Cambodia has been striving to improve its education system and has engaged in as many opportunities as possible to further student achievement. The country has participated in OECD’s
PISA for Development, in the UNICEF-sponsored
South East Asia Primary Learning Metric (SEA-PLM) program, and in the Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) initiative at Brookings. Drawing lessons from the very different approaches in these assessment programs, Cambodia has assembled an impressive repertoire of skills and knowledge.
Outstandingly, the country has not backed off from its mission to change the status quo in its education system. The Minister of Education, Youth and Sport, H.E. Dr. Hang Chuon Naron, has said, “I don’t care what the results are; I just want to know what they are so that we know what to do about it.” As a testament to this principle, Cambodia is just one of three PISA for Development countries that will continue engagement with OECD’s international large-scale assessment through PISA-2021, to provide comparative data across 2018-2021 that will reflect the impact of education initiatives currently being implemented.
