Overcrowding plagues Cambodia’s classrooms

A primary school teacher’s complaint this week that his class numbers nearly 70 students in Oddar Meanchey’s Anlong Veng town has shed light on the broader issue of overcrowding in Cambodia’s rural schools.

The Ministry of Education acknowledges a severe shortfall of teachers, and has tried to cap class sizes at 50 students, a figure that teacher representatives say is already too high, but a district official in Anlong Veng on 17 December maintained that the recent complaints were simply ploys by teachers seeking more pay.

Keep reading