The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in Cambodia is responsible for the development of the national curriculum and the assessment and development of schools and universities across the country.

In the past decade the Ministry has worked hard to improve the standards and availability of education in Cambodia however a lot still needs to be done.  The number of educational establishments has increased but the quality of teaching staff and the availability of teaching materials still leaves a lot to be desired.

Two of the most pressing facts when it comes to a discussion of education in Cambodia are that teachers are not paid a decent enough wage on which they can comfortably live and that the burden of funding education falls on parents rather than on the state.  This often means that only the more financially strong families can afford to have their children educated and often only one child in the family can afford to go to school.

In the past few years the state of education in Cambodia has improved as the government have committed more of their annual budget to education and also because international aid has poured in to assist.  The numbers of universities and secondary schools in Cambodia has increased dramatically – some of these establishments have been created from genuine funding in a bid to raise the standards of education and literacy across the country.  These schools, colleges and universities usually employ expatriate teaching staff alongside Khmer staff in a bid to train up local teachers which is a further positive development for the prospects of the education system in Cambodia. 

Unfortunately some universities and private secondary schools have been created because there is a tendency in Cambodia to have to bribe your way into university by paying to pass upper secondary level exams - it’s thought that some of these new universities and schools are cashing in on this fact and rather than concentrating on supplying a good education they are concentrating on raising funds.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport is working hard to try and crack down on this tendency and in fairness they have succeeded in improving literacy levels in Cambodia and in raising the standards of teaching staff as previously mentioned.  Work is ongoing to try to resolve the discrepancy that exists between schools in the main towns and cities compared to those in more rural areas where there are few staff, fewer text books and where pupils have to pay to get any form of education at all.

Donor relief as well as greater government expenditure on education is also helping to buy better teaching materials and to pay Khmer teachers a better wage.  In the past wages for teachers were so low that they had to supplement their income with additional work which reduced the number of hours they could teach for, or else they were forced to charge their students even more money to learn which forced out all but the wealthiest children.

Nowadays the growth in the prevalence of schools in Cambodia is generally a good thing.  Expatriate teachers are working hard to teach the children English language skills for example as well as to improve their overall literacy levels.  Those who can afford higher education have a wealth of institutions to choose from but care should be taken and research done into the reputations of universities before an application for enrolment is submitted. 

For those researching their options, examples of the private higher education establishments that exist in Cambodia are Pannasastra University of Cambodia, Norton University, University of Technology and Management, Institute of Management and Economics, Cambodia University and the Institute of Cambodia.  State run higher education establishments include the Royal University of Phnom Penh, University of Health Science, Royal University of Law and Economic and the Institute of Technology of Cambodia.

For expatriates living and working in Cambodia who wish to privately educate their children according to the national curriculum of the country from which they originally herald, there are schools that cover the British, American and French system for example, and there is also a Montessori school in Cambodia.