In the last few years before the French left Cambodia, the
colonial government, with recommendations from UNESCO, grudgingly introduced
compulsory education for children aged 6 to 13 years. Events during these years
have shown that the effort to provide compulsory, free primary education was
too hasty.
In the report presented at the UNESCO 14th
International Conference on Public
Education, Princess Ping Peang Yukanthor in 1951 stated: The principle of
compulsory education can thus not be fully applied – until the government is in
a position to fulfill its essential duties through the possession of 94 Strategies and Policies for
Basic Education in Cambodia: Historical Perspectives sufficient number of teachers able, not only to instruct,
but also to educate, and of adequate funds to meet all necessary expenditures. Furthermore,
Cambodian education was still without a national curriculum. Urban schools were
able to offer more subjects in science and technology than the rural ones,
which combined to focus on local traditional culture and more social subjects. Prince
Norodom Sihanouk was crowned King of Cambodia by the French colonial power in
1941 when he was still a senior high school student at a French Lycée in
southern Vietnam. His policies for education after gaining independence were to
attain the goal of compulsory primary education for all and to increase, at all
levels of educational opportunities from primary to university institutions.
His efforts were to build a prosperous nation-state through educational
development. New principles of educational development in the 1950s, with the
recommendations from UNESCO, were introduced and some were fully implemented
such as increasing more learning opportunities for boys and girls and fighting
illiteracy among adults in rural areas. However, the achievement was far from
satisfactory. Statistically, only 10 per cent of female adults were basically
literate in 1958 (Peng Cheng Pung, 1959). The term ‘basic education’, which
aimed at the level of primary education, was first used in the annual
government report to UNESCO in 1957 which signified the UNESCO’s recommendation
to integrate audio-visual materials into the existing teaching methods at basic
education level was not possible at that time (Ministry of National Education,
1956-57). Regardless of inadequate quality in basic education system, several
scholars (Bit, 1991; Deighton, 1971; Dunnett, 1993) noted that the Prince
Sihanouk regime, compared to the French era, had made significant progress in
increasing accessibility at all levels of education. Deighton (1971, p.579)
statistically described: By the late 1960s, more than one million children
enrolled in primary education as compared with about 0.6 million in 1960 and
0.13 million in 1950. From 1950 to 1965 the number of females enrolled at the
primary level grew from 9 per cent to 39 percent. The number of teachers and
schools has expanded commensurately from 1950 to 1964. Although primary
enrolment rate increased, the illiteracy rate was estimated 50 per cent in 1953
for a population of 3.7 million and at 55 per cent for a population of 6.2 in
1966. Reflecting its attention and commitment to formal education in building a
modern and peaceful state, the regime even increased national budget for
education to over 20 per cent of the national expenditure by the late 1960s. However,
other scholars such as Ayres (1999, 2000), Chandler (1991, 1998), Duggan
(1996), and the two current senior education officials interviewed for
this study commented that the regime had failed to universalize basic education
and enhance employment for high school and university graduates. Thus, Duggan
(1996, p. 364) criticized the regime: The education system provided by Sihanouk
was biased towards the nation’s large cities. Rural Cambodia did not benefit
from the selective expansion strategies employed by the Prince (Sihanouk) and
handsomely built universities did not assist rural children and their family’s
poverty. Despite criticisms of the regime for not having enhanced
nationwide literacy-oriented education or increasing quality schooling
opportunities for all, the regime marked a great recovery of Cambodia in the
past few hundred years of its history. Dunnett (1993) claimed that during the 1960s,
Cambodia had one of the highest literacy rates and most progressive education
systems in Southeast Asia. Dy
95 Further details of the Prince Sihanouk
regime were given in some well-known Khmer accounts, written during the 1950s and 1960s, such as those by Nou
Hach’s Phka Sroaporn (The Flower
Pasts its Bloom), Nhok Thaem’s Kolap Pailin (Rose of Pailin), and Rim Kin’s Sophaat, reflecting the
struggles of young men and their families for education and employment. The
belief that enhanced education would bring the benefit of higher
employment in the government sector was raised in these works, which was also subsequently reflected
in school curriculum.
The social value of
furthering the education of the individual, leading to a better future, was
closely associated with the increased development of higher
education institutions in the larger cities. However, the failure to give top priority to basic education
during the 1960s led to the crisis in education system (for further discussion see Ayres, 2000).
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