The director of a Kandal province high school removed 14 teachers from their positions as examination supervisors, according to teachers who say the director is punishing them for their role in a strike made earlier this year.
The teachers, from Hun Sen Saang High School, are all members of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA), which led a nearly week-long strike in February. CITA claims 550 members.
“The school director told me in the meeting that it was because I led the strike,” said Rong Chhun, CITA’s president and a 12th grade math teacher at the school.
The secretary general and the deputy president of CITA, who teach 12th grade geography at the high school, were also relieved of exam duties, Rong Chhun said.
Chhy Kong, school director, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Those assigned to supervise and correct the exams are paid between $30 and $90. The exams are required for students to receive a high school degree.
Rong Chhun appealed to NGOs involved in education to push the Ministry of Education “to pay attention to the teachers’ problem for the sake of administrative reform and good governance.”
Ka Nayleang, general director of the General Studies Department at the Ministry of Education, said he respects the school’s decision. “We follow the judgment of each school that sent the list [of exam monitors] to us,” he said.
“This year we lack some 12th grade teachers from the committee and we had to pick 11th grade teachers,” Ka Nayleang added.
The February strike that Rong Chhun and the CITA led failed to spread nationwide as strikers had planned. Rong Chhun had called for “a temporary suspension” of the strike after one week of the walk-out because, he said, CITA wanted the students to finish their first semester tests.
The teachers, who make a base salary of $20 a month, demanded a raise to $100. The government offered $22. The low salaries have been blamed for alleged bribe taking and other corruption in the county’s education system.
