China has become preferred destination for medical education

Alya Mishra09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

Six years ago, when he was preparing to sit for multiple medical entrance examinations, Dr Vishal Swaroop had not heard of Liaoning province in China, five hours east of Beijing. Today he has a medical degree from Liaoning Medical University in the coastal city of Jinzhou.

“China was nowhere on my radar. But I did not qualify in the medical entrance exam in India. When I started exploring options for medical education abroad, China had a lot to offer,” says Swaroop, who is back in India and preparing for his postgraduate medical exam.

Tough competition, few seats and rising costs of medical education have prompted Indian students to look at education abroad, and countries like China and Russia are attracting Indians, with a host of student-friendly measures.

Swaroop is one of the thousands of Indian students pursuing medical education in China, which has emerged as a preferred destination for Indians. More than 8,000 Indian students enrolled to study medicine in China in 2010.

Consultants estimate that seven out of 10 mobile Indian medical students are opting for China for undergraduate medical education. Many are also choosing Russia and former Soviet Union countries.

Affordable education

Affordable costs of education and living, and easy access to admission, are the two important factors attracting Indians to Chinese and Russian universities.

“The Russian government heavily subsidises education and hence it is affordable to a middle-class foreign student,” said Asish Sondhi, director of the International Foundation for Studies and Culture (IFSC), an Indian-based organisation that helps to promote premium Russian universities and academies in India.

“In India, the demand for medical education exceeds the current supply. Also with the private and deemed universities, which charge a heavy capitation fee [charging money in exchange for admission], the middle-class section of the society is deprived of quality medical education,” Sondhi said.

Compared to the US, UK and other European countries, the cost of medical education in countries like China and Russia is much lower and varies from US$3,400 to US$6,000 per year.

Indian students have to satisfy minimum qualifications but are not required to clear any entry tests for either Chinese or Russian universities, which is a big attraction for many students.

Overcoming the language barrier

Neither Russian nor Mandarin is a popular foreign language in India. But universities have overcome this by teaching in English.

“The teaching is in English. But we are also given language classes to learn Mandarin. By the time you enter the fifth year of internship or practical work, you are fluent enough in Mandarin to be able to intern at a local hospital,” said Dr Pradeep Banerjee, an alumnus of China Medical University who is now practising in a private hospital in Hyderabad.

For Dr Mathari Sanjeev Kumar, who graduated from Odessa State Medical University in Ukraine in 2009, adjusting to the language, food and culture took some time.

“The culture and language is so different to ours. But these can be overcome because you get admission and the course structure is similar to that of India. Moreover, compared to private medical colleges in India I had to pay much less,” said Kumar, who is now working as a junior resident in Ram Manohar Lohiya hospital in New Delhi.

According to Sondhi of the IFSC, Russian-speaking countries have woken up to the potential of international students, especially from Asia, and more universities are opting to teach in English.

Streamlining regulations

China opened medical education to Indian students in 2004, with four universities offering English medium education. The number has since grown to 50 universities, which are approved by the Chinese government and the Medical Council of India (MCI).

The MCI has a list of the 50 approved Chinese institutions, where fees are regulated by the government. The MCI provides eligibility certificates, which all students need before enrolling in a medical university abroad, to only these 50 institutions.

The Chinese government has also ensured quality education and better standards for international students.

“In 2006 complaints started coming in about the problems faced by foreign students, and the Ministry of Education intervened,” said V Rajaram, managing partner at Medico-Abroad, an education firm based in Hyderabad.

“It scrutinised and approved a list of institutions which could admit foreign students. It also streamlined the fee structure, curriculum and duration of medical courses.”

Notably, each university in China is allotted seats depending on infrastructure and teacher-to-student ratio. The number of seats can be reduced or increased depending on the status of the university during scrutiny.

Undergraduate versus postgraduate medical education

Indian students completing an MBBS degree in a foreign country have to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) before they can register with the MCI.

“Clearing the FMGE is not difficult since the syllabus is similar to that of India. However, getting a postgraduate seat in India is a challenge,” said Kumar, who is busy preparing to sit for a postgraduate exam.

In the state of Andhra Pradesh, for instance, there are 5,000 MBBS seats but only 2,000 postgraduate seats, equally divided between clinical and non-clinical subjects.

A student’s options are further limited because India recognises postgraduate medical degrees from only five countries – the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

According to Sondhi, allowing postgraduate degrees from only these English-speaking countries is a restrictive practice. But this has not deterred Indian students from going to China, Russia and other European countries.

“Getting a postgraduate seat in any of the five approved countries is very difficult and very expensive. Although you cannot teach or hold any academic position if you have a postgraduate degree from other countries, you can practise,” said Rajaram.

Doctors are allowed to practise in private nursing homes, private practice, and rural health services due to a shortage of doctors. It is mandatory to mention the name of the country on the nameplate.

“The growing popularity in India has encouraged a number of Chinese medical schools to recruit Indian and Nepalese medical professors to teach in their institutions,” Rajaram added.

Addressing shortage at home

Aware of the increasing demand for medical education and the need for more doctors, the MCI added 3,595 more MBBS seats and 1,442 new postgraduate seats this year.

The number of MBBS seats in India will now rise to 45,464. By 2021, the MCI aims to take the overall availability of MBBS seats to 80,000 and postgraduate seats to 45,000 to help tackle the doctor shortage problem.

A recent Planning Commission report highlighted that India is short of 600,000 doctors, a million nurses and 200,000 dental surgeons. Indian doctors, however, form 5% of the medical workforce in developed countries. Nearly 60,000 Indian physicians are working in countries like the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

India thus has twin challenges: how to create adequate capacity in medical institutions, and how to retain the doctors and nurses it trains.

UNITED STATES: Football 10, academic quality 0

William Patrick Leonard09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

Albert Einstein’s familiar quotation – “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – is reflected among a large majority of US institutions fielding National College Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletic programmes.

USA Today annually reports the revenue and expenses of these major athletic programmes. Sadly, only 22 out of 227 NCAA Division I athletic programmes generate sufficient revenue to match their expenses. The remaining 205 have their losses covered by the sponsoring institution.

In its 15 May 2012 edition USA Today noted that the “…gap between those that can keep pace with the rising costs and those that can't is rising”.

While other minor intercollegiate sports are charged to athletic budgets, it is football and basketball, both male sports, that produce both the highest costs and potentially the balancing revenue.

Both sports provide recurring high drama and seasonal entertainment for local, regional and national fans. Traditional institutional rivalries, and bowl and conference appearances are said to foster institutional brand, applications and accompanying donations.

The high profile programmes that produce the bulk of the drama, entertainment and national media coverage consistently remain in the black. The University of Texas Longhorns’ 2011 athletic programme, whose receipts exceeded its expenses by a little over $16 million, is the unquestioned exception.

The remaining more than 200 athletic programmes require annual subsidies. The difference is covered by institutional funds and student fees. Some programmes are subsidised by over 80%.

Mitchell Stevens, a Stanford associate professor of education, suggests that the football appeal is based more on the pursuit of athletic status or conference membership than academic quality.

Sadly, the majority of institutions have placed themselves on a treadmill to oblivion in trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Each year a few more institutions field teams in their pursuit of athletic status. The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame has announced that six new Division I teams will begin competing between 2012 and 2014. Few, if any, of these additions enjoy recognition beyond their immediate region.

Internally, except for the coaches, players and year-long support staff, few enjoy any tangible and enduring benefits beyond game day.

Huge salaries for coaches

For example, in the 2011 season, major college football head coaches’ average compensation was $1.47 million, an increase of nearly 55% since 2006.

In the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, 132 assistant coaches earned $250,000 or more, up from 106 last year. Within that group, 26 assistant football coaches are earning at least $400,000, double the number at that level a year ago.

Basketball coaching compensation appears to rise in parallel. Both have enjoyed increasing compensation while other employees at many major institutions have endured freezes and cutbacks.

Football and basketball players tend to enjoy training table meals, tutoring and others amenities that players of lesser sports and the majority, non-athlete student body do not have access to.

It is unlikely that start-up programmes building their rosters will be successful in recruiting competitive teams. It is more likely that they will face a major recruitment challenge.

They will have to mine deeper in the prospect pool, increasing the number of more academically questionable but possibly athletically talented prospects that have been passed over by the established programmes.

Where is the educational substance?

Football may provide some ephemeral seasonal sizzle, but where is the underlying educational substance?

Aspiring status-seeking institutions may be characterised as institutions with little or no identity beyond their immediate region. They are entering a competition in which they have little chance of financially breaking even, let alone winning.

Instead of strengthening their lower tier academic programmes, these institutions are planning costly recreational diversions appealing to a relatively small market. They have appeared to favour the very slim prospect of glory and gold over investing in academic quality.

The resources spent to implement and subsequently prop up these programmes could be used to improve their liberal arts and science, technology, engineering and mathematics programmes.

Institutions heavily subsidising athletic teams at the expense of academic programmes send a disturbing message regarding their priorities to potential international applicants.

A telling observation, relevant to international applicants vetting alternative US universities, recently appeared in USA Today: “Even as many universities continue to minimise salary increases for most employees (or to skip raises altogether), assistant football coaches are seeing already generous compensation packages grow. Meanwhile teachers and academic programmes are being cut.”

International students are drawn by indicators of academic quality and not ephemeral athletic status.

* William Patrick Leonard is vice dean of SolBridge International School of Business in South Korea.
 

GLOBAL: University rankings and system benchmarking reach similar results

Benoît Millot09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

University International Rankings, or UIRs, have become a reality. And despite their shortcomings and the rise of resistance against them, they are likely to stick around.

Critics of UIRs target methodological weaknesses such as bias in favour of research, use of composite indicators, reliability of peers’ subjective opinions and so on.

But they also point out the perverse effect of UIRs on the decisions of tertiary education institutions and of national authorities in charge of tertiary education – racing to develop world-class universities at the expense of national tertiary education systems.

In reaction to these caveats, analysts have convincingly argued that instead of focusing on individual universities, it would be more useful to put the spotlight on entire tertiary education systems. Simultaneously, there should be a shift from ranking to benchmarking.

