Students at Phsar Doeum Thkov High School during Grade 12 exams in 2022. Heng Chivoan
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport announced that they would provide over 8,000 full scholarships for students to pursue undergraduate degrees for the next academic year 2023-2024.
In a notice obtained by The Post on January 22, Minister of Education Hang Chuon Naron said that the full scholarships are available for 8,619 students across four categories: 5,393 for general students; 1,163 specifically for female students; 1,513 for poor students and 550 for students from rural areas.
All students can apply for the scholarships at 20 state and 19 private universities and institutions.
According to the notice, there are two ways of obtaining the scholarships. High school students can get one if they have a high score on the diploma exam.
The second option is through entrance exams that are organized by each of the scholarship providing universities and institutes.
Chuon Naron said in the notice that students who take the high school exam this year can grab scholarship application forms from their high schools from April 24 and they have to return the filled out form by July 16.
For those who failed their previous high school exam and will take this year’s exam, they need to get the form from the education departments of their respective provinces during the same period.
All scholarship results will be posted at each university and institution in the first week of 2024.
For those who wish to major in health subjects, they need to take exams prepared by the Ministry of Health, not the education ministry.
Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA) president Ouk Chayavy said that the total number of scholarship seems to be small, while those who get them will also need to spend money for accommodation and food, which is not easy for some poor students.
“Some people complain that although they have a 100 per cent scholarship, they cannot afford for their children to go on with their studies because of other expenses so they let their children drop out of school and work to get money to pay for loans,” she said.
