Abstract
This article aims to address a puzzle of whether New Generation School (NGS) initiative has any impacts on the deep-rooted, vexing culture of shadow education in Cambodia. The purpose of the NGS project is to build good human resources with STEM knowledge, ICT, and 21st-century skills, all of which are the necessary commodities in this current fluid society. At the same time, it wishes to remove the ingrained culture of shadow education which is oftentimes offered from public school teachers to their own students. Thus, to realize the above objective, this paper reviews a policy document “
Keywords
Introduction
Shadow education is typically known as “private tutoring.” 1 The use of the metaphor “shadow” signifies that shadow education occurs only when the public education system exists; meanwhile, its curriculum usually imitates that of the public education system (Bray, 1999a). Shadow education has been prevailing in several societies in the world (Bray, 2010; Mori & Baker, 2010); it has been prominently visible in some countries in East Asia (e.g., Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) and gradually emerging in other regions such as Africa (e.g., Guinea, Mauritius, Morocco, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe), North America (e.g., Canada and the United States), South America (Brazil), and Europe (e.g., Germany, Romania, Turkey, and the United Kingdom) (Bray and Silova, 2006: 30). Yet, the provision of shadow education seems to be polarized in different societies. In more developed nations (e.g., Singapore, Hong Kong, or Japan), public school teachers usually do not engage in private tutoring because of the sufficient payment (Bray, 2015); the causes of shadow education are primarily driven by learning competitions and high-stakes examinations (see, for example, Entrich, 2014; Yung, 2021). In less prosperous countries, private tutoring is generally offered by public school teachers who seek supplement incomes to compensate for their inadequate salaries (Bray, 2015; Kobakidze and Suter, 2020). Unfortunately, this advent of teacher provision of private tutoring is more vulnerable to corruption (Dawson, 2010, 2011; Kobakhidze, 2014) and forced tutoring (Brehm and Silova, 2014; Kobakhidze, 2014).
Shadow education also has other detrimental effects including student workloads, household financial burdens and social inequalities (Brehm and Silova, 2014; Jung, 2018; Manzon and Areepattamannil, 2014), raising a challenge against the UNESCO’s 1948 principle of “Education for All,” (Bray and Kwo, 2013). This means while students are supposed to get access to knowledge for free, they have to spend money to perform well in the non-fee schooling system. Thus, shadow education pressures students from disadvantaged families who hardly or cannot afford private tuition fees (see Brehm et al., 2012). Without attending private classes, they might not learn well or compete with private tutoring students. In addition, shadow education is apt to have become a disposition to detach the public education from its real purposes, that is, “education as education of the public, for the public, and accountable to the public” (p. 1) and thereby contributes to the set-up of a threat to the public education, seen through the lens of two erosions: inner erosion, referring to pressures of performance standards (e.g., examinations); and outer erosion, referring to “the forces of privatization, marketization, or commercialization” (Biesta, et al., 2021: 2). Simply put, when pressures of competitions and standards (e.g., examinations, school admissions) have become intense, shadow education is always there to temper such tensions. This narrative can reflect that the public education is likely to be in jeopardy as educators are favourably disposed towards the notion of education as competitions or standards rather than a preparation for living in society (Tesar, et al., 2021).
In Cambodia, shadow education has existed in the literature since the late 1990s, a decade of the end of military conflicts (Khmer Rouge Regime: 1975–1979; civil war: 1980–1990s). As a war-torn country, Cambodia at that time had a financial shortage in education development. Teachers’ salaries were low and private tutoring became another source of additional incomes for some teachers. According to a report in 1999, 20 schools in Phnom Penh city (among 33 primary schools) reported that some students received private tutoring from their own teachers; the figure of private tutoring was higher than that in rural areas (4 out of 44 schools). The cost of private tutoring was between 100 and 300 riels per session (Bray, 1999b). Recently, the landscape of shadow education has grown in scale. For instance, one study conducted on Grade 9 and 12 students in Siem Reap province reported that 81.9% of 1274 students attended private tutoring classes on subjects such as Mathematics (79%), Chemistry (68.8%), Khmer (60.1%), Physics (59.7%), Biology (44.2) and English (28.4) (Bray et al., 2016). The study also showed that most students took more than one subject (e.g., 2 subjects, 10.1%; 3 subjects, 16. 9%; 4 subjects, 15.5%; 5 subjects, 17.1%) and the average cost was 500 riels per session.