This twofold shift would allow countries to assess the health of their higher education systems and to design reforms encompassing all types of tertiary education institutions rather than focusing on a few centres of excellence.

Efforts are currently under way from various quarters to develop reliable International System Benchmarking (ISB) instruments, and the first comprehensive one of its kind has recently been released.

International rankings: Key results from the main leagues

In 2010 and 2011, the figures on which this analysis is based, the two UIRs most widely referred to by the academic community, analysts and decision-makers were arguably the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), launched by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the one operated by Quacquarelli Symonds under the auspices of Times Higher Education. (The THE ranking is now operated by Thomson Reuters and QS continues to run its own ranking.)

In 2010 and 2011, the 500 top universities for each ranking are concentrated in 50 countries in the QS league and in 39 countries in the more exclusive ARWU league.

All but two countries hosting the top universities in the ARWU league are also present in the QS league, which is a first (and strong) hint that the two rankings yield close results. A subset of 37 countries appear in both leagues.

In order to make comparisons between countries, we cannot be satisfied with the sheer number of top universities – this number needs to be weighted in order to control for the size of the countries.

One possibility would be to use each country’s population, but this is not fully satisfactory because it ignores intergenerational differences. Instead, we use the number of people of tertiary age as a weight. The ratio of the number of 500 top universities to the tertiary-age population gives us what could be labelled the ‘density of top universities’.

Density gives an idea of the number of top universities available per one million people of tertiary age. In fact, using the ARWU data for illustration purposes, it is clear that the number of top universities and their density follow almost opposite tracks.

Of the 25 countries with the highest density of top universities, 23 are to be found in both the QS and ARWU rankings – an observation that confirms the first hint mentioned above regarding the convergence of the two leagues.

Secondly, the rankings of countries by density of top universities are very closely correlated for QS and ARWU.

With the exception of Ireland, which is number one in the QS league and only number 13 in the ARWU league, most countries have a similar position in the two rankings, and the values of the density ratios in the two leagues are also very close for each individual country. Hence, despite their different approaches, the two leagues yield highly comparable results.

Also, all the 37 countries but one (India) are either high-income or upper-middle income. This observation substantiates the assertion that UIRs’ methodology is putting a premium on well-resourced universities.

On the other hand, even within the group of less than 40 countries that harbour the top world universities, there is a huge gap between those leading the flock and those at the lagging end: while in Finland, two world-class universities serve 100,000 tertiary age people, in India two world-class universities cater to 100 million potential clients.

Indeed, there is a strong and positive correlation between the density of top universities and gross domestic product per capita.

Despite significant differences in the way they are developed, the QS and ARWU rankings do share some common points, in particular the size of the universe that they cover (focusing on the top 500 universities) and their reliance on a range of indicators encompassing several areas of academic life.

This is not the case for a relative newcomer to the field, the Webometrics ranking, which considers a universe of more than 12,000 institutions worldwide, and relies on several aspects of the visibility of institutions on the internet.

Given such a disparity in the methodology, one would expect widely different results in the rankings. Surprisingly, the comparison made on the 500 top universities of the three leagues shows strikingly similar results, and the correlations between the three rankings are significant and positive.

There are therefore strong indications that three of the major and most popular UIRs have converging results both in terms of the set of countries hosting ‘world-class’ universities and in terms of the rankings of countries within this set.

International system benchmarking

The purpose and focus of ISBs are quite distinct from the ones explicit in UIRs, as mentioned above. The former targets country systems and vows to assess their performance against set criteria, while the latter focuses on individual institutions.

Although the need for ISB instruments was identified long ago, few practical attempts have been made to implement them. Statistical challenges account for this situation.

Following the policy brief prepared for the Lisbon Council covering 17 countries, the work undertaken by the OECD, and the World Bank’s benchmarking of universities in the Middle East and North Africa, the first genuinely comprehensive ISB – the U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems – was developed by the Melbourne Institute in 2012.

U21 is based on four sets of indicators: resources, environment, connectivity and output.

Five straightforward indicators, linked to the financial resources allocated to tertiary education, are used to assess the performance in the first area (resources).

The main novelty of the U21 lies in its use of indicators designed to characterise the environment, particularly the subset of indicators related to the ‘qualitative measure of the policy and regulatory environment’. These represent significant progress because they respond to the widespread view that governance issues are a main constraint to the development and improvement of tertiary education systems.

Connectivity, the third area considered by U21, is measured by two highly relevant indicators: (i) the proportion of international students in tertiary education, and (ii) the proportion of articles co-authored with international collaborators.

Output, the fourth area under U21, is measured by a basket of nine indicators spanning a whole range of criteria from research products to enrolment rates and graduate unemployment rates, the latter indicator being an answer to the growing concern regarding the employability of graduates produced by tertiary education systems.

Rankings are provided separately for each of the four areas mentioned above. Finally, an overall, composite indicator is constructed by combining the four sets of indicators.

Comparing UIR and ISB

Comparing the outcomes of the UIR and ISB instruments is made possible by the fact that we have translated the results of the university-based indicators of the UIRs in countrywide terms, making them analogous to the indicators of the ISB.

The comparison is presented here in two steps: (i) how do the sets of countries compare – regardless of their individual rankings, and (ii) how do the rankings compare?

While the countries covered in the three versions of UIRs (QS, ARWU and Webometrics) are the results of university rankings, those considered by U21 are a deliberate choice, itself linked to a predetermined decision.

U21 selected a set of 48 countries, using data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) ranking of research output. It is therefore not a surprise to find a strong overlap between these 48 U21 countries and the 39 and 50 countries that host top universities according to ARWU and QS, respectively, or indeed to the 37 countries to be found in both UIRs.

The main differences between the group of UIR countries (and especially the more inclusive QS list) and that of the U21 are: (i) the lesser representation of developing countries in the U21 list, and (ii) the stronger presence of Eastern Europe countries in the U21 list. These differences aside, there is strong convergence between the UIRs and U21.

However, the decisive test is not the aggregate number of countries represented in both lists, but the rank of the countries. There are highly significant correlations in rankings, which show that the two instruments yield similar results.

However, differences are also to be noted, especially in the dispersion of votes for the countries ranked first – while Finland is ranked in the top four in all three leagues, Ireland is ranked first by QS but lags at 13 and 16 in the ARWU and U21 lists, respectively.

Even more striking, while the United States leads the pack in the U21 list, it is relegated to ranks 17 and 22 in the ARWU and QS leagues, respectively.

Still, there is a lot of stability in the rankings for most other countries, and the superposition of the three lists shows remarkable homogeneity.

QS and ARWU produce very close results, which are also confirmed by the Webometrics league, despite the differences in methodology used by these three UIRs. In all three rankings, the density of top 500 universities (‘world-class’ universities) is closely related to the wealth of the countries.

Comparing these results with those obtained by the U21 ranking – the first comprehensive ISB – yields strikingly similar results, even though the focus and objectives of the ISB are clearly different from those of the UIRs.

It appears that hosting world-class universities is associated with the position held in system-wide rankings. Both kinds of instruments analysed in this note suggest that being in a rich country helps both to boost the supply of high quality universities and to maintain a performing system of tertiary education.

Part of the explanation for this finding comes from the bias common to the two instruments – that is, an overemphasis on research and on well-resourced systems.

Despite this, it remains that these results reflect both the choices made by universities themselves and tertiary education decision-makers at the national level, and the fact that money can buy quality.

From a methodological point of view, it can be concluded that the empirical implementation of the concepts that radically differentiate the two instruments end up – so far – with very similar outcomes.

Undoubtedly, as data availability increases, both rankings and benchmarking will improve, and their respective outcomes will become more and more complementary.

* Benoît Millot is a former lead education economist with the World Bank and is currently a consultant with the same institution. This article does not represent the views of the World Bank and is the sole responsibility of the author.

GLOBAL: Relax – Higher education won't be killed by MOOCs

Stephen H Foerster09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

In a recent University World News commentary titled, “Yes, MOOC is the global higher education game changer”, Professor Simon Marginson from the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne argues that MOOCs will spell the death of higher education as we know it.

That may be an exciting thing to say – but there are some fundamental barriers involved that will be pretty challenging to overcome.

As someone who has worked in online education for a long time, I can assure any and all that not every student prefers to learn online, even if from a course that carries the imprimatur of a well-regarded university.

There's nothing wrong with online learning. Indeed, research has shown pretty conclusively that there's no significant difference in learning outcomes between learning on campus and learning online.

But just because two things are adequate substitutes for each other doesn't mean that all people will prefer the two equally. Especially when students have been raised to see higher education as a classroom-based activity with a tweed-clad professor at a lectern, they're likely to retain that as a preference even in the wake of a mountain of evidence that it is not strictly necessary.

Wide acceptance of online learning

The good news is that unreasonable objections to online learning have largely become muted in the wake of repeated studies showing that distance learning is no less effective than classroom-based instruction.

But while prejudice against distance learning has lost the day, this does not mean that there aren't many students whose needs are better accommodated by a course that takes place on campus.

For example, many institutions focus on asynchronous learning when it comes to their distance learning offerings. That means that courses are designed for convenience so that students can participate whenever it's convenient for them rather than at a set time.

The trade-off for that convenience is live interaction, the sort that's part and parcel of a course in a classroom. It's possible to duplicate live sessions online, and more and more institutions are moving in that direction, but at present those students who are inclined towards real-time interaction with their faculty members and peers are likely still to have reason to prefer the classroom.

Moreover, it's not only the ‘online’ aspect of MOOCs that can be offputting – the ‘massive’ one can be as well. In a course with tens of thousands of students, it's hardly realistic to expect personal attention from the rock star professor whose name is on the marquee.

That's not to say the sort of peer-to-peer learning that MOOCs by necessity employ is pedagogically unsound; far from it. But it's not a mode of learning that's universally appealing, and a prestigious university name can only go so far to paper over the objections from a student who would like the option of directly communicating with his or her instructor.

The academic credit barrier

Another fundamental barrier is that MOOCs from prestigious universities do not lead to academic credit, and this is an important drawback to them that their cheerleaders need to consider a little more closely. Moreover, if I may be allowed a prediction, they never will lead to credit, especially from top universities.

