The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has ordered all education departments in the country to suspend teacher transfers for the rest of the year. The decision was made to help solve a shortage at public educational institutions.

Minister Hang Chuon Naron, who signed the notice on June 5, confirmed the decision was made to help the ministry address the shortage of teachers, especially at public higher education institutions.

It said: “The ministry decided to suspend workplace exchanges for all municipal and provincial educational staff for 2020.”

Ministry spokesmen Ros Soveacha told The Post on Monday that the ministry is planning to recruit teachers in the future to fill the current void.

He said the planned recruitment is a response to the current number of students in the country.

“The suspension of the workplace exchanges for all educational staff this year is part of the ministry’s plan to recruit high-level teachers at high schools to fulfil future requirements,” Soveacha said.

He said Cambodia has 120,000 teachers and the ministry plans on recruiting 3,000 more high-level teachers.

Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (Cita) director Ouk Chhayavy said during this period, recruiting additional teachers only wastes the state budget because due to Covid-19, teachers cannot perform their duties.

She claimed that the teacher recruitment plan only serves to provide a way for political officials to hire people in their network.

Some teachers who had fulfilled their duties well were fired by the ruling political party, she alleged.

Chhayavy said: “There is no shortage of teachers because there are many who are not recognised by the state.

“Some teachers vacated their licences to work in other places. Teacher salaries are low at public schools, so they switched to private schools. There are many teachers listed in the state framework, but they are not teaching. However, the ministry has ignored them.”

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