Raising the youth

Brooke Lewis and Mom Kunthear

Phnom Penh Post

REGIONAL experts and government officials on Monday used the launch of a report on the Millennium Development Goal for education to highlight areas where Cambodia has not made much progress, notably adult literacy, which some said had been overshadowed by the effort to bolster enrolment at the primary level.

The 2010 Education For All Report highlights the need to improve access to education for Cambodia’s marginalised populations, especially in the remote northeast, which it identified as one of 20 regions worldwide facing “acute education deprivation”.

Those at the launch on Monday said that although it was important to improve access for people in the remote provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakkiri, there are also large sections of society, such as adults, that are being overlooked nationwide.

Professor Heribert Hinzen, regional director of DVV International, a Germany-based adult education NGO, said it is unlikely that Cambodia will be able to meet the MDG target of cutting illiteracy levels in half by 2015.

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