As much as educators may not wish to admit it, from an economic perspective education is not actually a university's true product: a prestigious credential is.

When employers start accepting MOOC certificates of completion as the equivalent to a university degree, then one will be able to consider them a substitute. Until then, however, one simply cannot. It's true that there's a movement toward educational badges (see below), but it's in its infancy, and if they do take off in the marketplace for labour, it won't be tomorrow.

As evidence, for several decades now in the computing world there has been a system of what those in the education world are calling 'educational badges'. There is a large ecology of certifications that technology workers can earn that demonstrate their proficiency with various information technologies.

Many of these certification programmes are administered from companies like Microsoft or Cisco, and are specific to the products of those companies. Other programmes are from ‘vendor neutral’ non-profit organisations like CompTIA and concern themselves with a broader category of technologies.

Those who are watching MOOCs closely may be interested in the relationship that has developed between the world of ICT certifications and that of higher education.

In the 1990s there was something of a competitive aspect between them, where technology workers might consider an advanced level Microsoft certification just as useful to them in the labour market as a degree in information systems.

Before long, however, the higher education system prevailed, not because workers or employers lost interest in certifications, but because higher education adapted to allow for ways to include them in its own system.

Higher education adapts

The adaptation was that it became possible to earn advanced standing at certain universities for those who held certain certifications. In some cases, universities would recognise these certifications as the equivalent to transfer credit, accepting them as though the transferring student had simply taken academic coursework elsewhere.

In other cases, and this is the example more likely to apply to MOOCs, those certifications fit into those universities' established systems of prior learning assessment, wherein students who learn university-level material outside of the institution can put together a portfolio of evidence that, if approved, leads to advanced standing.

It is this process, prior learning assessment, that would seem to be the best way for successful MOOC-takers to move forward if they wish for broad recognition of their learning, and the best way for universities to fit MOOCs into their established system of credit.

I hope I don't sound dismissive of MOOCs, as that's not my intention. MOOCs are a wonderful new tool in the toolbox of adult education. I'm pleased that universities are offering them. In fact I'm doing one myself later this year.

But as exciting as they are, they cannot be all things to all people, and local universities are in no danger whatsoever of being supplanted by them, at least not any time soon.

It would be a shame if this false expectation overshadowed the real opportunities that MOOCs can and do provide, and caused unwarranted disappointment when the initial enthusiasm for MOOCs dies away and it becomes clear that they are not an educational panacea.

* Stephen H Foerster is a writer, technologist and educator based in the US and the Commonwealth of Dominica.

UNITED KINGDOM: Legal challenge to international student ban slapped on university

David Jobbins04 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

The UK university barred from teaching students from outside the European Union (EU) is to challenge the decision in court by the end of this week.

Professor Malcolm Gillies, vice-chancellor of London Metropolitan University (LMU), told the BBC flagship Today programme on Tuesday that it was seeking to have the revocation of its Highly Trusted Status by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) stayed.

“Our analysis with leading immigration lawyers indicates this report of the UKBA is wrong in so many details,” Gillies said. “We have an obligation to go to court.”

Loss of Highly Trusted Status (HTS), under which universities are required to vet applicants from outside the EU to ensure they meet immigration requirements, means that up to 2,700 current LMU students face deportation if they cannot find an alternative university at which to continue their studies by the end of November.

Gillies told the BBC: “We fundamentally contest their claim that there is a systemic failure here.”

He accepted that the decision by the UKBA, announced on 30 August, had done “huge damage” to LMU.

It had also done “a lot of damage to the credibility of British higher education”.

LMU said that the evidence it provided to the UKBA clearly showed that “on file after file we were taking every reasonable measure we could to be compliant”. The UKBA claim that LMU did not address serious and systemic failings identified six months ago was “simply not true”.

It said its checks on international students for English language and educational ability not only met but exceeded the UKBA requirements in a number of key areas.

“The university's staff has been diligently performing stringent checks to try and ensure that all individuals who are studying at the university are legally entitled to do so.

"The UKBA has not provided any constructive advice to the sector on this matter, despite being asked to on numerous occasions.”

The university believes that its monitoring complies with the UKBA's guidance and accused UKBA officers of ignoring information that was made available to them when they conducted their audit.

“Despite our concerns, we cooperated and assisted them fully and tried to persuade them on a number of occasions to review evidence that we felt was relevant.”

LMU claimed that the UKBA's requirements had changed substantially at least 14 times in the past three years.

“We believe the university's approach to complying with this multitude of changes is of a standard that not only equates with practices adopted by the majority of other universities in the sector but in a number of key areas exceeds sector-wide practice.”

This week the powerful House of Commons public accounts committee criticised the UKBA for disrupting the student visa system with “poorly planned and ill thought-out” changes in the rules for overseas students.

As a result an extra 50,000 people abused the system, coming to Britain to work rather than study, it said.

The committee of MPs said in a report published on Monday that the UKBA had enforced new rules for overseas students in 2009 before controls were in place. The result was a "difficult and costly" three years as the agency tried to amend the rules to clamp down on abuse.

It is against this background that vice-chancellors have expressed concern at the decision to make LMU the first university to lose its HTS.

On the same day, Immigration Minister Damian Green told MPs: “The UKBA found systemic failures that meant that London Met had not been able to ensure the appropriate admission and tracking of students from abroad.”

Green said that two other unidentified universities had their licences to admit overseas students temporarily suspended after UKBA investigations, but added that both had resolved their problems and were no longer suspended.

On 30 August David Willetts, the universities minister, announced that a task force led by the Higher Education Funding Council for England – and which includes Universities UK, the UKBA and the National Union of Students – would start immediately to support affected students and enable genuine students to find another institution at which they could continue their studies in the UK.

A ‘clearing house’ set up by LMU will support students wishing to transfer from that university to an alternative education provider or institution. It is to operate from 17 September and will offer every LMU international undergraduate student affected by the revocation decision a course or courses to which they can apply.

The task force said after its second meeting on Wednesday that the courses offered would be comparable in cost and curriculum, and the providers will be quality assured so that students can be confident that their learning experience will continue to meet high standards.

Providers will be based in London wherever possible in order to minimise disruption to students’ accommodation and transport arrangements.

The start of the clearing house has been put back, however, because of LMU’s legal challenge to the revocation of HTS. If the university wins a stay, the revocation will be set aside pending a further hearing and the university will be able, and will want, to continue to teach its current international students.

But the task force acknowledged the risk that later legal hearings might lead to the re-imposition of the revocation, creating a risk that students could have their studies disrupted in the course of the academic year.

Therefore, if the revocation is set aside, the task force may seek a guarantee that students will be allowed to complete their programmes at LMU for the whole of the academic year 2012-13. Any decision then taken to confirm revocation would be implemented in full only from 1 August 2013.

But if the UKBA and the government cannot agree to that solution and the risk of in-year disruption persists, students will be given the option of moving to another institution.

The potential for wider damage to the UK's international student recruitment was illustrated on 31 August when City University found itself named as the UKBA's target in China due to the similarity of its and LMU's titles in Mandarin.

It was wrongly named, by the Chinese national broadcaster, as the university stripped of its trusted status.

City University said: We are aware there may be some confusion around the translation of City University. There are two universities which use this name in Mandarin Chinese – City University London and LMU."

It stated it retained its HTS, enabling it to recruit and teach students in the UK.
 

INDIA: Poor quality and too few seats push 600,00 students abroad

Alya Mishra09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

Inadequate higher education infrastructure and poor quality courses are pushing 600,000 Indian students to top universities overseas – and are costing the country around Rs950 billion (US$17 billion) in foreign exchange annually – a study has found.

The study, “Higher Education Scenario in India”, was conducted by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India, or ASSOCHAM, and is yet to be published.

It found that most Indian students go abroad because they do not find seats in quality institutions within the country. The huge capacity constraint in quality higher education could be tackled through public-private partnership models, the study suggested.

Competing for too few seats

With an aspiring middle-class, the limited number of quality higher education institutions is failing dismally to meet demand.

In 2012, 500,000 students sat the entrance exam for 9,590 seats at Indian institutes of technology (IITs), India’s premier technical colleges. The Indian institutes of management (IIMs) received close to 200,000 applications for 15,500 seats.

Notably, in 2011 Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), one of the leading commerce colleges in the country, set a minimum marks cut-off for admission of 100% for students with science subjects. Anything less than a perfect score would disqualify an applicant.

The move outraged students and sparked debate about access and quality in higher education. According to the SRCC principal, PC Jain, the problem lies in the supply of and demand for higher education.

“The number of students who score 90% and above is increasing every year. But we have a limited number of seats. If everyone applies for SRCC then we have to find a way to limit the number,” said Jain.

“We need more quality higher education institutions since the number of students graduating from school with good performance is surging every year.”

In 1987, when a million students took grade 12 exams, SRCC had 800 seats. In 2011, 10.1 million students wrote grade 12 exams but the college had the same number of seats.

Struggling to achieve quality

Even if more seats were available, students who have experienced a foreign education said they would rather go abroad for the academic and cultural experiences, than study in India.

“Even average institutions in the US and UK are better than most colleges in India. Critical thinking, freedom to express your thoughts and to interact with faculty members, and inter-disciplinary studies is what distinguishes many foreign universities from their Indian counterparts,” said Shaleeni Chopra, a postgraduate of the University of Sussex in the UK.

According to experts, even if universities began strengthening the quality of education, it would be a very long time before the tide of students going abroad could be arrested.

“The role of universities is to produce knowledge, apply knowledge to research and build an academic culture,” said Professor MK Sridhar, member secretary and executive director of the Karnataka Knowledge Commission, a think-tank under the chief minister’s office.

“Unless universities re-orient themselves, embrace technology and open their doors to competitive research and faculty building, India will keep losing students and professionals to foreign universities, which provide students and teachers with a richer academic environment,” Sridhar said.

Caught in red tape

According to the ASSOCHAM study, higher education in India is subsidised enough by the government to attract students, provided that they gain admission to quality institutions.

