The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has spent about $5 million to prepare for the high school diploma exams, which will be held on December 5-6.

Ministry spokesman Ros Soveacha said the expenditure is focused on supporting the preparation stages of each subject, exam taking process, correction procedure and extrapolation of the final grades by computer.

It has established monitoring commissions and other teams that will employ more than 77,000 educators, according to minister Hang Chuon Naron.

The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) will deploy around 2,000 observers at all stages of the exams, while the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia (UYFC) will also facilitate the examination process, he noted.

Soveacha said testing centres across the country have posted a list of candidates to confirm their testing centres. Room and seat numbers will be posted at each centre on December 4.

Chuon Naron also reminded all candidates to follow traffic laws to avoid road accidents, especially when travelling to check the list and during the exams.

“Traffic accidents cause more deaths than Covid-19 … Also keep in mind that the exams are not a hardship but a sign that you are taking their education seriously,” he said.

He called on hospitality operators to facilitate the accommodation of the inspectors and students during the exam period as some of them will need to travel to testing centres that are far from their home.

“Those who own or manage accommodation, food or passenger transport services should make it as convenient as possible for people to access their examinations. Do not increase service fees during this important time,” he urged.

A total of 128,134 candidates are registered for this year’s exams, which will be held in 5,174 rooms across 221 testing centres.

The ministry plans to announce the results of the exams for Phnom Penh and Kandal province on December 27 and the rest of the country the following day.