As indicated above, the majority of the tutoring subjects were science subjects; this might result from the current education system, streaming the upper secondary school learning (Grade 11 and 12) into two: science track and social science track. And, the popularity of science subjects might be because of the higher rate of students registered in the science track (62.52%) than the social science track (37.48%), as a study reported (Ung et al., 2021). Surprisingly, more than 80% of the science-track students enrolled in non-science majors in higher education whilst less than 10% of students in the social science track switched to science majors (Ung et al., 2021). Perhaps, this agglomeration of students in the science track can be further elucidated by a stereotype 2 that students in the science track are smarter, more outstanding, or more hardworking than those in the social science track (also see Bray et al., 2018: 12). Hence, the above empirical data can suggest that the students’ decision-making of learning tracks might not be mainly shaped by their learning goals and capacities but the stereotype intentionally created to attract students to register in the science track that has popular private tutoring subjects (e.g., Math, Chemistry, Physics, or Biology). In this sense, while the streaming system is basically exercised to group students into their learning abilities and interests, it has become another tactic for private tutoring marketing (also see Exley, 2019), inducing a deterioration in the public education in Cambodia.
In addition, research in Cambodia has also found that the vexing roots of shadow education are mainly the corollary of teacher unprofessionalism (see Bray, et al., 2016; Bray, et al., 2018; Soeung, 2021) and hierarchical corruption (see Dawson, 2010, 2011). That is, although the heavy public school curriculum, high-stakes examinations, and insufficient salaries have been regarded as the menaces (see Brehm and Silova, 2014; Brehm et al., 2012), there are also other factors, namely that, pressures from teachers who actually employ certain strategies to directly or indirectly impel students to seek private tutoring. For instance, some teachers withheld curriculum contents or exercises for private tutoring classes (Bray, et al., 2018; Soeung, 2021). Sometimes teachers performed less enthusiastically in teaching during the public classes (Bray, et al., 2018). This persistence of shadow education in Cambodia also derives from poor school leadership (see Dawson, 2010, 2011; Bray, et al., 2018; Bray et al., 2019; Brehm, 2021) and corruption as Dawson (2010, 2011) called “a web of corruption system.” According to Dawson, some tutoring-generated fees went to school officials and other higher-level officials, establishing a hierarchy apparatus that permits the culture of private tutoring to flourish. In other words, with support from the higher-level officials, school leaders seem to ignore the practices of shadow education as they all gain benefits from private tutoring. Moreover, instead of seeing shadow education as a pejorative phenomenon, school principals also tended to value it because of its guise being more ostensibly in line with the demands of students and teachers (see Bray, et al., 2019).
As the above narratives reveal, shadow education has received wider attention from researchers in various contexts and also in Cambodia. The literature from the Cambodian context suggests that the professionalism of teachers and school leaders seems to be under a threat posing concerns on the equity and quality of the public education. Concurrently, the instituted corruption has facilitated such (above-mentioned) unethical practices. In this regard, NGS project is one of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports’ (MoEYS) efforts in combatting poor education quality and social inequalities, partially originating from shadow education. The purpose of the NGS project is to offer students with high quality of education and abolish the culture of shadow education in the context. Thus, with the focus on shadow education, this paper analyzed NGS policy (2019) and other reports that can offer rich insights regarding the situations of shadow education in Cambodia. Since the NGS initiative is implemented by (KAPE), 3 the annual reports by KAPE were used for the analysis. The next section offers a brief summary of the NGS project, after which the paper presents the discussions on the impacts of the NGS on shadow education, followed by the conclusion.
An overview of NGS in Cambodia
In the last two decades or so, Cambodia has experienced many education reforms, that is, “child-friendly schools approach, primary school clusters, district training and monitoring teams, mother-tongue education, Khmer e-Learning, school-based management, or New Generation Schools (NGS)” (MoEYS, 2021), p. 3). These reforms indicate the government’s enterprises in enhancing education quality that has been subject to diverse interpretations. Among these reforms, NGS project, which was established in 2015 and is a joint project between the MoEYS and KAPE, has come to the fore because of its success over the years. Currently, there are about ten NGSs, being led by KAPE. Hence, this section of the paper discusses some core principles and achievements of NGS.