“An IIT student pays an average US$150 monthly fee, while students opting for education in institutions in Australia, Canada, Singapore, the US and UK shell out US$1,500 to US$4,000 in fees every month,” said ASSOCHAM Secretary General DS Rawat.

“Demand for education loans has also been increasing by over 20% annually,” he said.

The paper suggested that India set up more quality institutions along the lines of IITs and IIMs to ease the outflow of students.

Notably, under the 11th Five Year Plan from 2007-12, the government announced the setting up of 51 publicly funded higher education institutions – including eight IITs and seven IIMs.

Most of the proposed institutions have been plagued by setbacks, including delays in land acquisition, shortages of qualified faculty and, in several cases, disputes between the central government and states.

Sriram Kelkar, an associate professor at the University of Hyderabad, said universities needed more autonomy in order to innovate and experiment, to attract students and achieve internationally competitive standards.

“Just providing funds for expansion is not the answer. Norms for hiring faculty need to be liberalised so that fresh talent can be brought in. The conventional teaching and grading systems need to be re-looked at and teachers need to be given more autonomy.

“Only then can we compete with our global counterparts,” Kelkar said.

UNITED STATES: Most university heads optimistic about future – Survey

The Chronicle of Higher Education 09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

US higher education administrators have mixed and even contradictory views about the financial future of their institutions. While the economy continues to recover at a sluggish pace, 57% of respondents in KPMG’s new Higher Education Outlook Survey said they expected their college to be in better financial shape in five years, writes Eric Kelderman for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

What the colleges represented in the survey did to survive the recession includes measures that have become standard parts of the higher education landscape. More than half raised tuition fees, 45% delayed capital projects, and more than a third offered more online classes and cut programmes with low enrolments. The survey also revealed the shifting priorities of higher education, with more than 60% of respondents saying that student retention and graduation would be a priority in the future. And more than 40% said their institutions would be focusing on online learning.

Full report on The Chronicle of Higher Education site
 

UNITED KINGDOM: Access chief warns elite universities over intake

Guardian09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

The government's university access tsar has warned Oxford and Cambridge that they risk losing their status as world-class universities if they fail to widen their entry to include more students from state schools, writes Peter Wilby for the Guardian.

In the first interview since his controversial appointment last spring Les Ebdon, who started work as the new head of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) last Monday, told the Guardian: "If the top universities are to retain their positions, they need to access the full range of our society. Otherwise, they are losing a major source of potential."

Both Oxford and Cambridge take more than 40% of their entrants from fee-charging schools, which educate only 7% to 8% of children.

The government's selection of Ebdon was opposed by Conservative Party backbenchers who thought him a hardline advocate of ‘social engineering’. As vice-chancellor of Bedfordshire University, Ebdon recruited nearly all his students from state schools to study subjects such as journalism, sport and social work.

Full report on the Guardian site 

Harvard students fight cheating allegations

Bloomberg Businessweek09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

Harvard University students under investigation for cheating on a take-home government course exam said they’re waging a battle against the allegations, writes John Lauerman for Bloomberg Businessweek.

About 20 students and graduates have gone to the media to tell their side of the story, saying skipping classes, sharing notes and collaborating on tests were all tacitly condoned by the professor and teaching fellows of the course being probed. The probe involves about 125 students over cheating on a take-home exam for the course “Introduction to Congress”.

Harvard officials called it the biggest such probe in living memory. The students who are talking said they want to remain anonymous because of concern the accusations could affect their degrees or jobs taken since graduating. One 2012 graduate said losing his bachelor degree in economics might cost him his position at a Wall Street finance firm. 

Full report on the Bloomberg Businessweek site

 

Harvard University students under investigation for cheating on a take-home government course exam said they’re waging a battle against the allegations. 

About 20 students and graduates have gone to the media to tell their side of the story, saying skipping classes, sharing notes and collaborating on tests were all tacitly condoned by the professor and teaching fellows of the course being probed, students who took the class said.

The probe involves about 125 students over cheating on a take-home exam for the course, called Introduction to Congress. Harvard officials called it the biggest such probe in living memory. The students who are talking said they want to remain anonymous because of concern the accusations could affect their degrees or jobs taken since graduating. One 2012 graduate said losing his bachelor’s degree in economics might cost him his position at a Wall Street finance firm.
“Harvard went public with their version of the story, the version that looks good for the school,” a Harvard senior said. “We’re trying to present the other side.”

A Harvard e-mail to the 2012 graduate previewed his hearing before the Administrative Board, a college disciplinary body, for cheating on the final exam. The process of responding to a complaint to the board takes about two weeks, according to the letter.

‘Very Unfair’

“There was a tone set by the nature of the class and the professor teaching the course that collaboration was OK,” the graduate said in a telephone interview. “Dragging us into this investigation now, when we have financial obligations and jobs, seems very unfair.”

Harvard said last week that each of the students and graduates under investigation will be called before the Administrative Board. Students found to have cheated on exams can be asked to withdraw for two semesters, or may receive a warning or be put on probation, Jay Harris, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, said in an interview last week. Some students may be exonerated, Harris said. He wouldn’t say whether the board would consider taking away graduates’ degrees.
No cases have been heard yet, Harris said. Officials declined to say which course the students were in because the board’s proceedings are confidential. Students and graduates are also prohibited from discussing their cases in public, he said.

Students said the course in question was “Introduction to Congress,” which had 279 enrolled in the semester ending in May. Freshmen through seniors were all represented in the class taught by Matthew Platt, an assistant professor. He declined to comment when reached by telephone last week and didn’t respond to a call yesterday.

Suspicious Similarities

Harvard is investigating whether the students inappropriately collaborated on the take-home exam, Harris said. A teaching fellow in the course noticed in May that many of the turned-in exams contained suspicious similarities, and an analysis of all the course’s exams led to the Administrative Board actions, he said.

“Academic integrity is very important at Harvard, as are fairness and due process,” Jeff Neal, a spokesman for Harvard said in an e-mail. “We expect to learn more about the way the course was organized and how work was approached in class and on the take-home final,” and the process will “take time and require patience,” he said.

Platt is known as a good lecturer who kept the course entertaining, said a senior who took the course and wanted to remain anonymous. The course is widely considered to be easy, the senior said.

‘120 A’s’

“Platt said, ‘I gave out 120 A’s last year and I’ll give out 120 A’s this year,”’ the senior said. “I’m taking a lot of difficult courses, so I take my A’s where I can get them.”

Platt said in class that he didn’t mind whether lectures were skipped, the students said. Students frequently shared lecture notes, which probably contributed to the similarities in people’s answers, those who took the course said.

“That’s how people understood this course worked,” the senior said.
Platt’s exam instructions say that “students may not discuss the exam with others -- this includes resident tutors, writing centers, etc.” That contradicts the way the course was actually conducted, students said.

Students consult Harvard’s Q guide to get previous course- takers’ reviews. Q guide reviews say that collaboration was accepted in Platt’s course, students said.

 

Ex-Harvard scientist found guilty of misconduct

The Boston Globe09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

Marc Hauser, a prolific scientist and popular psychology professor who resigned last summer from Harvard University, had fabricated data, manipulated results in multiple experiments, and incorrectly described how studies were conducted, according to the findings of a federal research oversight agency that were posted online on Wednesday, writes Carolyn Y Johnson for The Boston Globe.

The report details the problems that triggered a three-year university investigation that concluded in 2010 that Hauser, a star professor and public intellectual, had committed scientific misconduct. The document, which was to be published in the Federal Register last Thursday, lists six cases in which Hauser engaged in research misconduct in work supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Hauser agreed to a number of restrictions for three years, including a ban on serving as an advisor to the US Public Health Service, a requirement that any work he does with funding from that agency be supervised, and that an institution vouch for the validity of any such research.

Full report on The Boston Globe site

JAPAN: Universities adopt the hard sell for campus visits

The Asahi Shimbun09 September 2012 Issue No:238

 

Interview coaching, a free lunch and discounted exam fees are some of the incentives Japan's institutions are offering as they try to attract applicants from the country's shrinking pool of 18-year-olds, writes Hiromi Oida for The Asahi Shimbun.

Universities are radically reviewing their summer campus visit programmes in order to lure as many prospective students as possible. "Competition among private universities has really intensified lately," said an official from Jissen Women's University in Tokyo, which offers eight ‘open house’ visit days a year.

Osaka University of Economics and Law pays 15,000 yen (US$192) to offset the journey costs of those travelling from distant islands such as Hokkaido and Okinawa. Those who take the shorter three-hour train ride from Tokyo can receive 7,000 yen. Hyogo University in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, slashes the cost of its 30,000 yen entrance exam by a third for applicants who visit a campus open day and complete a checklist of tasks, such as filling out a questionnaire. University officials say almost all visitors receive the discount.

Full report on The Asahi Shimbun site

Online universities blossom in Asia

KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of kilometres from Kuala Lumpur in Cameroon, doctoral student Michael Nkwenti Ndongfack attends his Open University Malaysia classes online and hopes to defend his final thesis by Skype.

A government worker, Ndongfack could not find the instructional design and technology course he wanted in his own country, so is paying a foreign institution about $10,000 for the degree instead.
Online university education is expanding quickly in Asia, where growth in technology and Internet use is matched by a deep reverence for education.

“I chose e-learning because it is so flexible,” Ndongfack, 42, told AFP via Skype from his home in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde.

Web-based courses dramatically boost opportunities for students and are often cheaper than those offered by traditional bricks-and-mortar institutions.
But online learning has also caught the eye of some of the world’s most prestigious universities, with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently teaming up to offer free courses over the Internet.

“With the improvement in technology, the number of institutions offering online education has increased, both in terms of numbers and the kind of classes offered,” said Lee Hock Guan, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

The Malaysian government said about 85,000 people took online courses in the country last year, both at web-based institutions and traditional universities offering Internet teaching.
In high-tech South Korea more than 112,000 students at 19 institutions are taking web-based classes, all of which have begun since 2002.

China embraced the concept of online learning in the late 1990s to expand access to education, particularly in its vast rural regions, and there are now scores of providers, with 1.64 million people enrolled in 2010.

