Over 200 Public and Private Secondary Schools in Phnom Penh Reopen Today
AKP Phnom Penh, September 15, 2021 --

A total of 227 public and private lower and higher secondary schools across Phnom Penh capital start reopening today, said the Municipal Governor H.E. Khuong Sreng while inspecting the in-class resumption of three schools this morning.

Of the number, 68 are public and 159 are private educational institutions, he pointed out, adding that those schools have been fully prepared in conformity with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) guided by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Health, and with the instruction of Phnom Penh municipal administration.

Some 139,578 students return to school with 10,443 teachers and education staff, he underlined.

According to the governor, only vaccinated students and teachers against COVID-19 are allowed to enter the school.

The in-class resumption has been allowed thanks to the high vaccination rate among teachers, education staff and children-youth aged from 12 to under 18 years old, and to steady decline of new infections in the capital.

For the kindergarten and primary schools, they must apply for authorisation from the municipal administration which will dispatch a working group to examine and assess the risk level in accordance to the actual situation before making any decision.
- AKP

Cambodia schools reopen as COVID vaccinations near targets
SHAUN TURTON, Contributing writer September 15, 2021 14:07 JST
Updated 18:40 JST

PHNOM PENH -- Secondary school students in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh returned to classrooms on Wednesday, marking a milestone in the Southeast Asian nation's battle with COVID-19.

For the first time since February, many of the almost 140,000 pupils in the city sat for in-person lessons at both public and private schools that had been certified as safe by the Ministry for Education.

All teachers and school staff were required to take rapid COVID-19 tests prior to returning to campuses. Twenty-four out of more than 10,000 tested positive, according to local media. Students and staff were also made to show vaccination cards before entering school grounds, where masks are mandatory.

Elsewhere around the country, schools continued to welcome back students in areas with low infection rates.

Grade 10 student Neang Bein, who attends high school in the eastern province of Svay Rieng, said she was eager to get back to normal. Months of online learning had led to headaches and back pain, she complained.

"I can't wait to walk into the school, meet my teacher and my friends," she told Nikkei Asia on Tuesday. "I can't remember the last time I was there."

Since the pandemic began, schools in Cambodia have been shut for more than 200 days, facing even tougher restrictions than restaurants, bars and many businesses. The prolonged closures have deepened existing inequalities in Cambodia's under-resourced education system, highlighting a digital divide between students with the resources to study online and pupils without such means, according to UNICEF.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coron ... ar-targets

The importance of school education for adolescents in countries such as Cambodia:

Mapping out-of-school adolescents and youths in low- and middle-income countries
V. A. Alegana, C. Pezzulo, A. J. Tatem, B. Omar & A. Christensen

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 8, Article number: 213 (2021) Cite this article
Abstract

Education is a human right and a driver of development, but, is still not accessible for a vast number of adolescents and school-age-youths. Out-of-school adolescents and youth rates (SDG 4.3.1) in lower and middle-income countries have been at a virtual halt for almost a decade. Thus, there is an increasing need to understand geographic variation on accessibility and school attendance to aid in reducing inequalities in education. Here, the aim was to estimate physical accessibility and secondary school non-attendance amongst adolescents and school-age youths in Tanzania, Cambodia, and the Dominican Republic.
Community cluster survey data were triangulated with the spatial location of secondary schools, non-proprietary geospatial data and fine-scale population maps to estimate accessibility to all levels of secondary school education and the number of out-of-school. School attendance rates for the three countries were derived from nationally representative household survey data, and a Bayesian model-based geostatistical framework was used to estimate school attendance at high resolution.
Results show a sub-national variation in accessibility and secondary school attendance rates for the three countries considered. Attendance was associated with distance to the nearest school (R2 > 70%). These findings suggest increasing the number of secondary schools could reduce the long-distance commuted to school in low-income and middle-income countries.

