Thanks SteelBird for posting.
I have a question..this is part of the caption I posted with the Cambodia exam photo.
What happens to those students that don't pass? Do they get to take the test again?
Most importantly why did you feel the the education quality in Cambodia is "worrying"? thank you!
Maybe the test were really hard for them with limited resources and access to quality education at the place where they are growing up is poor, BUT that doesn't mean their will, ambition, and smarts are lacking in any way.
First of all, thank you for concerning about Cambodia's education.
This is a long story; however, I'm going to make things short. After decades of civil war, Cambodia's education almost fall to the level of zero, especially within the Khmer Rouge regime which eliminated all educated people. After Khmer Rouge regime ended in Jan 7, 1979, Cambodia's education started up from zero with a slogan "Those who know more teach those who know less, and those who know less teach those who don't know at all". However, Cambodia which just woke from the genocide regime fell into the fecto colonial of the neighboring country which I always doubt they had policy of "stupidize" the Cambodian next generation that very low knowledge students always pass exams. Consider if exams are so easy to pass, who is going to study hard? Education were far from the standard of even the neighbor countries.
As a student of that time, I couldn't even understand the math from a book which I bought from Vietnam. However, I got grade A in my class. In my class at primary school, students who were going to take exit exam scored -20 in dictation tests. My teacher knew most students were weak in dictation that she made them taking tests every day, and we, the better students, helped to correct the tests. The rules were one mistake deduct 0.25, full score was 10. Most got -20 or worse. Students who weren't qualified to take exams paid a little money to teachers. At exams, students raise money to pay to the controllers for cheating, and those controllers even help students to cheat!!!
Because students' level is so low, exam standard is always set at a very low level. I guess secondary students in the U.S can take high school exams in Cambodia. Due to the low standard test, cheating and bribery, very high percentage of students pass high school exams every year. At universities, you only have to worry that you don't fail because universities only want to push you out of their universities so that they can accept new students. There is one more thing which I don't know if it happens anywhere outside Cambodia, the "zero fail policy" which is adopted almost all universities in Cambodia. If a student fails the exam, university will ask him to do this or that so that he could get score and then pass.
There had been several attempts to strictly control high school exam and this year is the most serious attempt I've ever seen. The result is only 25 percent that pass, and students who pass with grade E cried because they were too happy. Well, you know what grade E means, with one grade lower, you fail. So, WTH that make you so happy to get grade E???
The students who pass exam today may become a leader of the country tomorrow. With such an education level, should I worry?
What happen to students who fail? The prime minister announce that they may take second exam in October which I get standard will be set lower, and there is a chance of bribery. Students who fail the again may study another year or just do self-study and take free lane exam. If you don't want to study anymore, then find a job for yourself. About 100,000 students take high school exam every year but only about 10,000 graduate universities. So about 90,000 will never get a degree.