A new type of learning
Online courses are changing the way students learn, educators say, placing less emphasis on the rote learning that has long characterised education in parts of Asia, and harnessing modern consumer technologies.

And “open” universities, which typically offer courses primarily through the Internet, allow anyone to enrol for online programmes regardless of prior qualification or degrees.
At Kuala Lumpur-based Asia e University, students download course materials from an online forum and virtual library. They are in contact with teachers and fellow students mostly through email, online chats, phone and text messages.

Assignments typically include illustrating what they have learned with videos and other presentations made with smartphones, iPads or other devices and uploading them to YouTube.
Academics say such interactive learning helps students engage with the material more than they would sitting passively in a lecture hall, and opens a window to learning through a medium they know and love – the latest gadgets.

“Everyone is a front-row student,” said Ishan Abeywardena, who teaches information technology at Wawasan Open University, based in northern Malaysia.
Students who might be too shy to ask questions or otherwise engage with their class in a traditional setting are much bolder online, Ishan said.

“Can you imagine the iPad, iPod and iPhone generation today, who are going to enter the university say, in 15 years’ time, going for a chalk-and-talk kind of model of learning? You learn by doing,” said Ansary Ahmed, Asia e University’s president.
But even those in favour of online learning admit face-to-face interaction – which can also help keep students motivated and personally engaged – is lost.

Ndongfack, whose web-only institution opened in 2000, said online studies were not easy, leaving him feeling isolated. “There is no one there to give you instant support,” he said.
The growth of online degree programmes is also constrained by poor Internet accessibility in parts of Asia and beyond.

More than 80 percent of South Koreans and 60 percent of Malaysians have online access, but in China the rate slips to about 40 percent and it slumps to around 10 percent in India.
Other criticisms include inadequate regulation, allegations of poor-quality teaching, student cheating, and the fact that online degrees are still not as widely recognised as traditional ones in the marketplace, say industry experts.

But Asia e University’s Ansary says such teething problems will be addressed over time, and in a few decades students will no longer attend just one university but several, picking and choosing from online offerings.

“These are early days,” he said. “The window is just opening.”

Soccer hits the streets of Battambang town

Thursday, 06 September 2012

Dan Riley

 

The jam-packed weekend of football action kicks off in Battambang town tomorrow afternoon as the 2012 SMART Street Football Tournament plays out over three days and six separate youth futsal seasons culminate in finals on a super Sunday of soccer supremacy. Competition organisers SALT Academy will set up two regulation futsal fields on the street near the riverside Naga Fountain to accommodate the contests.

Twenty-two adult teams have registered for the street football event, drawing players from Battambang, Pailin, Siem Reap and even as far as Phnom Penh. Pool games will start from tomorrow’s opening ceremony and continuing until Sunday morning. Quarterfinals and semifinals will bring the total of games to 60.

Sunday afternoon will feature a congested schedule of seven championship games. For the youth futsal competitions, the finals mark the end of a lengthy rainy season leagues.

Forty-one boys sides and 23 girls sides comprising players from 8 to 18 years old participated in weekly fixtures and practised twice a week with their coaches. Teams were bracketed into six age and gender divisions, with an U-11 Girls competition run for the first time.

The futsal season is a shorter version of SALT’s regular annual youth league campaign played on grass fields, which includes life skill lessons and positive community building activities. Last weekend saw exciting semifinal and third place playoff matches held at Battambang Airfield, with several games decided by penalty shootouts.

Organisers expressed their gratitude to main sponsors Smart Mobile for supporting the weekend’s festivities and providing awards for the winners.

---

Sunday’s Youth Futsal Finals
U17 Boys
Jerusalem v CFI

U14 Boys
DCC v Salaa Hope

U11 Boys
Aden v Jerusalem

Big Girls
Chrey v Chher Teal School

U14 Girls
Chrey v CFI

U11 Girls
Rapha v Khasch Poy School

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Riley at dan.riley@phnompenhpost.com

Sung Bonna: Investing in the future of Cambodia

Thursday, 06 September 2012

Rupert Winchester

 

Sung Bonna is a man with plans. Not content with being one of the most powerful players in Cambodia’s property market, he wants to take his company regional, covering all aspects of the property business.

Talking to Post Property in his bustling offices in BKK1, the genial Bonna is softly-spoken, but his steely-eyed ambition quickly becomes apperent.

Starting from a small office space in 1999 with only a desk and an old motorbike, Bonna is now the president of the National Valuers’ Association of Cambodia and vice president of Real Estate Developers Association of Cambodia.

“At the moment we have business as property investors, developers, management and real estate and property agents and property valuation, so anything related to the property business, we cover. We develop residential, we develop offices, we develop commercial. We do it all,” he says proudly.

Over the years, Bonna has seen ups and downs in Cambodia’s property market, which he blames on inconsistent investment from overseas, which is now changing. “In 2006 and 2007, the investors were mostly Korean and Chinese. The Koreans were the main players. At the moment now things are going in a different direction. The Koreans are very slightly here. Most are Chinese, Vietnamese and Malaysian. Singaporeans and also the Japanese are coming as well at the moment this is a good sign that the Japanese are coming to Cambodia. But foreign investors now make up about 30 per cent of the total transactions, and 70 per cent are Cambodians.”

Bonna says that local investors are starting to look around the country and not just at Phnom Penh. “The local market is divided into two: one is the Cambodians from overseas, the second is Cambodian Cambodians  - the majority being real locals. They are starting to look at the provinces, and the other major cities, like Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Battambang, and some of the Special Economic Zones near the borders with Siem Reap and Battambang.”

However Bonna says that Phnom Penh is still the best place for serious property investment: “After the crisis of 2008 and 2009 property prices dropped, almost 50 or 60 per cent in some locations across the whole country. In Phnom Penh is just fell by 30 or 40 per cent.”

He says that Phnom Penh has weathered the storm well, and is continuing to prosper. “Phnom Penh reached the bottom early, in 2010, and flattened out and started to be stable until 2011, but in the provinces it still continued to slide down and down until 2011. Those values are still flat, and some provinces are still down a little bit because the demand and supply isn’t there. But in general Phnom Penh is the best, especially in the city centre and areas where the government is,” he says.

“Starting from 2011,” he continues, “the number of transactions increased almost 20-30 per cent, and it makes the prices stable and pick up a little bit: comparing 2011 and now, we’ve just finished the first half of 2012, and year-on-year the number of transactions has almost doubled. But the prices have also increased, about 10 per cent on average. Especially in BKK1 and Daun Penh and along the main commercial boulevards.”

However, Bonna thinks some of the more visible stalled projects that dot the Phnom Penh skyline need to dealt with. “If there is a huge project in the middle of the city which is stuck, it makes other investors feel concerned. Sometimes they don’t think it’s a company’s internal problems, they think maybe its the country that has problems, so they think maybe the economy is not too good.   Sometimes, if possible, the ministry needs to keep an eye of supply and demand, and take care of investors.”

He rejects the idea that Phnom Penh could be facing another property bubble. “I don’t think with residential there will be a bubble, the buyers at this stage are not like the buyers before. The buyers at this stage are more concerned with real demand and real investment, not like the investors in 2006 and 2007,” he says.

With commercial and office space, he is slightly less sanguine. “There is some concern that there could be some oversupply in the future but in terms of the reality, it will be a challenge to stimulate demand … the market will find a solution. In the next three years, it’s not a concern. This is good for the country, it’s good for customers and good for demand, because of the competition.”

Bonna’s plans include listing his company on the Cambodia

Securities Exchange, the country’s nascent stock market. “Now I’m preparing the company, moving it, because it was at first a family company for the first five years, then the next five years it was a local entity, and now we’re aiming to become international so we’re changing a lot of our corporate governance policy, systems and structure, we are changing, and also our accounting and tax and everything, and we hope we’ll be ready by the end of next year or early in 2014.”

I ask him why he thinks listing would be useful for him, and what the company would do with the funds raised. “We are planning to invest in Cambodia. My personal nationalism means I would prefer to develop my country, and I would prefer to invest in this country. We want to expand the brand to cover the whole country, that’s what I’m planning, to be in every province, everywhere there will be a retail office.”

His plans of rolling out the brand nationally are already well underway: “We’ve already started, in Siahanoukville, and in Siem Reap, which is opening this week, and we’ll be in Battambang by the end of this year. We want to expand to make it easy for customers and for investors, so they can just walk in, and it looks like a retail bank.”

But Bonna’s plans extend overseas as well: “We want to jump in to ASEAN as a network, so we’re planning to open branches in ASEAN countries, Next year we’re planning to have one branch somewhere, my thinking is Myanmar, and Laos, and in Vietnam, trying to bring in investors into Cambodia. We want to list to get funds to expand overseas and encourage more investors to Cambodia.”

Bonna feels that this is a good time to invest in the Kingdom. “Cambodia still has a lot of advantages, interesting things, there are only some negative things in terms of its reputation, but its culture and environment has more or less changed a lot, it has developed a lot in terms of the law, regulations. We know that it hasn’t reached the levels that everyone needs yet, but at least it’s changing and there are still positive signs.”

He still feels that more changes are needed before the country becomes truly competitive, however.

“We hope that the government changes more things, especially as we’re preparing to join the ASEAN Free Trade Area, so to be competitive we have to change ourselves more: the most important is the law: regulation and enforcement and culture, so this is important, so I think we still need to change, compared to most other ASEAN countries, we have more potential, and we can attract investors from around the world to Cambodia.”

Bonna says that the country’s recent history has made it harder for it to compete internationally. “Cambodia is very young, in terms of the government, in terms of the private sector, education, experience, business, human resources, things like that, it’s very young. So it’s very hard. We’re not complaining about the government but we are complaining, I suppose, about the history of our country, so everything is difficult and it’s not easy to compete with other ASEAN countries.”

Finally, I bring up the subject of the Bonna Tower, a long-mooted project to build a grand office building in Phnom Penh. “At the moment we don’t have the budget or the funds,” he tells me,  “but this is our dream. As businessmen, if you don’t have a dream you cannot move, we have to build a dream to make ourselves move faster and forward to what we are dreaming, but we hope it will be coming.”

