Cambodia’s Minister of Education, Youth and Sport welcomed VVOB to his office to talk about education and the importance of teachers in his country.
VVOB Cambodia’s Programme Manager Katia Leber (picture: left) and VVOB’s General Director Bart Dewaele (picture: centre) had a fruitful meeting with Cambodia’s Minister of Education, Youth and Sport, Mr Hang Chuon Naron (picture: right).
The minister published a book in Khmer titled ‘Education Reform in Cambodia: towards a knowledge-based society and shared prosperity’. In it, the minister analyses Cambodia’s educational achievements in the past decade, as well as issues that remain to be addressed in the future. VVOB took the opportunity at the meeting to praise his publication. The conversation gradually centered on the importance of teachers for a prosperous country, and the professional development of teachers more specifically. Cambodia has invested heavily in teacher remuneration these last years. The minister and VVOB agree that this financial effort needs to be accompanied by an investment in the quality and competences of Cambodia’s teachers force, and the partners exchanged ideas and views on how to achieve this. The planned reform of the teacher education system is the ideal opportunity to move forward.
“Mr Hang Chuon Naron is a very motivated man with a clear vision of what he wants to realise,” Bart Dewaele said after the visit. “We look forward to continue our partnership with the Cambodian ministry in the coming years. Our focus will be on strengthening teacher education colleges, which will undergo a thorough transformation. More specifically, VVOB will contribute to the quality of newly qualified teachers. We will ensure they graduate from these colleges with the skills and competences they need to effectively and gender-responsively teach maths to primary school boys and girls.”
