From the UNHCR website:<\/p>\n
PHNOM PENH, 5 December 2008 (IRIN) – When Sok Sopheap could not pay his daily bribe, his secondary school teacher refused to let him attend class.
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\nThe teacher demanded he stand for an hour by the door until the class finished.
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\n“It was humiliating, but it happens a lot to students,” said the 19-year-old son of a food vendor, graduating years late because of what he calls “high corruption fees”.
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\n“We have to pay unfairly for almost everything at school,” he complained, including exams, tests and even class time. \u00a0
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\n“I don’t think the problem is getting better,” he said. “Young people in Cambodia have lived with this all our lives and no one has done much to stop it.” \u00a0
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\nChronic poverty \u00a0<\/strong>
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\n“New teachers often face a many-month delay before they receive their salaries,” David Coleman, education chief of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for Cambodia, told IRIN. “Teachers sometimes supplement their income with a second job. This can affect their own attendance at school, and can put pressure on the amount of time they have to prepare their lessons.” \u00a0
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\nTeachers’ salaries start from US$50 a month, even less than garment factory workers earn, Coleman added.
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\nHigh oil and gas costs, which have only fallen slightly since their summer peak, despite a global price plummet, could be adding to teachers’ salary woes, said Soprach, a primary school teacher in the capital, Phnom Penh. \u00a0
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\n“The price I pay for gas every month is almost the same as my salary,” Soprach told IRIN. “How am I supposed to survive and feed my family without charging extra?” \u00a0
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\nDaily fees of 700 riel (20 cents) do little to drain students of money while keeping his own family afloat with $200 a month, he added. \u00a0
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\nYet others think the tiny costs add up in significant ways, unfairly forcing poorer students out of school. \u00a0
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\nA 2007 report<\/span><\/a> by the Cambodian NGO Education Partnership (NEP)
\nreveals education costs for each child averaged $108 annually, or 9 percent of each family’s annual income.
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\nThe inability to pay informal fees was the most common reason parents gave for their children dropping out, the report stated.
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\n“When you include informal and formal school costs, and private classes and snacks, many students are paying $2.50 every day,” Leng Theavy, education and capacity-building officer for the NGO Education Partnership (NEP), told IRIN.
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\n“That money is a lot because many Cambodians don’t make more than $60 a month. In the survey we found the informal fees to be small, but we think the numbers could be much higher now,” she added. \u00a0
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\nThe study also noted that a quarter of parents were unaware that their children were entitled to a free education, a legal right. \u00a0
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\nInformal fees are prevalent in Phnom Penh, not in the countryside, the report said, though Theavy said corruption still happened in the provinces. \u00a0
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\n“Some teachers in the countryside take large fees too, and often the communes receive documented complaints from parents,” she said. \u00a0
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\nTackling corruption<\/strong>
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\nAs part of Cambodia’s Education Strategic Plan for 2006 to 2010, the Ministry of Education is seeking ways to improve efficiencies to reduce informal fees. \u00a0
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\nThe establishment of a Teacher Professional Code, ensuring on-time payments and raising teacher salaries are priorities. \u00a0
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\nHowever, Theavy said government had only limited options. \u00a0
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\n“The situation is out of the control of the Ministry [of Education] even though they circulated a ban on informal payments,” she told IRIN. “Teachers commit this on their own.” \u00a0
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\nCorruption overall is one of Cambodia’s most pressing issues, with anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International<\/span><\/a> scoring the country the 14th most corrupt in the world in its 2008 index, and the third most corrupt country in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nhttp:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/refworld\/publisher,IRIN,,KHM,4938f32214,0.html<\/a><\/p>\n