The Backstory of Education in Cambodia

Abstract

Cambodia, which won its independence from France in 1953 as The Kingdom of Cambodia, went into a 20-period of civil war after the coup d’état of 1970. An uneasy peace returned in 1991 with the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement. The civil war finally ended in the late 1990s. During these years of strife, the country’s name was changed by the government in power, first to “Khmer Republic” after the 1970 coup d’état by General Lon Nol, followed by “Democratic Kampuchea” in the Khmer Rouge era of the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s. Looking at the recent decades of Cambodian history, while we see a distressing amount of blood and tears, the country remains a highly attractive place, with its rich cultural heritage exemplified by Angkor Wat and elegant classical dancing as well as the rich blessings of its land thanks to the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap Lake.