Public School in Cambodia is Different than in the USA

While there are many things that are different between going to public school in the US and Cambodia, there are a couple things that really caught our attention. I'll write about those in a second, but I have to mention that I am constantly learning new information, typically from people who don't speak English fluently, so sometimes the info has to be adjusted as we go along.

First, the school schedule is different. Here, there are two sessions per day, and children attend one of the two – either 7am-11am or 1pm-5pm. Classes are held 6 days per week, Monday thru Saturday. During the time of the day a child is not in school, they sometimes attend tutoring classes with a teacher, or they might be working. That includes small children who might be working. Sometimes children attend supplemental classes, for example to learn English. The school we are supporting provides supplemental classes in English, computers, art and dance.

The second difference has to do with cost. Though public schools in Cambodia are "free" to attend, it actually is required that children pay to attend. This is required because the teachers salaries are abysmal so the only way they can survive is to collect additional money. It might cost 12.5-25 cents per class for younger kids and more for older kids. This may not seem like a lot, but it is for a poor family living on $50 per month. 25 cents per day times 6 days per week for four weeks is $6. If you have three kids that's $18. A big chunk of your take home pay.

Considering the reason for the extra charge it wouldn't seem so bad except for what the consequences are of not paying this daily "tuition" fee. The typical teacher, from what I've been told, will treat the non-paying students differently in class; ignored basically. And even worse, if a child has not paid, any tests they take result in bad grades, even if they are the smartest person in the class.

The director of the school we support told us a story today from his childhood. He was told by his teacher that when they have the next big test, it will be necessary for each student to bring in a present. His family was poor, and could not afford anything more for school, so for a couple months he saved up what he could. He knew he didn't have enough money to buy a the kind of gift his teacher would want, so he bought a less expensive present. When the time came to give the present to the teacher, he handed it her, she looked at it, and then pushed it back at him and told him to bring it home. this was a situation he has not forgotten about.

The whole "paying off" the teacher thing does well in educating the students about bribery, which is really unfortunate.