The Ministry of Education has decided to scrap a program that gives extra instruction for weak students during the holiday months, citing limited success, officials said Thursday.
Instead, the ministry will require teachers and peers to give extra instruction to weak students during regular school sessions from October to July, said Chun Chheangly, director of the Ministry of Education’s Primary School Department.
“If students are weak, we have to train them now. We cannot wait until the holiday to train them,” Chun Chheangly said. “It would take a long time and would cause students to become weaker and weaker,” he said.
He added that if teachers and stronger students give more instruction to weak students during regular class hours, they would be better able to catch up.
This, he said, is a “new technique for the new training program to help weak students.”
The ministry has for years been providing instruction to struggling students over the annual three-month holiday, but it has seen little results, Chun Chheangly said. Those extra holiday classes have been provided free of charge and are held four hours each day.
But as more students fall further behind, the drop-out rate has increased, he said.
However, Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association, on Thursday said the cancellation of the holiday program will only hurt both students and teachers.
Teachers, who already earn a slim $30 average monthly wage, will not be able to make the additional $20 to $25 per month for lessons they conduct during the holiday months, he said.