Key principles of NGS
According to the policy document published by MoEYS (2019), NGS is a school autonomy model. This model has gained a high profile in many social contexts as it allows schools to act independently to realize objectives developed by both schools and a central administration (Bo, 2021). In this regard, NGS leaders are supposed to bring innovation and guarantee the high-standard performances of teachers and staff (MoEYS, 2019). For instance, school leaders have to ensure that teacher performances comply with the regulations of incentives ($100/month in rural areas and $150/month in the city), non-private tutoring code, or teacher career path conditions. Besides, NGS utilizes up-to-date technology in teaching and well-developed curricula that are oriented to STEM subjects, ICT, or 21st-century skills. Teachers are also expected to use technology (e.g., laptops and slide projectors) in teaching. In this fashion, NGS consumes considerable investment (Chea and Chen, 2021). Yet, the NGS schools’ access to government resources is dependent on whether their performances fulfill the expected-standard performances (MoEYS, 2019). In other words, the MoEYS will no longer offer support to NGS schools if they fail to satisfy the agreed regulations of their performances. This is because NGS schools are annually reviewed and evaluated by a national oversight board to decide on the possible renewal of the accreditation of NGS schools.
In addition, unlike traditional schools, NGS schools can recruit teachers or terminate teachers’ employment contracts at the school level. This policy is undoubtedly the catalyst in fueling teachers’ commitment to maintaining teacher professionalism. Teachers at NGS schools are not in their comfort zone but, instead, have to be devoted to their teaching onus. Yet, such a practice is unlikely to sustain as teachers might transfer to work at traditional schools where they can feel secure, comfortable, and less pressured. For students, they have to pass the entrance exam and interviews to secure a place; this practice permits NGS to select qualified or potential students. After having been admitted to study at NGS for about three years, they might be asked to voluntarily contribute some fees but this contribution is based on negotiations between NGS schools and parents. The purpose of this fee contribution is to generate some incomes from affordable parents and the fees can be allocated to enhance educational services and other facilities. Thus, this practice is different from traditional schools where parents might pay fees directly to teachers who offer private tutoring and none of those fees contributes to school development.
Ongoing debates about the achievements of NGS
NGS initiative has progressed with both successes and challenges over the years. First, there has been an increase in student enrollment rate in which the total number of enrollment was about 6000 while the accepted number of students was at 5722 students by 2020. At the same time, the results of the Bacc II examination of grade 12 student cohorts in the 2018–2019 academic years were excellent. That is, the passing rate at NGS 4 in Preah Sisovath high school in Phnom Penh was 94% and Hun Sen Kampong Cham high school was 84%; these results were higher than the national passing rate of 68%. In addition, the number of students who scored high grades: A, B, or C was 38% at Sisovath NGS and 27% at NGS in Hun Sen Kampong Cham (KAPE, 2020a). However, these academic results have brought about different interpretations. Chea and Chen (2021) slammed that these data are rather questionable as students at NGS are rigorously recruited; thus those highly ambitious and committed students tend to perform academically better. Conversely, the reformers contended that the students in cohorts 2018 and 2019 were admitted without the exercise of selection procedures (KAPE, 2020a). In this respect, while the reformers’ argument can be valid and applicable to those cohorts (2018–2019), the critics’ argument can also be applied to the subsequent cohorts of students when the student selection regime is implemented.
Besides enrollment and academic achievements, NGS schools have engaged students with international competitions and learning projects (about 490 group projects) on topics driven by their own interests (KAPE, 2020b). For instance, in 2019, 612 students at NGS schools received 819 awards, among which 46% were gold, silver, and bronze medals (KAPE, 2020a). Yet, while these prolific achievements are remarkable, one might question about students’ mental health or well-being—resulting from academic workloads—as students at NGS study full-time and have to complete homework, projects, or presentations. These tasks are time-consuming and labor considerable efforts and commitment. In fact, the reformers also feel pressured from the public interest in how NGS schools can engage students in 21st-century learning approaches (student-center) and help students succeed in the Bacc II national examination (see KAPE, 2020a), let alone to mention students’ feelings. Again, these high ambitions would cause fallouts more on students than staff. At this juncture, empirical evidence about students’ well-being or mental health is nowhere. In overall, the reformers appear to be overwhelmingly pressured by standards and competitions, all of which might be the strands of propaganda for funding but also can be the inner erosions of the public education (Biesta, et al., 2021), as argued above.
