihanouk seems to have believed that the way to economic growth and prosperity was through an educated workforce’ (Vaizey ) Chandler writes, ‘Perhaps the most positive aspect of the ramshackle ideology he called “Buddhist socialist” was his large expenditures on education (20 percent of the national budget)’ (Chandler ). The result of Sihanouk education reform was that ‘the education system increased quantitatively by 25% annually’ (Kierman ).