SCHOOLING ABOLITION: 1975-79

Cambodia was eventually plunged into a complete darkness during the regime of Democratic Kampuchea, or the infamous Khmer Rouge, locally known as the Pol Pot regime which came into power in April 1975. The regime led Cambodia into revolutionary Maoist communism. Pol Pot’s so-called ‘great leap’ revolutionary regime further ravaged Cambodia through the mass destruction of individual property, schooling system, and social culture by forcing the entire population either into the army camps or onto collective farms (Chandler, 1998; Dunnett, 1993). Damage was inflicted not only to the educational infrastructure, but Cambodia also lost almost three-quarters of its educated population under the regime when teachers, students, professionalsmand intellectuals were killed or managed to escape into exile (ADB, 1996; Prasertsri, 1996). It has been estimated that about two million of the pre-war Cambodian population of around seven million were killed or died through suffering in that genocidal regime. Duggan (1996) noted that under the Pol Pot regime, literacy education beyond the lowest grade was abolished and formal schooling of the Western kind was eradicated. People were grouped into cooperatives by gender and age. Some basic reading and writing were introduced, albeit in an unstructured way and with no national curriculum, to children in some working collectives of about two to three hours every ten days (personal experience). During the early years of this regime, basic education was deemed unnecessary since almost all citizens were working in factories and farms (for further discussion see Chandler, 1991,1998; Duggan 1996). 96 Strategies and Policies for Basic Education in Cambodia: Historical Perspectives