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Address at the Graduation Ceremony for Teacher Trainees of 13th Promotion (Bachelor+1) and 10t Promotion (Lower Secondary) in
French-Khmer
National Institute of Education, 29 April 2009
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Directors, Deputy Directors,
Board of Directors, Lecturers and Academic Staffs,
Dear Teachers and Students!
Today I am really
pleased to participate in the “Graduation Ceremony for Teacher Trainees of 13th Promotion (Bachelor+1) and 10t Promotion (Lower Secondary) in
French-Khmer” at the National Institute of Education with 543 graduates. The
achievement and fruitful outcome we have achieved today further contribute to
the social development in the Kingdom of Cambodia, especially in improving and
expanding our education system. At the same time, I would like to express my
heartfelt congratulations and appreciations for your utmost efforts in attaining
such fruitful success. This current result is truly another new pride and
prestige for us all including you as graduates and your families.
Based on the
report by Dr. Im Koch, Director of the National Institute of Education (NIE)
and H.E. Im Sothy, Minister of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), I am
confident that this outcome is only one of the new achievements that the NIE and
MoEYS have accomplished in further expanding the achievements of the Royal
Government in implementing the reform in all sectors by mainly focusing on human
resource development, institutional capacity building, and physical
infrastructure development, particularly roads bridges, irrigation systems,
utilities, education and health, which are our urgent and primary need for the
development of Cambodia. Today’s achievement is indeed a key for improving
higher education and overall education and training sector in general, as well
as accelerating national economic development. In this sense, education and
training sector will remain the Royal Government’s priority in formulating
development policies as this sector is the foundation of growth and
productivity. Along with this, further strengthening and expansion of attained
human resource development will ensure the nation’s competitive advantage and
play a crucial role in sustaining growth in all sectors.
Taking this
opportunity, on behalf of the Royal Government and on my wife’s and my behalf, I
would like to express my appreciation for the outcome attained by the NIE as
well as the MoEYS who have transformed teacher trainees into qualified teachers
with competence, professional skill and conscience. These achievements indeed
cannot be separated from the effort made by the University’s management,
lecturers as well as development partners who provide support to successfully
manage the teacher trainings in order to take part in the development of higher
education and lower-secondary education in Cambodia.
The Royal
Government has set human resource development as a strategic angle in the Rectangular Strategy for Growth, Employment, Equity and Efficiency, which has been designed to alleviate poverty and accelerate national
development. In fact, in the situation that global peace culture is facing the
international terrorism, I realize that education is significant to address all
economic and social issues to become a society where people can live together
with mutual respects, love and support, no violence and no discrimination on the
basis of gender, race and status.
Over recent
years, the Royal Government has made substantial progress in education sector
through quality improvement both in public and private institutions, better
education infrastructure, and more efficient and improved teaching
methodologies, which are gradually responding to the demand of local and
regional workforce. In the face of fierce competition coupled with the global
crisis, I think the education and training programs must be oriented on
vocational skills to enable students to fully utilize these skills in their
future careers by starting with simple techniques in agricultural and craft
production, which will gradually switch Cambodian economy to be knowledge-based
and move from an economy of comparative advantage to competitive advantage. In
this regard, we must produce intelligent, highly skilled and competent
workforce.
In deed, capacity building is time-consuming and requires firm
efforts from various players including policy makers, executing agencies,
development partners, local people, and other stakeholders by focusing on both
knowledge and know-how. Also, technology transfer and management approach are
important determinants, which have to be paid attention by the education sector
and to be linked with education experience around us. I think that technology
transfer does not only refer to the transfer of tools or equipments through
purchases or donations, but also improves the awareness of domestic users on new
products and use of those technologies. Along with this, we must promote
production and business ability, technology licensing, joint research,
cooperation and exchange program among higher education institutions,
infrastructural services etc. Moreover, technology transfer is everything about
facilitating adaptation and dissemination of new technologies in a country.
In this spirit, I request the Ministry of Education, Youth and
Sport to pay more attention to science and technology education in order to
transform students into quality and productive producers due to the fact that if
science and technology education is limited the quality products cannot be
produced.
Along with this, I would like to appeal to all public and private
education institutions to give priority to the teaching and quality improvement
of basic science for effective teaching of other majors.
I strongly
believe that “the value of education is always a mean for personal and
national development”. On the road toward globalized economy, globalized
higher education plays critical function to develop education and training
sector with quality, efficiency and to further expand international cooperation,
which in turn results in mutual understanding on the basis of mutual interest
and equality.
At the same
time, our education sector shall focus on quality; otherwise our energy and
budget spent will be useless because education that does not take quality first
will hinder benefits of our students and our effort to build national capacity
to confront challenges in the fiercely competitive world. In this sense, I would
like to request all higher education institutions to direct to resolving social
issues through researches, students’ thesis writing, especially to resource
management, promotion of new way of thinking and research methodology and modern
teaching methodology which are necessary for systematic thinking and for
incorporating cultural, social and economic factors into rural environmental
system analysis and usage of mixed group. Moreover, I would like to appeal to
ministries/institutions, higher education institutions, international
organizations, civil society and private sector to encourage and facilitate our
researchers for this purpose.
Indeed, 543
graduates, who will receive certificates in the moment, will be proud of their
own efforts by successfully completing their education. However, you must adhere
to learning in any form when you enter into society and working and follow
strictly teacher professional ethics aiming at promoting dignity and quality and
efficiency of education. From now on, you will understand clearly that this
knowledge must be complemented by experience and be coupled with innovative
ideas either according to real work circumstance or situation. In this spirit,
you must be always patient and industrious to absorb work experience, which is
the foundation for progress in livelihood and for contribution to social
development. Hence, learning which is complemented by self-study and
self-research will promote capacity and intellectual enrichment.
As proved, I
believe that you will surely become teachers of quality and educate our youth
into intellectuals of reasoning power and good moral to develop Cambodia into
society of good morality, dignity and high skill for national development. Along
with, I would like to appeal to parents and guardians to keep teaching children
to follow the way of the Dharma and to self-learn by cooperating with schools,
professors, teachers and all academic staff in order to build a generation of
youth full of development in all aspect, particularly to have knowledge, to know
how to conduct self-study, to have know-how, to self-recognize and to live in
peace and harmony aiming at training students to become “good children,
good students, good friends and good citizens”, which are
the four pillars of education.
Finally, my wife
and I would like to wish Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen and all teacher
trainee graduates 4 gems of Buddhist blessings: longevity, nobility, health and strength.
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