Go West! Er, South. Well, Go Somewhere, I Guess

Another PCV found an interesting article recently about higher education in Cambodia, something that naturally interests a group of people who teach high schoolers. The article is a pretty stark indictment of the whole situation. Its key points are that educational quality is low in Cambodian universities, and most (as in 9 out of 10) university graduates don't get jobs. That's a striking number. Imagine graduating from a U.S. university with a 1-in-10 chance of getting a job. Here are some important bits:

A growing number of eager young Cambodians are finding themselves duped into a higher education system that suffers from weak management and teaching because it is geared more toward profit than learning.

As a result only one in ten recent graduates are finding work, a worrying figure in a country trying to rebuild after decades of civil war.

A few Cambodian students have asked me, their local American and one of the few teachers at their high school with a 4-year degree, for university advice. It's easy to tell an American high-schooler that going to university or even a community college usually makes financial sense, because of the increased earning power at the end of four(ish) years. But in Cambodia I honestly don't know if that's true. Here, the students who pass the national grade-12 exam and pass a subject exam can train to become public-school teachers at free public institutions for 2 years, at the end of which time they will earn a monthly salary of around $50 with modest yearly raises. That salary isn't quite enough to feed 1 person, much less a family; but it's almost a guaranteed job, since there just aren't enough teachers to go around. (For example, my high school has over 2,000 students and around 40 teachers, which averages out to 50+ students per classroom, a number that any teacher will tell you is ridiculous.) And a job as a public-school teacher is a good entree into the field of teaching private classes, which can bring in somewhere between $150 and $250 a month. That kind of money will definitely feed a family of 4.

The math gets a little more complicated for university. Yearly university fees range from $200 to $600 (cheap!), on top of which students often forget to factor in living expenses and books. Salaries upon leaving university, though, are often $100-250 per month. That's if you can get a job, which apparently 90% of graduates do not do. Goodness only knows where they go, but sometimes it's back to their parents' house to help farm rice or sell bicycles or noodles or cell phones.

I can't, in good conscience, tell students to "do what they love, and the money will follow" because that's just not how it works in Cambodia. What things does money follow here? It follows farming huge plots of land, working in the tourism industry centered around the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap, retailing goods from a stall in the market, etc.

Here's my favorite part of the article:

Qualified university professors complain that many students rarely do their work and cheating is rampant.

Um, the professors are complaining about cheating and students not doing their homework? Has it ever occurred to them to fail a student? I think low or failing grades might be discouraged by university officials, as they could cause students to enroll at different institutions which will give them a similar degree for less effort.

As we speak, my host sister is studying toward a four-year degree in accounting at a Cambodian university, and her little brother is studying rural development at another one. I haven't had the courage to show them this article. I'm hoping that they will be among the lucky 10% to secure employment when the time comes. And I'm hoping that someday, the Cambodian universities will be able to offer something better to young people hungry for education.