Teachers to Be Punished for Corruption

Khmer Times
Tin Sokhavuth

The ACU is looking into teachers found illegally collecting money from their students. KT/Mai Vireak

Teachers who steal money from their students will face legal action if the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) finds they are guilty of doing so.

Om Yentieng, president of the ACU, told reporters yesterday in the midst of a three-day training course for teachers from different provinces that teachers were only permitted to collect money from students for legitimate reasons.

The ACU will cooperate with school administrators to address reports by students that teachers have been violating this rule, he added.

Khat Dara Rachana, the principal at the capital’s Wat Koh middle school, told Khmer Times that not all teachers were involved in the practice of illegitimately collecting fees from their students.

“I acknowledge that a small number of teachers do that, but not all teachers. However, this problem will be solved if teachers’ salaries are raised to a level permitting them to afford to buy enough food and clothes for their children,” said Mr. Dara Rachana.

An 11-year-old student at a school in Phnom Penh who asked to remain anonymous told Khmer Times that when she was short of money, she did not like to go to school because her teacher collected 1,000 riel per day from her in addition to charging her for copies of various lessons.

Anti-corruption lessons are being integrated into the school curriculum by the ACU to curb corruption.

Preap Kol, the executive director of Transparency International Cambodia (TI), who has cooperated with the ACU to create the lessons, was optimistic about the new curriculum.

“First of all, the curriculum should help the young generation understand the strict legal measures that are taken against corrupt people. As a result, it should prevent them from doing corrupt practices, because they will think about the law enforcement. It could also educate young people to be aware about the dangers of corruption,” Mr. Kol said.

However, Mr. Kol said he did not ignore existing corruption in many governmental institutions, adding that it was the duty of politicians to fight corruption in the interest of Cambodia’s development.

In a press release issued earlier this year, TI stated that despite many reforms, Cambodia was just as corrupt in 2015 as it was in 2014.