The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Economy and Finance started an initiative to provide financial support to writers and researchers in higher education through a “research, creativity and innovation” programme that will author textbooks for use in higher education.
Education ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha said the funding initiative is intended to aid students by creating sufficient resources for the study of topics in higher education in the Khmer language.
“The funding will help to improve the culture of research here, inspire creativity and push innovation in the education sector in response to the demands of labour markets and globalisation,” he said.
He reiterated that the purpose of these programmes is to boost the overall quantity and quality of higher education textbooks available in Khmer.
It will also help to remedy a lack of resources in higher education for studying in the Khmer language, which hinders students and researchers.
The funding initiative will increase the depth of professional development and experience for professors and researchers and it will build a professional community with greater expertise in writing and revising textbooks for higher education in the Khmer language.
The ministry intends to fund Khmer language textbooks for general reading as well as books that follow a specific curriculum. They are also interested in cooperative curriculum textbooks and research into the development of Khmer language study resources for online teaching or virtual universities, according to Soveacha.
Pech Bolen, president of the Federation of Education Services in Cambodia, said the initiative is giving students an opportunity to gain valuable experience at research and writing.
“Another benefit is that the education ministry also gets a source for creative ideas to [improve] the education sector,” he said.