Malaysian Ambassador expresses pride

Friday, 31 August 2012

Post Staff

 

In conjunction with the 55th Anniversary of the National Day of Malaysia, I wish to convey my greetings and best wishes to all Malaysians and to all our colleagues and friends in Cambodia.  The theme for this year’s National Day is “55 Years of Independence: Promises Fulfilled” (55 TahunMerdeka: JanjiDitepati).

On this very special day, I would like to ask all my fellow Malaysians to reflect back and remember our forefathers and those who had sacrificed so much to lay the foundation of our great nation.  The foresight of our leaders who had forged tolerance, understanding, and trust amongst the diverse racial and ethnic groupings, with its multitude of cultures and religious beliefs, has led to a united, harmonious and peaceful society that embraces moderation as a way of life.  The vision of our leaders who had introduced development and relevant economic strategies, has also ensured that Malaysian enjoy better prosperity, education and medical and health care, living in a peaceful, safe and secure environment.

Under the present government, led by  our Honourable Prime Minister, YAB Dato’Sri Najib Bin Tun Abdul Razak, the ‘I Malaysia’ concept was introduced, which is an ongoing nation building programme to emphasise ethnic harmony, national unity and efficient governance.  Various reforms and transformation programs were also introduced, amongst them, the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) which is to rejuvenate a smooth, efficient and clean government, and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) that would contribute to the growth of Malaysia, and to achieve Malaysia’s vision to be a fully developed nation by 2020.

Since the introduction of the various transformation programs in 2010 Malaysia has increased its per capita income, from US$6,700 to $9,700 in 2011 which is on target to achieve its targetted per capita income of $15,000by the year 2020.  In terms of investment,  the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increased by 12.3 per cent to RM 33 billion (slightly more than US$ 10 billion), whilst private investment increased by 19 per cent to RM 94 billion (about $30 billion) in 2011, compared to the previous year.

The reforms and transformation programmes have also contributed to Malaysia being recognized as one of the 21 most competitive countries globally in 2012 by the World Economic Forum Report.  The World Bank has also recognized and ranked Malaysia as the 18th country in terms of ease of starting and doing business, ahead of countries like Germany, Japan, Taiwan and France.

As Malaysians, are all very proud of our achievements since independence, with our country enjoying continued peace and stability and its multi ethnic population living harmoniously in unity, enjoying increasing prosperity, better health and education, whilst the country is now recognized as an important member of the global community.

Malaysia is also enjoying strong and friendly relations with Cambodia.  Malaysia has been one of the earliest investors in Cambodia and has invested more than $2.8 billion since the early 1990s and is now the 4th largest investor in Cambodia.  It is now represented very prominently in many sectors, including banking, hotel, telecom, utilities and manufacturing.  Our bilateral trade has grown to $324 million in 2011 compared to $229 million in 2010.  Significantly, Cambodia’s exports to Malaysia increased by 95.5 per cent in 2011, compared to 2010.  This trend is expected to continue to grow this year.  In terms of visitors, about 100,000 Malaysians visited Cambodia in 2011, compared to 84,000 in 2010.  Cambodians visiting Malaysia also increased from 48,000 in 2010 to about 50,000 to 2011.

The contribution of Malaysian businesses to the Cambodian economy has been well recognized by the Cambodian government.  The increase in bilateral trade, investment and people-to-people contact, between Malaysia and Cambodia, both members of ASEAN, augurs well for the success of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) which will come into being in 2015.  In this regard, we wish to congratulate Cambodia for its Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2012 and playing a very significant role in moving forward the realization of this grand vision.  Interestingly, Malaysia will take over the Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2015.  It is the hope of the Malaysian government that Malaysian investors and Malaysians working in Cambodia will continue to contribute to the development and economic progress of this dynamic country, and to assist in enhancing the excellent relations between Malaysia and Cambodia.

On this very auspicious occasion, I take this opportunity to thank the Royal Government of Cambodia, for the assistance and cooperation rendered to the Embassy of Malaysia, and to wish the Government and the people of the Kingdom of Cambodia Great Success, Peace and Prosperity.

Cheating blights our schools

Monday, 27 August 2012

You Sokunpanha

 

 High-school seniors in Cambodia are anxiously awaiting the results of the school-leaving examination they sat just over two weeks ago.

For many, the exam was the culmination of years of hard work and gruelling preparation. How they performed in it is crucial, because it will determine their chance of a place in university, which will, in turn, help or harm their future employment prospects.

Sadly, there was evidence of widespread bribery and cheating during the exam.

Stories have circulated of proctors who set a “quota” – the amount of money raised by those sitting the exam in each room – that had to be paid in return for a blind eye towards blatant acts of plagiarism including copying from “cheat sheets” that were allowed into test centres.

For extra money, some proctors reportedly even offered to write papers on test-takers’ behalf.

That such practices occur at all is unfortunate, though not surprising.

Even the most stringent, well-thought-out proctoring system cannot eliminate cheating. But the most worrying aspect is that the practice of bribery, in exchange for cheating, is now so pervasive that it is accepted as a fact of life and ceases to “feel wrong” or to shock the consciences of those involved.

On one hand, some proctors treat exams as an opportunity to “earn” extra income. On the other, some students simply opt to pay to pass exams instead of studying and preparing for them.

In addition, parents are willing to give their children money to bribe proctors, and a small industry has sprung up to supply test-takers with cheat sheets, often with the claim that questions covered in these cheat sheets will also be on the real exams.

Not all engage in this corrupt practice, but the consequences of tolerating it can be grave.

Students are ill-served by a system that allows an easy pass. Presented with the option of paying for their degree, students have fewer incentives to apply themselves to their studies.

They may fail to gain through schooling the skills and knowledge needed to lead a fulfilling life and become productive, responsible citizens able to contribute to their country’s development.

Furthermore, in a more globalised society, they will find it difficult to compete with the knowledge workers of other countries in the region and the wider world.

I also cannot help but wonder how this experience shapes the moral character of 18-year-old examination candidates.

In addition to being a yardstick for university admission, a high-school degree is a symbol of intellectual accomplishment that is worthy of recognition and praise. That it can be bought and sold so readily may send the wrong signal to young Cambodians that money reigns supreme over honour and respect, and is an acceptable alternative to hard work and real effort.

Surely this is not a lesson we want to leave our children with.

Addressing this issue is not easy, but it is possible. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport can begin by introducing a zero-tolerance policy towards cheating and bribery during exams.

Proctors who solicit, or accept, bribes should be barred from supervising future exams and be denied promotion.

Depending on the seriousness of their actions, students caught cheating should be required to sit for the examination again, have their grades reduced or given an automatic fail.

At the same time, the education system needs to be reformed to focus more on critical thinking and analytical skills and less on rote learning and exams.

Instead of using examination results as the sole admission criterion, for example, universities should introduce other requirements such as admission essays that challenge students to carefully think about, and articulate, their reasons for wanting a tertiary education.

And these measures should be complemented with longer-term policies aimed at recruiting, training and retaining capable teachers through both an appeal to their sense of public service and reasonable remuneration.

Most important, fixing the problem requires a concerted effort by all of society – students, parents, educators, policymakers – to refuse to take part in a fraudulent practice.

A good sign will be when bribery and cheating, instead of being widely accepted and unquestioned, once again becomes a taboo.

Conscription not for everyone

Friday, 07 September 2012

Stuart White and Phak Seangly

 

In less  than a week, 18-year-old Heng Tina, who has just finished his high-school exam, will take another test that determines whether he’ll get a scholarship to go to technical school, a development that would put him one step closer to his dream of becoming an engineer and designing skyscrapers.

But according to a law passed in 2006, though never meaningfully enforced, Tina should be taking exams of a different sort – such as marksmanship and physical fitness – as a newly minted conscript in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Under the law, which many Cambodians – including Tina – have never heard of, every Cambodian man aged 18 to 23 is obliged to serve in the armed forces for 18 months.

It is something many say would do more harm than good, especially considering penal police director Lieutenant General Mok Chito’s announcement last week that more than 1,200 RCAF soldiers deserted their posts in the first eight months of 2012 alone.

According to the US Central Intelligence Agency’s world fact book, more than 150,000 Cambodian men reach “militarily significant age”, that is, 16 years old, every year, and conscripting every 18-year-old male in the Kingdom would cause a significant spike in the size of the military, despite years-long efforts to trim its size.

“Cambodia is overloaded with a number of soldiers,” said opposition Sam Rainsy lawmaker Son Chhay, who has seen troop counts as high as 200,000 – though he believes the actual number to be closer to 70,000.

Many of the soldiers that were “demobilised” in the past were simply ghost soldiers, he said, names on lists meant to swell a battalion’s payroll so that uncollected pay cheques could be taken by higher-ranking officers, of whom there are also too many.

“The government has to clean house . . . I’ve lost count of the generals.  There are more stars on the shoulders of Cambodian soldiers than there are in the sky,” Chhay said.

And, he added, the military’s already-low pay is responsible for the trend of soldiers moonlighting as security guards for private corporations.

Ho Chantrea, a 29-year-old soldier stationed in Phnom Penh, declined to discuss the particulars of his own pay, but said that many of his friends took outside security jobs to augment their income.

“The salary is not enough,” said Chantrea, adding that he wanted to follow his friends’ example. “I also want to get extra jobs, but not yet.”

The lowest-ranking soldiers, Chantrea said, make only about $50 a month.

Soam Chivoan, who, at age 20, is another would-be draftee, said that given his druthers, he’d stick with the mobile booth he now runs, adding that even if the army paid better, he’d rather stay put.
That low salary, said Chhay, often has adverse effects.

“That’s why you can see soldiers being used by a private company to intimidate people,” Chhay said.

“There are so many abuses being raised by so many soldiers already, so you need soldiers who are qualified … not drunken two- or three-star generals who will set a bad habit for our young soldiers,” he added.

On August 31, police official Mok Chito blamed deserters, who he said often sell their service weapons, for a spike in armed robberies. In May, the military came under fire from rights groups after a soldier fatally shot a 14-year-old in a forced land eviction in Kratie province’s Pro Ma village, and reports of soldiers’ involvement in land evictions are a near weekly occurrence.

