[ti:Higher Student Dropout Rates Along Cambodia's Border with Thailand] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.12]A Cambodian official reported last week [00:03.44]that about 23 percent of children in three provinces [00:08.16]along the border with Thailand have stopped attending school. [00:14.36]Cambodian Education Minister Hangchuon Naron [00:18.04]spoke at a conference about the student dropout rate. [00:22.75]He said that the rate in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey [00:27.72]and Oddor Meanchey provinces was much higher than in other areas, [00:33.08]where rates are 18 to 19 percent. [00:38.16]The education minister blamed poverty [00:41.28]and parents who move to Thailand for work [00:44.68]as the main reasons for the problem. [00:48.60]Cambodia's education ministry has begun training teachers [00:53.12]to advise students to stay in school, [00:56.36]while letting them choose their own study subjects. [01:01.28]Teachers are also to advise students [01:04.50]whose parents work overseas about the importance of education. [01:10.52]Hangchuon Naron said, [01:12.20]"So if teachers advise the students [to stay in school] [01:16.68]that will help them to make the right decision. [01:20.56]They could explain to those students that they need [01:23.54]to pursue their studies successfully [01:26.28]and then find local jobs [afterward] as well." [01:31.36]But critics have expressed concern [01:34.33]about the education ministry's plan. [01:37.76]Ouk Chay Vy is president of the Cambodian [01:40.61]Independent Teachers' Association. [01:44.36]She said the plan fails to deal with the issues [01:48.53]that cause students to drop out of school. [01:52.60]She says those reasons are poverty resulting from unemployment [01:57.80]and a lack of land for farming. [02:01.52]She noted that, in Cambodia, many students stop going to school [02:07.56]because they need to work to support their families. [02:12.60]Ouk Chay Vy said a better plan would be for the government [02:16.86]to try to increase the number of jobs [02:19.76]so that citizens could have better living conditions. [02:23.28]"If the government could give them help, [02:26.60]it would still not be enough," she added. [02:30.62]Suon Sinuon is a farmer from Banteay Meanchey. [02:36.56]She said that three of her children dropped out of school [02:40.36]while they were in the sixth and ninth grades. [02:44.44]They went to Thailand to work and help support the family. [02:50.32]She said that the children did not want to stop going to school, [02:55.24]but had no other choice because of the family's needs. [03:00.36]She added, "Others who have enough money [03:04.12]don't let their children migrate, but me, I am so poor [03:08.84]that I had to let them go work in Thailand." [03:13.40]Cambodia's Ministry of Labor reports [03:16.56]that more than one million Cambodians are working in Thailand. [03:22.24]The education minister said that most of them [03:25.36]come from the provinces along the Thai border. [03:29.00]I'm Jonathan Evans. [03:30.96]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM