Parents decry ‘two-shift’ teaching
ACHRONIC shortage of teachers at Koh Thmey Primary School, in Kampong Cham province’s Koh Sotin district, has led parents and guardians of students to express concern about the quality of their children’s education.
They have collectively insisted that the provincial Department of Education, Youth and Sport supply more teachers to the school, located in Koh Sotin commune’s village I on a sleepy island in the Mekong River.
Nov Sok, a villager representative, said parents and guardians of Koh Thmey Primary School students had complained about a perennial shortage of teachers in the school, saying that it has made their children “incompetent” in all subjects and skills taught as the lack of teachers have noticeably resulted in poor education outcomes.
For many years, parents have demanded more teachers for the school, but have not been successful, he said. They have been told on several occasions that students were not taught because teachers were “busy”, while other times they discovered that teachers were combining several classes of students – of different grades – in the same classroom to be taught simultaneously.
“Some teachers teach in a combined classroom, which means that in one class there are two grades, grade one and grade five, together. They take turns to focus their attention on the different grades at the same time in the classroom, which makes it a very chaotic environment where students cannot absorb any information. Villagers have complained many times, but it hasn’t seemed to be effective,” he said.
The practice of “two-shift” teaching at the school has been the target of their complaints.
Chhom Savann, director of Koh Thmey Primary School, said the school has six classes which should
normally be taught by six teachers, but the retirement of several teachers meant there are only three left, including herself.
The shortage of staff has necessitated that the teachers teach in this shift pattern, but when there are meetings or other non-teaching work to be done, teaching will inevitably be interrupted.
“The ministry has arranged for two shifts to be taught when there is a shortage of teachers. In my commune, there are seven schools, all of which have a shortage of teachers, including in my school.
“The local residents always complain that we didn’t request for more teachers. But in fact, I’ve reported this shortage and the impossibility
of this two-shift teaching to the education ministry every month. The ministry responded that if it is possible for teachers to do two shifts, then we should continue with the system,” she said.
The principal said she had sought additional teachers in order to raise the standard of education at the school to a baseline level, but that despite her request, no teachers were nominated to be sent to the institution in Kampong Cham.
“The ministry said that they have no teachers available… [they said] new teachers must go to help out in the most deprived locations, but that for our place, we can wait. The villagers are always complaining and blaming me personally as I’m the principal. But what more can I do if I already requested teachers according to the administrative procedure and this is their response?”
Koh Sotin commune chief Sun Chantha claimed that the alleged shortage of teachers had not been reported by the school principal to her, but said that after receiving this information, she would report it to the commune district education office to “discuss a solution.”
“As commune chief, I will inform my superior to let them know about the shortage of teachers. The problem could be that the teachers at the school may apply to teach in other schools and not to the Koh Sotin district specifically,” she said.
Provincial education department director Ly Meng San said the shortage of teachers was not limited to the province, but was a problem in all provinces across the country.
He said, however, that the government generally permitted the use of contract teachers or two-shift teachers. Koh Thmey Primary School was using this shift, a system which he noted is allowed under government guidelines as three classes can be taught in the morning and three classes in the evening, they state, “without any problems.”
“We still have a shortage of teachers, but the government requires us to have a teacher teaching two shifts both in the morning and in the evening. Plus, they receive double the salary. And if these teachers are not enough, we use contract teachers.
“In general, this mechanism is used across the country, even in Phnom Penh,” he said.
Ministry spokesperson Ros Soveacha said the ministry has been focused on improving the qualifications and living standards of teachers instead, and that the municipal and provincial education departments are responsible for coordinating requests for teachers and communicating it to the ministry.
He said the ministry selects and distributes teachers to local school districts annually according to demonstrated needs and “encourages” teachers to work in disadvantaged and remote areas. Teachers who live in target provinces and possess the right skills will be prioritised for these postings.
Soveacha said the ministry has been attempting to ease teacher shortages through several means, including by improving the deployment of teachers to schools in line with staffing needs; recruiting teachers from the grassroots; constructing new high schools in disadvantaged communities, and providing support to poor students to increase secondary school enrollment and graduation rates.