In addition, the government has put a slew of capital investments in NGS schools to modernize educational facilities and school development. For example, by 2020, it was estimated that the reform would have consumed roughly $US 8.5 million during five years (2015–2020) (KAPE, 2020b). This investment has allowed the NGS schools to purchase modern equipment such as experiment tools, laptops, or slide projectors that teachers and students can use for their teaching-learning purposes. The engagement of technology in education is of the essence and the well-spent investment. Yet, although teachers have been reported to use technology in teaching, there is no empirical evidence about the impacts of the use of technology on students’ learning. It has been only reported that teachers design activities that are centered around: group or pair work, projects, and presentations, yet tangible scientific evidence remains unavailable. Thus, the question about whether this huge investment is cost-effective remains the question.
Other achievements include poor dropout rates, high teacher professionalism, high higher education access rates (KAPE, 2020b). Again, many questions about NGS remain. For example, Bo (2021) was concerned with the equity of education as she raised concerns about learning opportunities between privileged and underprivileged students, unequal investment between traditional schools and NGS schools, and parental contribution fees which might discourage disadvantaged students not to choose to study at NGS schools. Considering the contribution fees, it is concerned in this paper that this principle should come into conflict with the universal and national principle of “Education for All,” in which the government holds the responsibility to offer fee-free education to every citizen. NGS schools are operated under the oversight of MoEYS but they indirectly charge fees from students under the image of the Social Charity Fund. Another criticism is about whether the increase in teacher salaries can be a factor leading to good student academic achievements (Chea and Chen, 2021). Drawn on this discussion, it is argued that the reformers should pay more attention to the above-mentioned concerns by putting more attention on research evidence.
NGS reform’s impacts on shadow education: Key lessons
As discussed in the above section, NGS has left both achievements and questions to the public. This section elaborates whether the NGS reform has any effects on shadow education that has been a long-standing culture in Cambodia. Drawn on the NGS policy document (MoEYS, 2019), reports (KAPE, 2019, 2020a; and 2020b), and research findings (Nhem and Kobakhidze, 2022), this paper reveals three important lessons for policymakers, researchers or readers in the Cambodian context and other societies.
The absence of shadow education amid learning pressures?
The reformers claimed the absence of private classes within NGS schools (KAPE, 2020a), yet failed to attest whether students take private tutoring elsewhere or not. This question has been, to some extent, answered by a recent study that interviewed fourteen students in grades 11 and 12 at two NGS sites (8 students from NGS-A; 6 students from NGS-B) (Nhem and Kobakhidze, 2022); the study reported that the majority of the students participated in private tutoring outside the NGSs to cover lessons learned in NGSs, prepare for exams, or get more exercises. Regardless of the generalizability of the findings, the study has raised doubts about the quality of NGS reform. That is, it is puzzled about whether students’ academic achievements [see Ongoing Debates About the Achievements of NGS] are determined by the NGS reform, private tutoring, or the combination of both. Thus, with the presence of private tutoring, any assertion about the success of the reform—having impacts on students’ learning achievements—is rather too early.
In addition, the fact that students participate in private tutoring because of their anxieties about high-stakes examinations (e.g., Grade 12 exams) exists in almost every country, including developed countries (see, for example, Yung, 2021 in Hong Kong; or Entrich, 2014 in Japan). This can suggest that alternative assessments and selection procedures might play an important role to temper such anxieties (Bray and Lykins, 2012). The use of alternative assessments also concurs with the principle of child-centered pedagogy which is one of the pursuits of the NGS reform. That is, the assessment should be designed to evaluate students’ performances or learning activities rather than their memories (see, for example, Wiggins, 1991). In fact, the notion of learning competitions or test scores as the quality standard is not only the catalyst for the existence of private tutoring but also the threat which erodes the foundation of public education for the public goods (Biesta, et al., 2021; Tesar, et al., 2021). That means meaningful construction of learning experiences has been often unheeded in the context of teaching-for-testing.
Teacher professionalism vs. shadow education: Searching for sustainability
The NGS reform has successfully maintained a high level of teacher professionalism. Teachers are required not only to deliver high-quality teaching services but also not to engage in private tutoring services (from teachers to their students). If a teacher at any NGS school is found to break any regulations and that school takes no action to stop unprofessional practices, then the school might face the risk of losing the accreditation, a passport to gain access to the government’s funds and resources (see examples from the policy and report below). This claim is supported by a study (Nhem and Kobakhidze, 2022) which found that some NGS students sought private tutoring elsewhere outside the NGSs because their teachers were restricted from providing private classes.