Independent political analyst Lao Mong Hay warned that adding more soldiers without significant reforms wasn’t likely to make things any better.

“I think that it’s not good to have a number of young people familiar with using guns, that after a while you let loose without discipline,” he said.

According to Mong Hay, a military that provided conscripts with a set of skills, and options for the future, could be a positive development, but the current system would be unlikely to produce such results.
Furthermore, he said, Cambodia has neither the human nor financial resources for full implementation of  the 2006 law.

Nicolas Agostino, a technical assistant at the rights NGO Adhoc, also expressed concerns that the law would be unevenly enforced, and could have adverse political side effects.

“Those who are more well-off or well-connected would be able to evade conscription,” he said.

Multiple officials in various branches of the Ministry of National Defence, including the ministry’s policy arm, declined to comment on the conscription law.

Press and Quick Reaction Unit spokesman Ek Tha directed questions to Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan, who said he was unfamiliar with the law.

តួនាទី​ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា​ក្នុង​ការ​អភិវឌ្ឍ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា

ដោយ សួន សុផលមុន្នី

2012-09-07

ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​ខ្មែរ​ដែល​ជា​អ្នក​កាន់​សាសនា​ព្រះពុទ្ធ​មាន​រហូត​ទៅ​ ៩៥% ប៉ុន្តែ​អ្នក​ដែល​បដិបត្តិ​តាម​ធម៌​វិន័យ​របស់​ព្រះសម្មាសម្ពុទ្ធ​ភាគ​ច្រើន មាន​តែ​ទៅ​លើ​មនុស្ស​ចាស់ ដែល​ជា​អ្នក​កាន់​សីល។ បញ្ហា​នេះ​បាន​ធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​គេ​មាន​ការ​ព្រួយបារម្ភ​ទៅ​លើ​ក្រុម​យុវជន​នៅ​ក្នុង ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា។

ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា​កំពុង​ដើរ​តួនាទី​យ៉ាង​សំខាន់​នៅ​ក្នុង​ការ​អភិវឌ្ឍ​ ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា។ នៅ​ពេល​បច្ចុប្បន្ន​នេះ គេ​សង្កេត​ឃើញ​មាន​ព្រះសង្ឃ​ជាច្រើន​អង្គ កំពុង​ចូល​រួម​ធ្វើ​សកម្មភាព​ជួយ​ដល់​ការ​អភិវឌ្ឍ​នៅ​ ក្នុង​សង្គម​កម្ពុជា តាម​រយៈ​ការ​ចុះ​អប់រំ​ផ្ទាល់​នៅ​តាម​សហគមន៍ និង​បាន​ទេសនា​អប់រំ​ធម៌​វិន័យ និង​សីលធម៌​តាម​ប្រព័ន្ធ​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ មាន​ដូច​ជា វិទ្យុ ទូរទស្សន៍ ជាដើម។

ព្រះសង្ឃ​ព្រះនាម ទុយ លីណា គង់​នៅ​វត្ត​ពិភិទ្ធារាម មាន​ថេរ​ដីកា​ថា ក្រៅ​ពី​ព្រះអង្គ​បួស​ជា​សង្ឃ​គង់​នៅ​ក្នុង​វត្ត ព្រះអង្គ​បាន​ស្ម័គ្រចិត្ត​ចូល​រួម​ចំណែក​លើ​ការងារ​អភិវឌ្ឍន៍​សង្គម។ ក្នុង​នោះ​ព្រះអង្គ​បាន​ចូល​ប្រឡូក​ក្នុង​ការងារ​សហគមន៍ ទស្សនៈ​សីលធម៌​ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា និង​បាន​សម្ដែង​ធម្មទេសនា​តាម​វិទ្យុ។

ព្រះអង្គ​ស្ម័គ្រចិត្ត​ដោយ​បាន​បើក​វគ្គ​បណ្ដុះ​បណ្ដាល និង​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​ពី​ផល​ប៉ះពាល់​នៃ​ការ​ប្រើប្រាស់​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង ហើយ​និង​ផល​ប៉ះពាល់​នៃ​ការ​ប្រើប្រាស់​អំពើ​ហិង្សា៖ «បើក​វគ្គ​បណ្ដុះ​ បណ្ដាល​លើក​ឡើង​អំពី​ផល​ប៉ះពាល់​នៃ​ការ​ប្រើប្រាស់​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង ក៏​ដូច​ជា ដំណោះ​ស្រាយ ការ​ជំរុញ​លើក​ទឹក​ចិត្ត​ដល់​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ និង​យុវជន​ទាំង​អស់​រស់នៅ​ក្នុង​ឃុំ​គោល​ដៅ​ហ្នឹង ឲ្យ​គាត់​មាន​ការ​ភ្ញាក់​រលឹក​យល់​ដឹង​ពី​ផល​ប៉ះពាល់​នៃ​ការ​ប្រើប្រាស់​ គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង មាន​ការ​បើក​សិក្ខាសាលា អញ្ជើញ​វាគ្មិន​ចូល​រួម ដើម្បី​បកស្រាយ​អំពី​បញ្ហា​ហ្នឹង ហើយ​មាន​ការ​ចូល​រួម​ប្រជុំ​តាម​សហគមន៍ ប្រជុំ​ជាមួយ​ក្រុម​ប្រឹក្សា​ឃុំ​សង្កាត់»។

នៅ​ក្នុង​សកម្មភាព​នេះ ព្រះអង្គ​បាន​ជំរុញ​ឲ្យ​មេឃុំ ចៅសង្កាត់ សមាជិក​ក្រុម​ប្រឹក្សា​ឃុំ​សង្កាត់ មេភូមិ ឲ្យ​មាន​ការ​កោះ​អញ្ជើញ​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​ឲ្យ​បាន​ច្រើន​ចូល​រួម ដើម្បី​ប្រជុំ​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​ស្វែង​យល់​ពី​ការងារ​សង្គម ដែល​ជា​បញ្ហា​ប្រឈម​ជាច្រើន​ទៀត នៅ​ក្នុង​សង្គម​កម្ពុជា។ ព្រះអង្គ​បន្ត​ថា នៅ​ពេល​ព្រះអង្គ​និមន្ត​ពី​ខេត្ត​មួយ​ទៅ​ខេត្ត​មួយ តែង​តែ​ឃើញ​នូវ​ទិដ្ឋភាព​នៃ​ការ​ប្រើ​អំពើ​ហិង្សា ដែល​កើត​ចេញ​ដោយ​សារ​ការ​ប្រើប្រាស់​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង។ នៅ​ក្នុង​ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា ព្រះអង្គ​បាន​សម្ដែង​ធម៌​ផ្ដោត​ទៅ​លើ​ការ​ដឹកនាំ​សត្វ ឲ្យ​រួច​ផុត​ពី​ទុក្ខ​ក៏​ពិត​មែន ប៉ុន្តែ​ទន្ទឹម​គ្នា​នោះ ព្រះអង្គ​បាន​បន្សល់​នូវ​ទ្រឹស្ដី​មួយ​ចំនួន​សម្រាប់​អ្នក​រស់នៅ​ក្នុង​ បច្ចុប្បន្នភាព។

ព្រះអង្គ​បាន​លើក​យក​ទ្រឹស្ដី​មួយ​ដែល​ព្រះសម្មាសម្ពុទ្ធ​សម្ដែង​ទាក់​ ទិន​ទៅ​សីល​ប្រាំ នៅ​ក្នុង​ចំណុច​សីល​ប្រាំ ព្រះអង្គ​ហាម​ការ​បៀតបៀន​អាយុ​ជីវិត​គ្នា ការ​កាប់​សម្លាប់​គ្នា នេះ​ជា​ទ្រឹស្ដី​មួយ​ដែល​ព្រះអង្គ​បាន​សម្ដែង​ទុក សម្រាប់​មនុស្ស​ទាំង​អស់​គ្នា​ដែល​រស់នៅ៖ «នេះ​ជា​ទ្រឹស្ដី​ដែល​ព្រះអង្គ ​សម្ដែង​ចូល​រួម​អភិវឌ្ឍន៍​យ៉ាង​ខ្លាំង នៅ​ក្នុង​សង្គម​ខ្មែរ​នា​ពេល​បច្ចុប្បន្ន​ហ្នឹង។ ពីព្រោះ បើ​សិន​ជា​មនុស្ស​ទាំង​អស់​អនុវត្តន៍ គោរព​តាម​ពាក្យពេចន៍​ទ្រឹស្ដី​របស់​ព្រះអង្គ ដែល​បាន​បន្សល់​ទុក​ហ្នឹង​មក អត់​មាន​ការ​ផឹក​ស្រា អំពើ​ហិង្សា​កើត​ឡើង​ដោយ​សារ​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង​ទាំង​អស់»។

អ្នក​សម្រប​សម្រួល​របស់​មជ្ឈមណ្ឌល​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​ដើម្បី​អភិវឌ្ឍន៍ និង​សន្តិភាព (ភីឌីភី) សាខា​ខេត្ត​បាត់ដំបង អ្នកស្រី កែវ ឈូក បាន​ថ្លែង​ថា វិស័យ​ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា​កំពុង​មាន​តួនាទី​យ៉ាង​សំខាន់​នៅ​ក្នុង​សង្គម​ កម្ពុជា។ នៅ​តាម​ទីអារាម​ជា​កន្លែង​បណ្ដុះ​ធនធាន​មនុស្ស និង​ជួយ​ដល់​សិស្ស និស្សិត ដើម្បី​ស្នាក់នៅ​រៀន​សូត្រ។ ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា​បាន​ជួយ​អភិវឌ្ឍន៍​ផ្នែក​ស្មារតី តាម​រយៈ​ព្រះសង្ឃ​ទេសនា ការ​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​នៅ​តាម​វិទ្យុ និង​ទូរទស្សន៍ អំពី​ដំបូន្មាន​ល្អ ដែល​ធ្វើ​អោយ​មនុស្ស​កាត់​បន្ថយ​ហិង្សា ធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​មនុស្ស​ចេះ​ស្រឡាញ់​រាប់អាន​គ្នា៖ «ក្រៅ​ពី​ហ្នឹង ព្រះសង្ឃ​បាន​ចូល​រួម​ចំណែក​ក្នុង​ការ​បង្ហាត់​បង្រៀន​អក្សរសាស្ត្រ ជាក់ស្ដែង​ដូច​នៅ​បាត់ដំបង យើង​នេះ មាន​សកលវិទ្យាល័យ​ពុទ្ធិក​ព្រះសីហនុ មិន​ថា​ព្រះ​សង្ឃ​ទេ​ដែល​អាច​បន្ត​ការ​សិក្សា​បាន សូម្បីតែ​និស្សិត​ជា​គ្រហស្ថ​ក៏​អាច​បន្ត​ការ​សិក្សា​បាន ដូច​ថា សាលា​មាន​វិន័យ​បង្ហាត់​បង្រៀន​អក្សរសាស្ត្រ​ច្បាស់​លាស់»។

