Mathematics Education in Cambodia from 1980 to 2012: Challenges and Perspectives 2025

Chan Roath

(Department of Scientific Research, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport)

Abstract: The Kingdom of Cambodia was a world leader in technology and scientific understanding from the ninth to the fifteen century as the Khmer Empire. Unfortunately the Pol Pot regime destroyed the education system in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The process of rebuilding the educational system of Cambodia was started by collecting the surviving educated people and by adapting the slogan: “The one who knows more teaches the one who knows less and the latter transfer’s knowledge to illiterates”. Mathematics education in Cambodia currently faces many problems such as a lack of well qualified teachers, a lack of knowledge in curriculum development, text book writing, methodology of teaching and use of ICT. Currently no quality assurance mechanism is available to ensure Cambodia’s mathematics curriculum is up to international standards. The relatively low salary of teachers in the Kingdom remains an impediment to our educations system as it provides little motivation for people to become teachers. The Cambodian Mathematical Society (CMS) was established on the 4th of March 2005 and recognized by the Royal Government of Cambodia to play a part in addressing the problems and improving the capacity of mathematical education in Cambodia. CMS is committed to promoting mathematics as a key “enabling” discipline that underlies other key disciplines and is at the heart of economic, environmental and social development in Cambodia. A successful outcome for mathematical education in Cambodia depends on the creation and implementation of developmental goals that are appropriate for Cambodia. The CMS has identified goals that will be made priorities in addressing the needs of mathematical education in Cambodia. These goals include improving the level of qualification of Cambodian mathematical teachers, upgrading the mathematical curriculum to a modern and internationally competitive level, improving the quality of teaching materials and textbooks available in the Khmer language, improving the pedagogical methods of teaching mathematics, promoting and supporting the use of information communication and technology (ICT) in mathematical instruction and encouraging participation in international mathematical programs and competitions as well as developing such competitions further in Cambodia.

Key words: Cambodia, mathematics education, teaching skill, information technology, human resource