Education, Teacher Training and Prospects for Economic Recovery in Cambodia

With the conclusion of 1994, Cambodia will have ended its first year of rehabilitation under a freely elected government. Since the 1993 elections, Cambodia has moved cautiously towards a modern era and there has been considerable international effort to ensure that all sectors of the economy achieve the improvements required to achieve political and economic stability towards 2000. The education sector has been a major focus. Cambodia is ready to move into the next stage of development of the education sector-reconstruction. With the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) having provided support in this sector for over 10 years, the restoration of bilateral and multilateral aid will see a growing involvement of foreign governments and donor organisations in the restoration of the sector. This activity will need to be coordinated. Cambodia had a rapidly expanding education system before Pol Pot's Year Zero. Largely based on French colonial models and structures that system served a society very much in transition - a transition from colonial dependency to a possible so-called 'new tiger'. The current period will see a different 'system' emerge; one that is neither French nor Western nor indeed 'modern'. The transition of the education system will be predicated on an overhaul of the existing bureaucracy, training regimes and school curricula before modernisation processes are installed. This paper provides a historical backdrop for the current situation. It also examines current policy priority areas in education in Cambodia and the level of international assistance.