There is growing consensus that an emerging skill gap could impose
\nhuman costs and constraints on Cambodia\u2019s economic growth and development. The
\ncountry is facing a shortage of skilled human resources even for low-to-medium
\nskill intensive industries. There is a widening gap between the skills that
\nindustries and businesses need and what the education institutions, whether
\nacademic or vocational training, are producing. Cambodia\u2019s skill gap is
\nemerging at a time when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is
\npreparing to launch the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. The AEC will
\nallow a freer movement of certain kinds of skilled labour across national
\nborders. That could put further pressure on the country\u2019s growing but
\ninadequately skilled young workforce. Cambodia\u2019s emerging skill gap can be seen
\nas the sum of two educational gaps: a schooling gap and a learning gap. The
\nschooling gap is mostly about numbers\u2014low enrollment rates, high dropout rates
\nand low completion rates at various levels of education. The learning gap is about
\nthe quality of education\u2014students may not be learning enough even if they go to
\nschool, stay there, and complete their respective grades and college degrees.
\nSimply put, the schooling gap arises because not enough children are getting to
\nschool and staying there to complete the required grades, while the learning
\ngap arises because students are not learning enough workplace skills that are
\ndemanded by the labour market.Cambodia\u2019s youth is thus in need of not just more schooling but
\nalso better learning while in school and college if the country is to narrow
\nthe skill gap. No doubt, in the last two decades Cambodia has made huge strides
\nin improving its education system. Government efforts to strengthen the
\neducation system have aimed at both stimulating the demand for education and
\naugmenting the supply-side of the education system. Supply-side measures have
\nfocused on reconstructing educational hardware\u2014school buildings, classrooms,
\ntextbooks and other school supplies, and infrastructure facilities connecting
\nschools to homes, as well as rebuilding the software\u2014improving the curriculum,
\nand hiring and training a large number of teachers.Despite the rebuilding of the education system, many constraints
\non the learning environment and quality of teaching need to be overcome. This
\npaper identifies the shortage of trained teachers at all levels of education
\nbut particularly at the primary level as the single most important constraint
\non narrowing the country\u2019s skill gap. The teacher shortage problem has persistently
\nplagued the country\u2019s education system. The clearest and perhaps the single
\nmost important indicator of teacher shortage in Cambodia is the very high
\npupil-teacher ratios in schools, especially at the primary level. Cambodia\u2019s pupil-teacher ratio for primary schools is the highest
\namong ASEAN countries; at 46.2, the ratio is close to twice that of Laos (27)
\nand Myanmar (28), and two and half times that of Vietnam (20). Indeed,
\nCambodia\u2019s primary pupil-teacher ratio is the 16th highest in the world and the
\nhighest among countries outside of Africa. Moreover, Cambodia belongs to a
\nshort list of 26 countries in the world with a primary teacher ratio of more
\nthan 40, the upper limit beyond which the United Nations Educational,
\nScientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says the quality of education
\nsuffers; and 23 of these are from Africa. Added to the shortage of numbers,
\ninadequate educational qualifications and lack of teacher training seem to cut
\nacross the country\u2019s entire education system. That, in turn, translates into
\nsignificant learning gaps for students.The shortage of trained teachers is a self-perpetuating problem,
\nresulting in a vicious circle of poor education over generations\u2014today\u2019s
\nstudents are poor because today\u2019s teachers are poor, and tomorrow\u2019s teachers
\nare poor because today\u2019s poor students become tomorrow\u2019s teachers, and so on.
\nInadequately trained teachers in primary and secondary schools also lead to a
\npoor student pool entering higher education resulting in inadequately equipped
\ngraduates coming out of higher education institutions. That subsequently leads
\nto the next batch of poor primary and secondary school teachers and another
\ngeneration of poor students entering higher education institutions. The sooner
\nCambodia breaks this vicious circle of poor education, the better equipped
\nyouth will be to both contribute to and benefit from the country\u2019s growth and development.
