Post Conflict Reconstruction of Education in Cambodia: starting after zero years

Education has traditionally been earmarked as the catalyst for development and nation building in Cambodia. The education sector is often cited as one of Cambodia’s success stories and continues to be accorded high priority on the national agenda. However, after more than two decades of war, the country and the education sector is struggling to gain its footing amidst an educational crisis. While attention is increasingly being paid to the Millennium Development Goal target of universal primary enrollment by 2015, a target that Cambodia may achieve, the sector is characterized by severe deficiencies of quality, access, sustainability and equality. As much as these deficiencies can be attributed to poor governance, corruption and war, they are also being exacerbated by the legacy of war that continues to impacted internal social dynamics within the country. Additional attention must be paid to these issues, particularly that of gender, as Cambodia continues its reconstruction effort in a society rife with poverty. Relevance to Development Studies Despite its tragic history, Cambodia has been overlooked in South East Asian development studies due largely to its geographical location between two regional powers, Thailand and Vietnam. Since the end of the Khmer Rouge led civil war that destroyed much of the country and classified it as a failed/phantom state by some, Cambodia has adopted a modern market economy resulting in little progress in education sector reform. However the roots of today’s ‘educational crisis’ in Cambodia can be traced to many things, including the post conflict reconstruction effort, high levels of aid dependency, the ever-present tensions between modernity and tradition and the legacy of war that still haunts the country to this day. Education has, and must continue to be, the catalyst for development in Cambodia. In order for this to occur, greater emphasis must be given to the continuing reconstruction effort as well as the legacy of war, and other internal dynamics, that have contributed to the crisis.