REPORT ON DISTANCE LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN CAMBODIA

1- Background The destruction of schools began in late March 1970 as the war escalated and became especially damaging during the academic year 1970-71 . Between 1974-1979, remaining schools were abandoned and the majority of teachers died or left the country.

After January 7,1979, the toil of rebuilding a shattered nation started in near isolation, which affected gravely the rehabilitation of the Cambodian education system. The people of Cambodia responded gallantly: school bells rang again, children arrived in school, and teachers had to be found to nurture the system back to life.

2- Education System Political and socio-economic changes have led to successive reforms of the country's education system. Before 1975, the country adopted a French-based education system that required 13 years of education ( 6+4+2+1).

After 1979, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of Cambodia in consideration of the country's urgent needs, executed a 10 year education system ( 4+3+3 ) and them in 1986 expanded it to an 11 year education system ( 5+3+3) which lasted until 1996.

The Ministry continued to improve the education system since then The Ministry continued to improve the education system since then. The curriculum was reformed. new textbooks and teachers manuals were developed, and new teaching skills were provided to teachers to prepare a ground for the introduction of a new 12year education system ( 6+3+3 ) in the 19996-97 school year.

Higher education is a sub-sector that has objectives and operations quite different from other sub-sectors. The MoEYS directly supervises six higher educational institutions and the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Culture supervise three others.

3- Policies on Education Development MoEYS defines four major policies as follows : Making nine years of basic general education available throughout the country, and developing new opportunities for functional literacy; Modernizing and improving the quality of the education system through effective reforms;

Linking education and training development with the socio-economic requirements and the labor market; Rehabilitating and developing the youth and sport sub-sectors in both formal and non-formal education systems.

4- Pre-service Training Teacher training restarted in 1979 when the first National Normal School ( Faculty of Pedagogy ) was reopened in Phnom Penh. The most common way to become a teacher in Cambodia is to acquire the regular teacher certificate by completing the teacher training curricula at the Teacher Training Center.

The regular certificate for a teacher is valid nationally for life The regular certificate for a teacher is valid nationally for life. It is classified by school level into the primary school, the lower secondary school, the upper secondary school, and the kindergarten teacher certificate.

5- Distance Education Distance Learning Program set up in the early 1995 under the financial & technical support of PASEC Self-Learning Packages have been distributed to the targeted Primary school teachers but not through modern technological means like E-mail, Internet, TV, Radio, Telephone

6- Aims of Distance Learning Program To improve basic knowledge of the primary school teachers so that they can apply their knowledge to pupils

To enhance their teaching competency using " Child-Center " approach to enable them to teach more effectively so that pupils can learn more easily To provide an opportunity for the primary school teachers to direct their self-learning

7- Activities of Distance Learning Program Since 1995 Writing Committee Committee members selected from Teacher Training Department (TTD), Pedagogical Research Department (PRD) and Pre-School Department. Achievement 25 modules (4 module per year) had been produced from 1995-2001

To write each module effectively, the writing committee had to implement the following principles: Visited primary schools and found out teachers' professional knowledge Discussed and exchanged their ideas with expatriate specialists based on some relevant references.

Started writing materials based on 3 main points: teaching, learning and knowledge consolidation. After finishing writing the materials, they were sent to teachers to be piloted. The committee had to develop the materials after receiving some relevant feedback from the teachers. Before printing, the written materials were evaluated and checked by a technical committee.

Then printing process took place and materials were sent to teachers. Teachers were asked to read them and do some activities written in the modules within one week to ten days. The exercises or activities the teachers had done were marked by their teacher trainers or supervisors.

Tutorial Committee 804 teacher trainers (comprising 166 women) had been trained in five stages. Those teacher trainers and supervisors had to supervise and observe lessons and gave feedback at a school technical meeting held on every Thursday.

25 modules of the self-learning materials (in mathematics, Khmer language, Science application and Social Studies) from 1995 to 2001. PASEC completed its mission in April 2001. In 2002, UNESCO and UNICEF funded the Distance Learning program to produce a new topic called, " HIV/AIDS Prevention Education" at primary school level.

Why " HIV/AIDS Prevention Education " seriously focused Why " HIV/AIDS Prevention Education " seriously focused? Because of the reasons as follows: some primary school graduates would not be able to continue their secondary school education

there are not secondary schools at some remote areas some primary school pupils reach the productive age parents do not brave enough to talk about sexual problems with their children those primary school pupils are vulnerable targets AIDS is an incurable disease

9. 2004-2005 Planning Doing the follow up activities on the self-learning materials of " HIV/AIDS Prevention Education at Primary Schools ” Running the short training course of the HIV/AIDS Prevention Education for the 3,000 existing teacher trainees at the PTTC's

Introduction of ICT in the Teacher Training curriculum Equipping the PTTC's with computers and printers and giving ICT training courses to teacher trainers at the Regional Teacher Training Centers (RTTC's) and PTTC's so that they can produce teaching and learning aids and materials. Set up the Educational Management Information Center at MoEYS.

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