Angry university graduates burned tires in front of the Ministry of Education for a second consecutive day Thursday and said they would march to the Council of Ministers today.
The 307 students are protesting having to take an exam to enter a teacher-training program at the Institute of Pedagogy. They insist that they had been promised automatic entry into the program.
Noxious black smoke hung over a section of Norodom Boulevard as the students, chanting slogans, threw tire after tire onto a mound of melted rubber outside the ministry.
Representatives of the protesters met with Education Secretary of State Im Sothy for several hours Thursday but reached no agreement, student representative Tang Theara said.
Today, the students plan to march from the ministry to the Council of Ministers building at 10 am, demonstrate for three hours and then return to the Education Ministry to burn more tires.
“We have burned 190 tires over two days to demand a solution for our problem,” one student leader shouted to cheers Thursday. “It does not affect the environment. They [the government] destroy the environment by cutting the trees in the forest and importing 3,000 tons of toxic waste into Cambodia.”
Tang Theara said the students wanted to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday, but he was out of the capital. They hope to meet with him today.
The protest is the second to plague the Ministry of Education recently. A month-old teachers’ strike was suspended this week.
Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the students had no permit to demonstrate, but added that Interior had no immediate plans to shut down the protest.
“This demonstration, I think, is not a violent one,” Khieu Sopheak said.
Education officials could not be reached Thursday for comment.
