And, many rural teenagers see education as a waste of time and money due to lack of opportunities.

Things should change, and the government of Cambodia should be ashamed about their education policies over the last 20-30 years.

Despite billions spent there are still not enough school, not enough teachers, and education still isn't free for all, no matter what the government will tell you. And the schools and teachers that are available are below par.

For instance in the whole of Ratanakiri there were only two schools offering year 10-12 in the entire province up. Total secondary schools about 6. In an area measuring about 150 x 150 km....

Things have improved, a bit, but if you live out in the boonies and you don't have money you're fucked when it comes to education. And not just education.

A sharing of our recent experiences.

We have two youngsters, by virtue of my other half’s previous marriage. Now 3 1/2yrs and 6 years old.
This year was the first opportunity to get them into school, due to various disruptions late last year.

In no particular order, these are my observations.

Arrogance of staff/ management.
The same handicaps that are prevalent in many other institutions also hamper schools badly. Arrogant management, with elitist attitudes, who cannot be told anything, and who see no reason to adjust their practices.

Capability
I feel confident in stating that schools here can deal only with those students who fall within certain parameters,(imagine a Gaussian distribution) such as starting school by a certain age, have an average or better aptitude for learning, coming from a household where parent(s) achieved at least a full education to secondary level, or better.
They seem woefully inadequate when dealing with-
-late starters. 5yrs old instead of 3+
-learning difficulties. I discussed dyslexia with teachers at several schools, and they had no understanding of its existence, let alone how to assess and deal with it. Are those potential students literally written off?
-behavioural issues. Children who have never been required to integrate in a controlled environment are likely to lash out when being required to adjust their behaviour. In class discipline seems entirely dependent upon conforming to those standards from the outset. No allowance seems to be given to understanding children’s backgrounds, and no feedback will be given on whether they fit in, or are adjusting.

Teaching standards
Lacking. That includes both international as well as local teachers, as evidenced by the other thread about a teacher being only in it for the money, but hating teaching.
Our two were in separate classes. Once I pushed for a parent teacher meeting, it became apparent that neither teacher could speak English, despite the program being an English medium curriculum. The administrator of the school insisted that both teachers understood sufficient English for the level they were teaching.
Neither teacher had any respect for us as parents, when asking for a full and frank assessment of the kids’ progress. Neither teacher was willing to admit to their supervisor that they didn’t know how to teach a child how to use a pen properly. The assumption was that children would start school already having that skill.
When challenged about this, it was their view that this was the purpose of homework, for parents to teach these skills.
However, all written feedback on formal reports and in books indicated that the children are/were doing well in class. The old ‘saving face’ culture.

My overall assessment then, is that the majority of education in Cambodia is largely setup to disregard and exclude a significant proportion of the school age population.
The education system at the younger age is little more than a day-care service, and requires continual, and disproportionate input at home.
Most of the better equipped schools are understaffed, resulting in the few good teachers being a very limited resource to satisfy a very great demand.

...and now I head off to interview and interrogate some new teachers....

In the UK, children start school in the September before they become 5 years old. That means some are nearly 5 when they start school. In the USA, most but not all children start school by the age of 6. So, I don't think Cambodia has a problem with late starting.
I have had children attend pre-school nurseries in the West. Those places don't aim to teach, (although they may claim to do so to attract customers), they are basically daycare.
So, school proper in the West usually starts quite late but they have national curriculums that the schools must adhere to. They also usually have good facilities and equipment, well-trained teachers and have the benefit of research into the best teaching methods. For example, you would never see children under the age of 10 sitting in rows, they sit in groups at round tables. Challenging established views is encouraged and rewarded. Their biggest problem is disruption in class (that's a hard one to address), but absent that the children do amazingly well. It's incredible how much my children knew by the age of 16. It would be interesting to compare that to what a child in SE Asia knows at age 16.
In SE Asia, a completely different set of values concerning education applies. In Cambodia, as the country slips away from the American sphere of influence, the gap is likely to widen. I don't know how Western parents deal with this, it must be challenging.

explorer wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 2:04 pm

Kammekor wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 7:26 am in the whole of Ratanakiri there were only two schools offering year 10-12 in the entire province up. Total secondary schools about 6. In an area measuring about 150 x 150 km....

Who makes the decisions? Do they come from Phnom Penh, or are they made at a local level?

One of the problems is that Cambodians have never experienced schools in developed countries, and dont understand even if you tell them.

There are opportunities for NGOs to start schools in some of these areas.

Phnom Penh is on top of everything, there's not that much provinces can decide by themselves. Phnom Penh even decides in which province a teacher in a state school will be based. Then the PoE (Provincial office of Education) decides which teacher will be based in which school. Remote schools are unpopular, so there's a market there for the PoE. Results can be seen on the parking lots of the PoE and the houses the higher staff live in.

A reason private schools are more popular. There you actually have to apply.