This book is the most comprehensive account yet published about the education system in Cambodia. It covers all system levels and draws upon the knowledge and insights of a wide range of leading Cambodian and foreign scholars. The book focuses on how the system has developed and is making progress. Significant achievements over the past two decades are evident, but many problems remain, including the poor quality of teaching, research and institutional management. Under-funding is an ongoing obstacle, but so too is a bureaucratic culture of resistance to change, a history of weak governance, and an anti-reform sentiment deriving from a teacher-centred and exam-driven curriculum. Achieving international standards must now be the system’s highest priority. To this end, the system must rid itself of conservatism, complacency and manipulation by parochial vested interests.
