Dropout Rates Hit Rural Schools

Khmer Times/James Reddick and Chea Takihiro

Monday, 28 September 2015

Chan Thon, 12, sitting at his house with his mother (foreground) and friends from school.KT/James Reddick

BANTEAY VILLAGE (Khmer Times) –Chan Srey, a primary school teacher here in Baray Commune in Kampong Cham Province, is all too familiar with the pressures on the children that she teaches. She was a student here once.

She was also on the verge of becoming one of the many students every year who drop out of the school system after finishing primary school.

“My parents wanted me to stop studying, because my brother was sick,” she said. “But I rejected my mother’s request.” 

Since finishing her studies, Ms. Srey has seen the exodus from local schools quicken. The girls leave school to work in a garment factory in Phnom Penh, while the boys are drawn mainly to the city’s many construction sites.

She says the problem is no longer just for girls, whose education used to be more readily sacrificed than their brothers.

“Before, I tried to explain to the parents about the bad effects of taking their kids out of school,” she said. “I don’t know what I can say any more.”

According to Chea Sophat, the school’s principal, there are more than 770 students in the school’s six grades. But he estimates that only around 30 students end up moving on to secondary school each year. 

Baray Commune is a snapshot of a larger problem in Cambodia of persistently high dropout rates from primary to secondary school.

Whereas primary school enrollment has shot up to nearly 95 percent, lower and upper secondary school enrollment has only improved slightly. In the school year ending in 2013, fewer than 38 percent of eligible students nationwide were enrolled in grades 7-9. Just one in five of the country’s eligible students enroll in grades 10-12. 

In the Ministry of Education’s four-year plan for 2014-2018, they highlighted secondary enrollment as a priority. The plan called for an increase of scholarships for poor families, as well as an expansion of the number of lower secondary schools in the country. The Ministry of Education could not be reached for more information. 

Cheang Sokha, the executive director of the Youth Resource Development Organization, thinks the government needs to take a practical approach to the problem, by studying the labor market and making changes based on its findings. “I don’t think the youth who drop out have a clear picture about their job opportunities in the Cambodian context,” he said.

“They’re interested in working outside of the country, as guest workers or on unskilled jobs. In order to deal with this issue, the government or Ministry of Education needs to have a study to look at what kinds of jobs there are for drop outs.”

A tough decision

Mr. Sophat, the school principal, thinks that much of the problems are a result of past migrations from rural areas to Phnom Penh or abroad. Many of the students do not live with their parents, who went to work elsewhere, so he says his students suffer from a lack of parental oversight.

But some parents are forced to make a decision out of necessity. Toul Horm, who sells traditional medicine, has to make that choice next year for her son, who is now in sixth grade. She has already seen four of her children cut their schooling short.  

“He’s a clever student so it’s important that he stays studying,” she said. “Emotionally, it’s hard. If their brother and sister can help them, then I think he can stay.” 

For residents, the constant dissolution of the village’s young people is dispiriting. Shop owners Hok Sokamer and Cheang Seang see it as the area’s biggest obstacle to its growth. 

“The kids who can’t get an education are no longer a human resource for this village,” Mr. Seang said. “This village is very poor. If we have people who go to school, it’s a resource for the future.”

Although the couple say their five children will stay in school “no matter what,” for some parents the decision is not their’s to make. With so many families depending on agriculture—like rice cultivation or duck farming—it is hard to predict if the next year will allow for the costs of schooling. 

“Life here depends on the sky and on nature,” Ms. Srey said.  “This year, there has not been very much water. Who knows how many students will leave.”