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 A study by Mark Bray (1998) documented the high costs of education placed on Cambodian parents. This survey
of 77 schools in 11 provinces and Phnom Penh found that families and communities pay 74.8 percent of the costs of primary education, with the government paying only 12.9 percent. This is one of the lowest government
contributions to primary education in the world (cited in UNESCO 2000:23). For many rural families who live by subsistence agriculture, education costs are the highest
expense they face annually. Often they cannot afford to educate all of their children and will have to choose certain children to attend.
This is one reason why many more boys than girls attend school. Parents would like to educate both, but if forced to choose, they choose to educate boys. The percentage of female students is nearly half
(46.2 %) in primary school, but drops to 37 percent in lower secondary school, and 31.8 percent in upper secondary school (MEYS 2001). Other reasons for the sexual disparity include the fact that
girls are more likely to be kept at home to help with household work and to care for younger siblings (MEYS 1998). For reasons on personal security, girls are also not allowed to travel long distances
and live away from family to attend upper secondary schools in provincial towns. But a 1998 report on women and education points out that the rural/urban divide is even more potent than the gender
factor. Rural boys have lower educational attainment than urban girls (MEYS 1998:20).
 Nationwide the net enrollment was 83.8 percent for the 2000-01
academic year, up from 77.8 percent in 1997-98. But this still means that 16 percent of children aged 6-11 remain outside the school system entirely. Since this varies regionally, in some remote
provinces this figure reaches 50 percent (MEYS 1999). For those children within the system the repetition rate is extremely high, for grade one the rate is about 40 percent (MEYS 1999:19). This
means that many of the students in the lowest grades of primary school are older and are taking the class for the second or third
time. Drop out rates for grades one, two and three were 10.6 percent, 10.8 percent and 11.1 percent respectively in 2000-01 (MEYS 2001). Class sizes are also large, with an average of 50 students at
the primary level (only 33.4 to 1 in urban areas) (1998:20).
The daily realities for both teachers and students in the Cambodian education system are thus very
challenging. Teachers face inadequate salaries and the need to charge students fees for services. Students face inadequate facilities, large classroom size, sometimes travel times to nearby villages or
towns, and high costs for their families. At the upper levels these problems are compounded by the need to pay bribes to pass the upper secondary level exams and to secure admission to universities.
This is one factor that has contributed to the growth in private sector education.
But while the situation still appears grim, I would re-emphasize that dramatic improvements have been
made in the last ten years. These improvements can continue if the government continues to increase the percentage of the total government funding that goes to education, and if funding reaches front-line
teachers rather than being consumed by administrative costs. Dramatic change could occur if the government could pay teachers a living wage and shift the burden of paying for education from poor
families to the government
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