UNESCO: quality of education remains major concern for Cambodia

The quality of education is still a big concern for Cambodia and the country needs to set a more effective strategy to enhance teaching conditions and quality of education for all learners, Anne Lemaistre, UNESCO representative in Cambodia, said Thursday. "I would like to commend the Cambodian Ministry of Education for making a great level of success in terms of enrolment to various education levels, as well as internal efficiency at primary level,"she said at the launching of the 2013/14 UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report. "However, quality of education remains a big concern towards achieving Universal Primary Education goal due to several factors: quality teacher is one of them,"she said. She said teachers should be appropriately recruited, continuously trained and professionally supported to improve quality of teaching and learning. "To achieve quality education for all, the current report suggests strategies to provide the best teachers, including the attraction of the best teachers, the improvement of teacher education and the provision of the right incentives to retain the best teachers,"she said. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said Cambodia sees education as the top priority for social and economic development and has actively worked to improve the quality of teachers He said the ministry has policies and strategies to upgrade primary school teachers to basic education teachers through additional training courses and to upgrade teacher level through internal examination. "Moreover, the government has paid great attention to retain teachers through the annual increment of their salaries,"he said. With a population of 14.8 million, Cambodia currently has 6,910 primary schools, 1,214 secondary schools, 433 high schools and 101 higher education institutions, according to the Ministry of Education.