World Teacher’s Day
The CITA (Cambodian Independent Teacher’s Association) organised a demonstration at ‘Freedom Square’ in Phnom Penh to celebrate World Teacher’s Day. A teacher’s salary in Cambodia, depending on qualifications, is between 30$US and 60$US, less than a factory worker. Obviously this salary is far from sufficient to live a decent life and it incites to corruption. Schoolchildren at the primary level thus are confronted at a very early age with corruption, as they often have to pay a daily contribution of 1000 Riel (0.25$US) to their teacher if they want to attend classes or be allowed to pass their grades.
Here is a related story on school dropout concerns I did last year…
Here you can download a .pdf report called ‘Teaching Matters’ which explains at length the situation in Cambodia.
UPDATE: that is 30$US to 60$US per month, not per week as you might have thought…
CAMBODIA. Phnom Penh. 5/10/2012: the CITA (Cambodia Independent Teacher’s Association) demonstrating at ‘Freedom Park’ on the World Teacher’s Day.