“Ensuring that teachers are not teaching private classes to their own students during working hours” (p. 5, MoEYS, 2019)
“It is important to remember in this regard that private classes at all New Generation Schools are strictly forbidden so that students were able to achieve these very high outcomes through a combination of extra hours of regular study (New Generation Schools provide 40 hours of instruction per week), practical lab work in 21st-century science labs, and special classes that the school organizes for ALL students that are free of charge.” (p. 16, KAPE, 2020a)
In general, teacher professionalism is almost everything in the teaching profession as it creates accountability and transparent practices in classrooms (Sachs, 2015). Over the years, teacher unprofessionalism has come to the fore in Cambodia. Teachers have been reported to have split public school curriculum contents—leaving some parts for private classes (Bray, et al., 2018; Bray, et al., 2019; Brehm and Silova, 2014; Soeung, 2021), provided insufficient explanations (Bray, et al., 2016), treated students differently, appeared less energized in regular classes or lacked of commitment (Bray, et al., 2018). These acts have become the coercive strategies of teachers to create their market space for private tutoring. Without taking private tutoring, students might not perform academically well; one study in Cambodia also found that students who participated in private tutoring performed better than those who did not (Pov et al., 2020). This achievement does not necessarily mean private tutoring had impacts on students’ learning, but it can be a kind of teachers’ promise to students who attended private classes. Thus, this propensity of teachers has been successfully wiped off by NGS.
However, the enhanced practices of teacher professionalism have also been prone to challenges. Teachers who are recruited to teach at NGS schools have to agree and comply with the regulation of not providing private tutoring services to their students. According to the reports (KAPE, 2019, 2020a, 2020b), some teachers refused to join NGS schools as they were forbidden from engaging in private tutoring (see examples from reports 2019; 2020b below). Concurrently, the turnover rate is another concern—presenting a challenge in keeping good performance teachers. Unfortunately, empirical evidence on the teacher turnover is wanting—leaving this phenomenon, which has implications on the reform, questionable. In this sense, the practices of teacher professionalism are far from easy to find ways sustainable in the context.
“Opposition has been particularly vocal among upper secondary school teachers who are deeply opposed to the provisions in the New Generation School Framework that forbid teachers from extorting money from students as a condition to access the national curriculum.” (p. 3, KAPE, 2019)
“The primary reason for their unwillingness to join the growing New Generation School program is that NGS Policy Guideline requires them to give up their private ‘rien kua’ classes, which they refuse to do, even though they would receive an incentive to compensate them.” (p. 28, KAPE, 2020b)
Effective leadership: “Goodbye” to corruption for shadow education
Research conducted in Cambodia has shown that shadow education is coupled with not only teachers but also school leaders who permit the culture of private tutoring to exist (see Bray, et al., 2016; Bray, et al., 2019; Brehm, 2021; & Dawson, 2010, 2011). For instance, Dawson (2010, 2011) described shadow education in Cambodia, partially resulting from the hierarchy of corruption in which teachers paid bribes to school principals to run their private classes; the principals then shared the bribes to other higher-ranking officials. In this regard, as regulated in the policy document (MoEYS, 2019), NGS school leaders must ensure that teachers are not involved in any form of private tutoring (also see Nhem and Kobakhidze, 2022. If private tutoring exists in an NGS school, the school’s accreditation to access the government’s resources or investment will be terminated. In this manner, the NGS reform has implications on effective school leadership that gives no tolerance to corruption—allowing teachers to spoil the public school curriculum and pay less attention to their teaching onus (see Bray, et al., 2016; Bray, et al., 2018; Bray, et al., 2019; Brehm and Silova, 2014; & Soeung, 2021). Thus, the NGS reform is the embodiment of the government’s awareness of the compounding effects of shadow education and its strategy to intercept such a tedious phenomenon.