Long read: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-021-00892-w

140 Lower and Higher Secondary Schools in Kandal Reopened
AKP Phnom Penh, September 16, 2021 --

Yesterday marked the first day of the reopening of 140 lower and higher secondary schools in Kandal province, following the green light from the Royal Government.

The figure was shared by H.E. Kong Sophorn, Governor of Kandal province, in a welcoming meeting with officials from the Provincial Department of Education, Youth and Sports, teachers, and students on the school reopening day.

This is the stage-one resumption of schools guided by the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for safety of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, said the government.

Kandal provincial authority made a thorough evaluation of safety readiness among schools in the province using the SOP, and decided to reopen the 140 schools that meet the required standard, he added.

According to Mr. Cheng Samol, the Director of Kandal Provincial Department of Education, Youth and Sports, of the 140 schools, 101 are lower secondary and 39 are higher secondary schools with a total number of 39,994 students.

Along with other safety measures, only 15 students are allowed for each class, he continued.
- AKP

Cambodia makes international news headlines with child vaccinations.

17 September 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... -who-warns

Hate to say I told you so. Looks like we made it a whole two days before Covid popped up in the schools. If they quarantine whole classes/grades for two weeks every time there’s a case, we are in for one shitshow of a school year.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50937226/ ... -to-covid/

Little_Vicious wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 3:18 pm Hate to say I told you so. Looks like we made it a whole two days before Covid popped up in the schools. If they quarantine whole classes/grades for two weeks every time there’s a case, we are in for one shitshow of a school year.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50937226/ ... -to-covid/

From the above link:

35 mins ago - BREAKING NEWS
Classes at 5 Phnom Penh schools suspended due to COVID
Khmer Times

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) has decided to suspend classes at five high schools in Phnom Penh for 14 days to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This is a serious blow to the much anticipated reopening of schools which happened on September the 15th.

The five high school classes are:
1. HE Ponhea Pun High School (Grade 9B)
2. Boeung Prey High School (Grade 12A1, 9C1 9D1)
3. Boeung Thom High School (Grade 7A2)
4. Wat Phnom High School (Grade 9H2, 9D2, 9B2, 9B, 9H2, 12C2, 12C1, 12B2, 12B1) and
5. Wat Koh High School (Grade 7F).

The Ministry of Education has confirmed that other classes will continue to operate normally, but must restrict outings and continue to wear masks and wash your hands regularly.

More on the above topic:
September 18, 2021
23 students in Phnom Penh test positive for COVID yesterday after schools reopening

After yesterday’s news that 5 schools had closed classes due to COVID in Phnom Penh, it has emerged that at least 23 students in 5 schools have tested positive for the virus.

The director of the Department of Education, Youth and Sports of Phnom Penh, Mr. Hem Sinareth said that students in 15 classrooms in five high schools are required to conduct health check-ups at their respective homes.

Twenty-three positive students – who had already received two doses of the vaccine – were referred to the medical centre at the National Olympic Stadium.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50937450/2 ... reopening/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Sat Sep 18, 2021 5:53 pm More on the above topic:
September 18, 2021
23 students in Phnom Penh test positive for COVID yesterday after schools reopening

After yesterday’s news that 5 schools had closed classes due to COVID in Phnom Penh, it has emerged that at least 23 students in 5 schools have tested positive for the virus.

The director of the Department of Education, Youth and Sports of Phnom Penh, Mr. Hem Sinareth said that students in 15 classrooms in five high schools are required to conduct health check-ups at their respective homes.

Twenty-three positive students – who had already received two doses of the vaccine – were referred to the medical centre at the National Olympic Stadium.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50937450/2 ... reopening/

Probably more like 230....Cannot see this opening lasting even 2 weeks....Would hate to be a teacher these days...

PM HE: Public and Private Universities to Reopen
25/09/21 14:55

Phnom Penh (FN), Sep. 25 – Cambodian prime minister HE informed the Ministry of Education to reopen both public and private universities, addressing in a special voice message on Saturday morning.

Public and private universities must strictly adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).
=FRESH NEWS