I’ve visited Cambodia a couple of times since 2007 and have been amazed by NEP’s (NGO Education Partnership) progress. In response to its members’ concerns on informal charges demanded by schools and low motivation of teachers,   NEP supported by VSO volunteers, carried out two research studies on The Impact of Informal School Fees on Family Expenditure and a Valuing Teachers report entitled Teaching Matters.

The studies revealed that families were contributing up to 9% of their annual household income to send one child to school, and that some children dropped out of school and others missed classes because of the informal school fees.  The Teaching Matters research found that teachers who were charging informal fees did so because their salaries were too low to survive. A key recommendation from that report was that a "significant increase in salary must be the first step towards actually abolishing informal school fees in practice".

The research findings were subsequently presented to the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports. VSO Cambodia also secured coverage of the story by the BBC World Service (radio and television) and supported NEP staff to lobby senior Ministry officials, development partners and other stakeholders about the issue.

As a result, there have been marked changes. VSO Cambodia’s Education Programme Manager, Chea Vantha said “The Ministry has nationwide issued a declaration to abolish informal school fees and to introduce a clear statement of teacher ethics. The Ministry has also begun to increase salaries of teachers and staff by 20% each year. This will mean fewer drop outs and more children completing their education than ever before.”

Recently, a framework for a new Teacher Policy which sets standards for teachers was discussed by the Ministry, UNICEF, the Asian Development Bank, UNESCO and VSO.

Read more about our advocacy work against informal school fees in Cambodia.