Meet the man behind the exams

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Meet the man behind the exams

As most Cambodian grade 12 students prepare for a second crack at the national exam in the wake of abysmally low passing rates – three-quarters of students failed after measures intended to curb rampant cheating proved successful – the Post sat down with Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron, the official behind the exam reforms.

Given the results of the grade 12 national exam, do you regret implementing the reforms so quickly?

No. Examination reform is just one part of the whole package and, from the beginning of the academic year, we announced that we were going to reform.

The top priority was the safety of the questions. Before, there were leakages of the exam questions. So, to eliminate this, we decided that only the top officials should be responsible for the exam. So, myself, I am responsible for the questions on History and Khmer language, plus English and French.

You wrote all the questions for those subjects?

No, no. I prepared the questions for two subjects, Khmer Literature and History. And then for English and French I had two people assist me, but I am responsible for endorsing them. Only two people knew for each, myself and one other expert. If there was a leakage, I would know who did it.

Another secretary of state was responsible for two subjects: geography and civic education. Then we have one other secretary of state responsible for mathematics, and then two directors responsible for physics, chemistry and biology.

So we have seven subjects. We had decided to reduce the number of subjects from the beginning of the year. We informed the schools that there will not be 10 subjects as usual, but seven only: six core subjects and one foreign language, either English or French. Why? To reduce cheating and give enough time for the students to prepare.

And do you think there was enough time for students to prepare?

You see, if they work hard, it’s not a problem. The idea is that once they pass from grade 11 to grade 12 they should know something, you know? It’s not that they don’t know anything yet they can pass their grade.

During the examination, I interviewed some of the school principals. They thought that the students at grade 12 didn’t believe that the ministry would be able to enforce the reforms, especially regarding the use of electronic equipment, their smartphones.

They believed there would be leakage of the exam and they would be able to buy the cheat papers. I think that shows a problem of no confidence in the public institutions.

Given how few students passed the exam, would you have done anything differently, or do you have any misgivings about how the reform was implemented?

No, I think this is for the future of Cambodia. Cambodia aspires to become a middle-income country, therefore the lack of good human resources is a problem.

We produce a lot of graduates that cannot find jobs; 73 per cent of investors think that our university graduates do not meet their demands; 65 per cent of them think that graduates from vocational training centres did not match their skill requirements.

During the examination, I can see that the pass rate for science, for mathematics, chemistry, biology and physics are very low. Overall, we have 25.7 per cent of students pass, of which, 24 per cent were from the science track and 40 per cent from the social science track. But, because the number of the social science track is only 5,000 students, overall the total is 25.7 per cent.

You’ve been criticised by parents and some teachers for immediately getting stricter on the students without first getting stricter on your own staff and improving teaching quality – why did you choose this route?

Without addressing first the examination you cannot address any other thing. This is the first condition: to force the students to study. The problem is not teachers that didn’t teach. The problem is not that all teachers are corrupt; as usual there are honest teachers and there are not-so-honest teachers. But the results of the exam show that the students did not attain the required competency in their subjects.

Why do you think they didn’t attain that competency?

They didn’t learn, they didn’t study. And so, if we do not address that problem, even if we spend more money on teacher qualification and increase the salary of the teachers, that will not result in the improvement of the education quality. This is the first measure, and then we have to implement the other measures. Without first addressing this trigger condition, we would waste millions of dollars, would waste the budget, to do something that will not lead to improvement.

Some classes in grade 12 did not finish the curriculum this year. How could those students do well on the test? How will this problem be addressed going forward?

For that reason the ministry will review the curriculum to make it more compact for the students to focus on the main subjects, and we will strengthen inspection of the schools to make sure that all the schools abide by the regulation.

But given that some classes didn’t complete the curriculum this year, the curriculum the test was based on, how were those students expected to pass?

The problem is not that the subjects were not in the curriculum. The questions that were put in the test were chosen from grade 10, 11, and some parts grade 12. We chose the questions very carefully. We made the questions easier than the past five years. Just to pass, to get half the questions, was easy.

Around $2 million will have to be spent on the retest, how can that money be added to the budget when teachers have been told there is not enough budget to raise their salary to the requested $250 a year?

We had a budget for the two exams, grade 9 and grade 12; we reduced the cost of one to top up the other. Even though we think we will spend $2 million for the second examination, where will the $2 million go? It will go to the allowance of teachers, some 26,000 teachers will monitor the examination. They will get more money, additional income.

Some of the students are saying their future and a chance at higher education and a good career have been ruined by this exam, Can you comment?

What I want to say to them is that they should think about long term, not focus only on the paper certificate. Paper isn’t going to help them when they go to find jobs. They have to have knowledge so that they can compete with their peers in the region. Cambodia has to attract more investors, create more jobs, but we cannot create more jobs if we do not have skills. What we are doing is in their interests.

Any other thoughts?

I was very conscious from the beginning that the examination system is just one part of my eight-priority education reform. But I know that I will be judged, not for the eight priorities, but by the success of the examination. People criticised that we didn’t have an action plan, but actually we have thought through very well even the smallest details, otherwise we could not organise this examination in such a way that has been accepted.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/meet-man-behind-exams