លោក គឹម ងួន ប្រធាន​ការិយាល័យ​នៃ​មន្ទីរ​ធម្មការ​ខេត្ត​បាត់ដំបង លោក​បាន​មាន​ប្រសាសន៍​ថា ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា​កំពុង​ធ្វើ​សកម្មភាព​យ៉ាង​សកម្ម ដើម្បី​ជួយ​ដល់​ការងារ​អភិវឌ្ឍន៍​សង្គម​កម្ពុជា។ ក្នុង​នោះ ព្រះសង្ឃ​បាន​រួម​ចំណែក​យ៉ាង​សំខាន់​ក្នុង​ការ​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​ព្រះធម៌ អប់រំ​សីលធម៌​សង្គម តាម​វិទ្យុ ទូរទស្សន៍ និង​នៅ​តាម​សាលារៀន។ នៅ​ពេល​មាន​គ្រោះ​មហន្តរាយ​ដោយ​ទឹក​ជំនន់ ដោយ​ខ្យល់​ព្យុះ គឺ​វត្ត​អារាម​បាន​ជួយ​ជា​ថវិកា ជា​សម្ភារៈ និង​កម្លាំង​កាយ ដើម្បី​ស្ដារ​ហេដ្ឋារចនាសម្ព័ន្ធ​ឡើង​វិញ ក្រោយ​ពី​រង​ការ​ខូច​ខាត៖ «នៅ​ តាម​វត្ត​អារាម ព្រះសង្ឃ​បាន​ជួយ​ការងារ​សង្គម ពិសេស​ជួយ​ដល់​កូន​ចៅ​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​ក្រីក្រ ដែល​អត់​មាន​កន្លែង​ស្នាក់នៅ​រៀន​សូត្រ។ វត្ត​អារាម​បាន​ក្លាយ​ជា​ទីតាំង​យ៉ាង​សំខាន់ សម្រាប់​ជួយ​អោយ​សិស្ស​ស្នាក់​នៅ ដើម្បី​សិក្សា​រៀន​សូត្រ អនាគត​ក្មេង​ក្លាយ​ជា​ធនធាន​មនុស្ស​សម្រាប់​ការ​អភិវឌ្ឍ​សង្គម​ជាតិ​យើង»។

មនុស្ស​ចាស់​ជរា ស្ត្រី​មេម៉ាយ​ក្រីក្រ ព្រះសង្ឃ​បាន​ជួយ​ផ្ដល់​ជា​ម្ហូប​អាហារ ជា​សំលៀកបំពាក់។ ក្រៅពី​នេះ ព្រះសង្ឃ​ជួយ​ដល់​មជ្ឈមណ្ឌល​ផ្ដាច់​គ្រឿង​ញៀន ផ្ដល់​ជា​សម្ភារៈ ម្ហូប​អាហារ និង​ឱវាទ​សម្រាប់​ឲ្យ​អ្នក​ញៀន​ថ្នាំ​ញៀន មាន​ការ​កែប្រែ​តាម​រយៈ​ការ​អប់រំ។ ទន្ទឹម​គ្នា​នេះ ព្រះសង្ឃ​បាន​ចូល​ទៅ​អប់រំ​ទណ្ឌិត​នៅ​តាម​ពន្ធនាគារ។ ទាំង​នេះ សុទ្ធ​តែ​ជា​សកម្មភាព​របស់​ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា ដើម្បី​ចូល​រួម​ក្នុង​ការ​អភិវឌ្ឍ​សង្គម។

លោក គឹម ងួន៖ «នៅ​កន្លែង​យើង​នេះ យើង​មាន​មណ្ឌល​វិបស្សនា​នៅ​ទូទាំង​ខេត្ត​បាត់ដំបង មាន​៧​ទីតាំង ជាពិសេស​សកម្មភាព​ខ្លាំង គឺ​នៅ​ខាង​ស្រុក​បាណន់ ទ្រុង​មាន់ ទ្រុង​ទា អា​ហ្នឹង​គឺ​ពុទ្ធបរិស័ទ​ដែល​មាន​វិបត្តិ​ផ្លូវ​ចិត្ត​ចូល​ទៅ​ក្នុង​ហ្នឹង។ យើង​មាន​ឲ្យ​ធ្វើ​វិបស្សនា​កម្មដ្ឋាន​ទៅ​តាម​កម្រិត មាន​កម្រិត​បឋម មធ្យម និង​ឧត្ដម យើង​សិក្សា​រយៈពេល​១០វគ្គ មួយ​វគ្គ​១០​ថ្ងៃ មួយ​វគ្គ​មាន​តាំង​ពី​កុមារ​អី​ក៏​មាន​ដែរ​នៅ​ក្នុង​ហ្នឹង។ យើង​មាន​មណ្ឌល​វិបស្សនា​ដែល​ជា​សកម្មភាព​ជួយ​ខាង​ផ្នែក​ផ្លូវ​ចិត្ត គេ​ហៅ​ថា មណ្ឌល​វិបស្សនា​លទ្ធិកា»។

ក្រៅ​ពី​នេះ ព្រះសង្ឃ​បាន​បើក​អង្គការ​សម្រាប់​ជួយ​កុមារ​កំព្រា។ ព្រះសង្ឃ​បាន​យក​ក្មេងៗ​ទាំង​នោះ ទៅ​ចិញ្ចឹម ដោយ​បាន​បណ្ដុះ​បណ្ដាល​ពួក​គេ​ឲ្យ​រៀន រៀន​អក្សរសាស្ត្រ​ខ្មែរ រៀន​ជំនាញ​កាត់​ដេរ។
ព្រះសង្ឃ​ព្រះនាម ទុយ លីណា គង់​នៅ​វត្ត​ពិភិទ្ធារាម បាន​ថេរ​ដីកា​ថា នៅ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា មាន​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​ខ្មែរ​៩៤​ទៅ​៩៥% ជា​អ្នក​កាន់​ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា ប៉ុន្តែ​មាន​អ្នក​បដិបត្តិ​តាម​ធម៌​ព្រះពុទ្ធ​មាន​តិចតួច​ណាស់។ ក្រុម​យុវជន​នៅ​កម្ពុជា ពុំ​បាន​ខិតខំ​ប្រឹងប្រែង​រៀន​សូត្រ​ទេ បញ្ហា​នេះ​គឺ​ជា​ការងារ​រួម​ទាំង​អស់​គ្នា ទាំង​វិស័យ​ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនា និង​អាណាចក្រ ដែល​ចូល​រួម​អប់រំ​ទប់ស្កាត់៖ «នៅ​ក្នុង​សង្គម​ខ្មែរ​យើង​ នា​ពេល​បច្ចុប្បន្ន យុវជន​អត់​សូវ​ចំណាប់​អារម្មណ៍​ទៅ​លើ​ការ​សិក្សា​រៀន​សូត្រ​អី​ប៉ុន្មាន​ទេ គ្រាន់​សប្បាយ​ច្រើន គាត់​មិន​ទាន់​មាន​វ័យ​អី​គ្រប់គ្រាន់​ផង គាត់​មាន​ស្នេហា​អ៊ីចឹង​ទៅ ជា​បញ្ហា​មួយ​ដែល​ធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​បាត់​បង់​នូវ​ធនធាន​មនុស្ស។ បញ្ហា​ដ៏​សំខាន់​មួយ​ទៀត គឺ​យុវជន​តែង​តែ​ផឹក​នូវ​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង​ដែល​បញ្ហា​ហ្នឹង​កើត​ឡើង​ដោយ​សារ​ការ ​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​ពាណិជ្ជកម្ម​នៃ​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង ហើយ​ជំរុញ​ឲ្យ​យុវជន​ហ្នឹង​អ្ហែង ផឹក​នូវ​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង ហើយ​ជាពិសេស​នៅ​ក្នុង​ស្រុក​ខ្មែរ ស្នើ​គ្រប់​ទីកន្លែង​ទាំង​អស់ គ្រប់​ផ្ទាំង​ប៉ាណូ​ទាក់​ទង​ទៅ​នឹង​ផ្លាក​យីហោ​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង​មាន​គ្រប់​ ទីកន្លែង​ទាំង​អស់»។

ព្រះអង្គ​បន្ត​ថា កម្ពុជា​មាន​យុវជន​៣០% ក្នុង​ចំណោម​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​ប្រហែល​១៥​លាន​នាក់។ កម្ពុជា ជា​ប្រទេស​មួយ​ដែល​សម្បូរ​ទៅ​ដោយ​កម្លាំង​ពលកម្ម ដែល​ពួក​អ្នក​វិនិយោគទុន​ក្រៅ​ប្រទេស​សម្លឹង​ឃើញ​ថា អាច​ដាក់​ទុន​ទៅ​បាន ព្រោះ​មាន​កម្លាំង​ពលកម្ម ប៉ុន្តែ​ផ្ទុយ​ទៅ​វិញ គេ​មាន​ការ​បារម្ភ​ពី​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា ដោយ​គេ​យល់​ថា កម្ពុជា​ទៅ​អនាគត​ពុំ​មាន​ធនធាន​មនុស្ស ដោយ​សារ​យុវជន​ខ្មែរ​ពុល​ទៅ​នឹង​គ្រឿង​ស្រវឹង៕