“The Board also makes recommendations for continued accreditation of a New Generation School. If a school is found to be in noncompliance with key criteria for performance (e.g., no private tutoring, enhanced library services, etc.), it may lose its accreditation. Without continued accreditation, the school will lose its access to special government resources.” (p. 6, MoEYS, 2019)
“When a school calls itself a New Generation School, one can be confident that the school has certain very high standards including longer hours of learning, no teacher corruption, modern library and laboratory facilities, regular access to ICT facilities, and other important features.” (p. 4, KAPE, 2020a)
The above discussion about teacher professionalism and effective school leadership is particularly intriguing as the Education Law (2007) in Cambodia has long prohibited any misconduct of educators (see below). Unfortunately, the regulations seem to have little effect on shadow education, which is possibly because of corruption (Dawson, 2010, 2011) and poor school leadership (Bray, et al., 2016; Bray, et al., 2019; Brehm, 2021). Thus, this paper argues that the abolishment of shadow education is at the mercy of the accountability of school leaders and teachers who are aware of their professional misconducts—possibly having detrimental impacts on students’ learning and forming a hierarchy of corruption (Dawson, 2010, 2011). Simply put, NGS reflects the essence of school-level accountability as the mechanism to combat private tutoring culture and corruption. However, it is important to note that accountability cannot exist without comprehensive regulations and effective reinforcements (e.g., working contract, private tutoring regulations, or school evaluation). Therefore, the accountability of teachers and school officials at the school level should come to major attention among policymakers and researchers at present or in the future. … educators have to comply with the professional code(s) of ethics: - To fulfill other duties that are stipulated in valid law; - To undertake and develop their work with due high diligence and responsibility. (MoEYS, 2007: 14, p. 14)
Concerning school accountability, school leadership plays a vital role in ensuring professional practices of teachers and administrative staff (Bush and Glover, 2014; Hallinger, 2003), yet research in Cambodia has found insufficient qualities of school leaders, that is to say, delegating unreasonable and unachievable tasks (Sorm and Gunbayi, 2018), or lack of teacher professional development (Kheang, O'Donoghue and Clarke, 2018). These findings should not be much surprising because school leadership education has not much been prioritized in the context, and the recruitment of school leaders has been mainly based on good working experiences rather than sufficient training. In some developed countries, school leadership preparation has been taken with great care. For example, Singapore has had a rigorous school leadership program for a few decades already (Diploma in Educational Administration (DEA), 1984–2001; Leaders in Education Programme (LEP) (2001–present) (see Lim, 2007).
In Cambodia, the MoEYS has recently also recognized the essence of leadership by introducing a school-based management initiative that aims to develop school leaders and teachers to become more responsible for their duties (MoEYS, 2021). The MoEYS also allows the Royal University of Phnom Penh to take part in developing school leaders’ capacities under a project “School Leadership Upgrading Program” (see Sok et al., 2020). Nevertherless, tangible data on whether this scheme has any impacts on the diminution of shadow education remains absent. Recently, school leadership education has also been listed among the priorities of the education development blueprint 2030 (see, for example, MoEYS, 2021), yet how this plan will come into effect might be still a long wait.
Conclusion
As indicated in the first section, shadow education is one of the major concerns in Cambodia and other contexts globally. In Cambodia, shadow education, which has implications on teacher and school leader professionalism and corruption, has become the subject of public criticisms and posed a threat to the quality and equity of the mainstream education system. Drawn on the analysis, this paper shows that students’ participation in private tutoring still persists and the reasons are inherently associated with the quality of NGS and examination pressures (Nhem and Kobakhidze, 2022), suggesting the need for further improvement of the NGS education reform and the use of alternative assessments. However, the NGS project has successfully removed the culture of private tutoring offered from public teachers to their students. This success offers implications on the accountability of school leaders and teachers who carry on their work professionally and who are opposed to corruption. It can be also learned that school-level accountability is not feasible without strict regulations and evaluations (e.g., teacher contract, regulations of professional practices, or school accreditation). Any violation of the prescribed regulations will put the professional work at risk. Otherwise, corruption—possibly leading to the continued practices of private tutoring—will return.
Indeed, school accountability can and should also be applied to other traditional schools. With the rigorous evaluation and monitoring, school practices would be enhanced and teachers’ engagement in shadow education is likely to disappear. I also believe that the careful and rigorous preparation of teachers and school leaders is indispensable. They should be trained about not only pedagogies or leadership skills but also educational development issues (e.g., shadow education) so that they become aware of problems arising from institutional practices. In Cambodia, although teacher preparation has been constantly improved, there seems to be no exact plan of rigorous school leadership preparation programs as some developed countries have done. I therefore argue that developing school leadership is a long-term investment in education development. To conclude, this paper invites researchers interested in shadow education to examine alternative assessments and institutional practices of school accountability as the ways to penetrate shadow education. To the NGS reformers, they should conduct more research activities to analyze the impacts of NGS on various aspects rather than expand the scale of the NGS project.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
