History and Current Situation of Education for Children with Disabilities in Cambodia: A Gray Literature Review

Abstract

In this paper we report on historical changes in the Cambodian education system, the current state of education for persons with disabilities. This report is based on interviews with Mr. Pen Thavy, materials provided by the Cambodian government, and other supporting documents. The first turning point in Cambodia’s movement toward educating children with disabilities was the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989. Cambodia ratified this treaty in 1992. The concept of “Education for All” was adopted into educational policy in Cambodia. The first law directly mentioning education for children with disabilities was the “Educational law” enacted in 2007. The Schools specialized in education for children with disabilities are operated by three NGO schools. One is the Krousar Thmey Foundation which operates 8 schools for children with visual/hearing impairment. Another one is Rabbit-School which accepted 26 students in the special class, 25 students in the readiness class for children aged 4-to-6 years, 18 students in classes for children with cerebral palsy and 46 students in the integrated class. The third one is Komar Pilar Foundation which does not have coordination with the government and is not officially regarded as a school. According to the data which we were given, the total number of students with all disabilities was 44,759 in primary schools and 6787 in secondary schools in 2017. Most common disability was emotional disturbance in primary schools and visual impairment in junior high schools. The data show that the number of invisible disabilities such as behavioral disorders, learning disability, intellectual disability and emotional disturbance varied so much in each province. Misidentification of disabilities can be considered a cause for it.