suggests that education of any kind was considered an "absolute good" by all Cambodians and that this attitude eventually created a large group of unemployed or underemployed graduates by the late 1960s.

The primary education curriculum consisted of arithmetic, history, ethics, civics, drafting, geography, hygiene, language, and science.

Beginning in 1967, the last three years of secondary school were split into three sections according to major subjects — letters, mathematics and technology; agriculture; and biology.

The only facility in Cambodia for higher education before the 1960s was the National Institute of Legal, Political, and Economic Studies, which trained civil servants.

Students attended schools in France, but after independence, increasing numbers enrolled at universities in the United States, Canada, China, the Soviet Union, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

The meagre educational fare was centred on precepts of the Khmer revolution; young people were rigidly indoctrinated, but literacy was neglected.

He notes that the secondary school syllabus calls for four hours of foreign language instruction per week in Russian, German, or Vietnamese but that there were no teachers available.

She writes that, from the primary level on, the contents of all textbooks except for alphabet books were politically oriented and dealt "more specifically with Vietnam."

The monks traditionally regarded their main education function as the teaching of Buddhist doctrine and history and the importance of gaining merit.

The Preach Samaritan Buddhist Lyceum —a four-year institution in Phnom Penh founded in 1955— included courses in Tali, in Sanskrit, and in Khmer, as well as in many modern disciplines.

Some private schools were operated by ethnic or religious minorities —Chinese, Vietnamese, European, Roman Catholic, and Muslim— so that children could study their own language, culture, or religion.

Private secondary education was represented by several High Schools, notably the Lyceum Descartes in Phenom Pen.

Mazama International operates two elementary and high schools, and A New Day Cambodia pays for the housing and education of 100 students of different ages.

Some organisations specialised in technical education offered to young people after high school completion and as an alternative to university.

State pre-school teachers have the highest academic and professional qualifications, having completed a 2-year full-time teacher-training course after Grade 12, and receive a government salary.

Instruction is provided in a proper classroom with a roof, posters with curriculum-related materials are displayed on the walls, and toilets and running water are available.

Further, parents tend to send all their children, including those less than 3 years of age, to the community pre-school, making the job of the teachers very difficult.

Cambodian children face greater difficulty in the pursuit of a higher level of education,[21] because secondary schools are in less than 10% of the villages.

[25][26] This disparity can be partly attributed to the higher opportunity cost of sending girls to school as there will be one less helping hand to earn an extra income.

The situation is even worse when it comes to technical and vocational training, where the number of enrolled students aged between 14 and 20 barely accounts for 2 percent of this population segment.

This suggests that not all the children in Cambodia are able to consistently attend the school's curriculum due to possibly financial reasons, health care issues and even transportation costs.

[29] The disparity in the data arises due to the means whereby a child can receive education in Cambodia, formal, non-formal and informal.

[24] It was established at the World Summit in Johannesburg that education plays a pivotal role in achieving a nation's sustainable development.

[24] The lack of awareness of the need for education for sustainable development (ERS) is significantly apparent in Cambodia amidst the financial poverty it faces.

Furthermore, those who manage to find alternative places to live are facing the risk of being drawn into an increasingly rampant drug culture or being coerced into prostitution.

[33] Rankings by the World Economic Forum (compiled 2013-2014 but using available data) place Cambodia 116th out of 148 nations, behind Thailand (66th), Vietnam (95th) and neighbouring Laos (111th).

Although there is an increasing awareness of the importance of education which directly correlates with employability, citizens are merely attending schools for the sake of obtaining paper qualifications.

The relationship between MOEYS and the NGO sector is integral to the 2010 Education Strategic Plan which stated as an objective: Expand public/NGO/ community partnerships in formal and non-formal education in border, remote and disadvantaged areas as well as increase support for the provision of local life skills and vocational training and basic/required professional skills responsive to the needs of the social and labour market.

Most of these renowned schools are concentrated in Phnom Penh and larger cities, which creates disparities in access to quality education for students in rural areas.

[45] This gap in access to top-tier education in Cambodia highlights the ongoing need for improved infrastructure and resources in provincial areas, where schools often lack the facilities and teaching quality found in urban centers.