The Newsletter 56 Spring 2011

Supplementary education in Cambodia

Walter Dawson

— The tricks of the teacher… that’s the way we force the students to study in private tutoring. The teacher says the new math formulas are only introduced in private tutoring. Cambodian elementary school teacher (Walter Dawson).

The quote above was taken from my 2008 study of supplementary tutoring and teacher corruption in Cambodia (see Dawson 2009, Dawson 2010). The case of supplementary education in Cambodia presents an interesting case involving the politics and economics of corruption; however, it is difficult to ascertain whether this case has ‘Asian characteristics’ or rather ‘post-socialist’ characteristics. Nevertheless, my hope is that by discussing the various factors which seem to drive the phenomenon of supplementary education in Cambodia, we may be able gain a better understanding of the supplementary education phenomenon within the particular context of Cambodia and elsewhere.

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