The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has suspended operations for all schools and educational institutions at all levels – including private schools – across the country in order to prevent the further spread of Covid-19, the education ministry announced on March 20.

“The [education ministry] has decided to suspend operations at all levels for both state and private schools – temporarily – nationwide from this notice onward. Educational institutions must continue with online lessons,” stated the announcement signed by Minister of Education Hang Chuon Naron.

Additionally, the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training has also decided to temporarily suspend classes at technical and vocational education and training institutions across the country until further notice as well.

The labour ministry stated that the decision was made as part of the effort to stop the Covid-19 outbreak that continues to spread throughout the country. The ministry also advised all of the institutions under its purview to continue with lessons online.

The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts announced the temporary suspension of all cinemas, theaters and museum operations across the country with the aim of preventing further spread of the virus.

Education ministry spokesperson Ros Soveacha said that the schools under the ministry’s supervision that were involved with the February 20 community transmission event have followed the health ministry’s safety guidelines assiduously and that those state and private-run schools had already suspended their operations and resumed online lessons.

“During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the two goals of the education ministry are to continue to provide an education to our students while also participating in the government’s campaign to bring the spread of Covid-19 under control.

“The education ministry has turned the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic into an opportunity for strengthening our online learning infrastructure and competency, which is a goal of the 2019-2023 strategic plans for education,” he said.

He continued saying that parents, students and educators generally welcomed and supported the distance learning services of the ministry along with the educational programming broadcast on TVK2 and the apps sponsored by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

Additionally, he noted that there were other educational apps produced by the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia and also by private sector organisations that were helping to make online learning and teaching available across the country while the nation was combating the spread of Covid-19.

Grade 12 students could also learn by viewing the 1,000 videos that the ministry had produced on the subjects of math, Khmer literature, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, civic and ethics and geology that were all based on the information found in the basic textbooks for that grade, according to Soveacha.

President of the Federation of Education Services in Cambodia, Pech Bolen, said that the federation’s educational institutions always adhered to the advice given by the ministries of education and health, instructing their staff and students to follow the government’s guidelines.

“There are no problems at this point with private schools’ ability to offer online teaching and learning as we are more than a year into the pandemic now,” he said.

Bolen added that with this latest and most severe outbreak of community transmission, the schools that were members of his federation had all decreased their tuition fees by 20 to 30 per cent.