\nThe country, therefore, needs not only more but also better
\nteachers. There is merit in the country implementing a strategy of teacher
\ndevelopment that has three interconnected elements\u2014prepare them well (quality
\npre-service and in-service training), pay them well (better remuneration
\npackage), and ensure they perform well (better teaching and learning). Many countries
\nthat have been successful in developing a solid education system have followed
\nsuch a PPP teacher development strategy. This is a kind of \u201cconditional teacher
\npreparation and pay\u201d model. The long run objective should be one of having a
\nteacher cadre that is drawn from the top echelons of the workforce.Given the lack of qualified teacher trainers in the country, importing
\nwell-qualified teacher trainers from abroad would be crucial for the success of
\nthe PPP teacher development strategy.To enhance the effectiveness of the teacher development strategy
\nin providing quality education, there is huge merit in pursuing a set of
\ncomplementary measures that ensure children are adequately prepared for
\nschooling, continuous review and update of the curriculum, continuous improvement
\nof the teaching pedagogy, and local community involvement especially parent involvement
\nin school management. As all these reforms would take time and the country cannot
\ndelay tackling its emerging skill gap, a well-designed and effectively
\nimplemented technical and vocational education training (TVET) programme could
\nbe the medium-term bridge builder for skill development. A significant shaping
\nup and scaling up of the country\u2019s fragmented TVET system would be required to
\nenable it to play that role. True, education is a culture\u2014highly path-dependent and slow to
\nchange. Yet, it can be nurtured and shaped, as proven by countries as apart in
\nculture, distance and initial conditions as Finland in Europe and South Korea
\nor Singapore in Asia. It is also true that building a skilled workforce is a
\nshared responsibility between government, education institutions, development
\npartners, private sector firms and employees, training providers, students and parents.
\nBut such expectations cannot be realised without significant increases in
\nspending on education, whether public or private. Moreover, success in
\nre-calibrating the country\u2019s education culture depends on strong political
\nleadership. Without clear vision and direction, it would be impossible to bring
\nabout the mindset change needed to create conditions for the education culture
\nthat is envisaged and to mobilise the resources required for financing the kind
\nof education reforms that are badly needed. The cost of not prioritising education reforms\u2014for tackling the
\nskill gaps and empowering its youth through productive employment and decent
\njobs\u2014would be prohibitively high. Cambodia is still experiencing a youth bulge
\nin its population. Crucial to converting the youth bulge into a skill bulge is
\nmore schooling (narrow the schooling gap) and better learning (narrow the learning
\ngap). This window of demographic dividend will gradually close as the
\npopulationages. Unless the country acts now, today\u2019s education gap will simply
\nbecome tomorrow\u2019s skill gap, just as the past gaps in education now show up as
\na major skill gap. It took almost two decades to make some significant amends to the
\neducation system under Prime Minister Hun Sen\u2019s strategy of \u201cpeople with low
\neducation teach the ones with no education and people with high education teach
\nthe ones with low education\u201d, a major departure from the Khmer Rouge regime\u2019s
\nslogan of \u201cStudy is not important. What\u2019s important is work and revolution\u201d.
\nDespite the significant achievements of the past two decades, a major skill-gap
\nis now emerging in the country. Cambodia\u2019s own experience surely highlights the
\nfact that putting education to work\u2014to enable it to close the skill gap\u2014is a
\nlong-term project. Most initiatives taken now will not yield immediate results,
\nproducing tangible benefits only after many years. This is another major reason
\nwhy the time to act is now and not much farther in the future. <\/p>\n
There is no reason why Cambodia should not be able to build a
\nmodern education system that can provide high-quality education to Cambodian
\nchildren and youth. It is equally clear that a business-as-usual approach that
\nwould only involve some tinkering of polices here and there is not an option.
\nIn rethinking the country\u2019s education system, it is equally important to follow
\nthrough with the institutional changes required for timely and effective
\nimplementation of the reforms necessary for accomplishing that feat. Political
\ncommitment at the highest level would be the sine qua non for that. \u201cWe cannot
\nsolve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them\u201d (Albert
\nEinstein). \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is growing consensus that an emerging skill gap could impose human costs and constraints on Cambodia\u2019s economic growth and development. The country is facing a shortage of skilled human resources even for low-to-medium skill intensive industries. There is a widening gap between the skills that industries and businesses need and what the education institutions, whether academic or vocational training, are producing. Cambodia\u2019s skill gap is emerging at a time when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is preparing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33061","publications","type-publications","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n