Students check exam registrations on a notice
board in the lead-up to the exam period at Chaktomuk High School in Phnom
Penh’s Daun Penh district last year.
A Kampong Thom high school director had no
sympathy yesterday for his protesting students, claiming that a third of his
school’s grade 12 class only have themselves to blame for flunking the grade.
Ieng
Bunhan, director of Hun Sen Taing Kork High School in Baray district, defended
his teachers, saying they had no ulterior motive in failing 52 grade 12
students.
The
students have been protesting their semester exam results since Monday, when
they found out they would not be able to sit the national exam in August and
would have no shot at graduating this year.
Bunhan
rejected their argument that they had failed because of teacher favouritism
towards those who could afford extra, fee-based tutoring sessions.
“How
about other subjects which do not have extra classes like geography – why did
they also fail those subjects?”
On
Tuesday, a delegation from the Ministry of Education met with Bunhan to try to
find a suitable compromise.
“If we
are asked to redo the semester exams for them, I won’t do it,” he said.
Chhim
Soohal, 18, rejected the principal’s arguments and said none of the failing
students had problems in subjects such as geography that did not require extra
classes; instead, they failed only in literature and maths because they
couldn’t afford the extra tutoring.
The
national exam hit another glitch yesterday when Transparency International (TI)
announced it was withdrawing its bid to independently observe the test taking.
Program
director Pech Pisey, said TI was not permitted to register back-up observers in
the event of test-day absenteeism, which would prevent the organisation from
properly conducting its study.
Though
the test day is now short by more than 100 volunteer observers, the ministry
seemed unfazed.
“The
[Anti-Corruption Unit] will already have its own monitors in place and they are
more powerful than TI,” Minister of Education Hang Chuon Naron said. “The ACU
can take action if irregularities occur, TI cannot.”
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