October 1, 2025
PHNOM PENH – I know my opinion won’t be popular in a country where the national grade 12 exam is seen by many as “life-defining”. But after five years teaching high school in Cambodia and witnessing hundreds of students navigate this system, I believe we need an honest conversation about what we’re actually achieving and what we are losing.
Consider three former students I know personally.
The first student spent two years mastering photography, volunteering at school events and leading our school’s media team, which consisted entirely of students. Today, he runs a profitable photography business while still at university, creating jobs for his friends.
The second student participated in a fintech start-up competition, learning to analyse fintech markets and lead projects. A major financial institution hired him before graduation — not for his test scores, but for his real-world capabilities.
The third student took part in various start-up competitions during high school and gained valuable knowledge and experience. Currently, she is running her venture, serving many students seeking paid internships, while pursuing university study.
None were Grade A students by traditional measures. Yet by any reasonable measure of success, they’re thriving and creating value for others.
The Paradox We’ve Created
Between 2018 and 2023, I watched this pattern repeat annually at the school where I was teaching. Our Grade 10 and 11 students were full of curiosity. They came up with entrepreneurship ideas, built robots, participated in competitions to solve real world challenges and organised community service projects. Our photography club produced working professionals. Our robotics team spawned future engineers. Students in start-up competitions learned to identify problems and build solutions — skills that clearly have lasting impact.
Those extracurricular activities that our students took part in enable them to explore their interests, and develop knowledge, skills and characters that are desirable in the real world.
Then, Grade 12 arrived like a hurricane, stripping away everything that made these students exceptional. Club participation plummeted. Creative projects stopped. Rote memorisation overtook critical thinking. Questions such as “How will this be applied in real life”, “What if…?” were changed to “Will this appear in the exam?”, “How can I get full marks?”…. These confident young adults transformed into anxious test-takers, spending most of their waking hours preparing for the life-defining exam.
The Cost of Our Obsession
Cambodia spends enormous resources on private tutoring, much of it focused on exam preparation. Some tutoring centres in Phnom Penh charge up to $200 per month for exam preparation classes. Meanwhile, schools struggle to fund laboratories, libraries and extracurricular programmes that develop actual capabilities.
For the grade 12 students, passing the national exam is the only thing that matters. These students spend at least 6 hours per day at private tutoring sessions in addition to their regular classes at schools.
In those private tutoring schools, students are learning to take the tests. Indeed, we’re creating a generation of students who can memorise complex formulas but struggle to think independently or work collaboratively.
A Path Forward
I’m not advocating the elimination of academic standards or assessment. Structured evaluation has value, and students need to demonstrate mastery of core knowledge and skills. But we should maintain rigour while creating space for the kind of learning that actually prepares students for adult success.
Here’s what balanced reform could look like:
- Diversify assessment methods: There should be a reform to allow schools to demonstrate student achievement through portfolios, projects and performance-based evaluation alongside traditional testing. This approach can maintain academic standards while reducing the narrow focus on test performance.
- Reform university admissions: Higher education institutions in Cambodia should weight extracurricular achievement, demonstrated leadership and real-world experience more heavily in admissions decisions. This would immediately shift student behaviour toward more balanced development. In fact, many universities in developed countries admit students not only based on academic achievement but also their extracurricular experiences.
- Protect non-academic time: Schools should preserve significant time for clubs, competitions and hands-on learning. Under the pressure of the current assessment framework, schools can still allow and get students to be involved in these activities at non-high stake exam grades, for example grade 10 and 11. From my experience, students who engaged in these activities often performed as well or better academically, while developing crucial life skills.
- Support experiential learning: Schools and communities should invest in programmes that help educators facilitate project-based learning, competitions and community engagement alongside traditional instruction. Through these activities, students can develop skills that will help them thrive in higher education and their career.
The Stakes Are Higher Than We Think
In an era when artificial intelligence can process information and solve routine problems more efficiently than humans, our students need capabilities that machines cannot replicate —creativity, emotional intelligence, ethical reasoning and the ability to synthesise knowledge across disciplines. These develop through diverse experiences, not repetitive drilling.
Extracurricular experiences impact not only individual students, but also wider society. The photography student I mentioned continues building his business and creating employment for others. The fintech participant is applying his skills in the financial sector. The start-up founder is still running her venture, now creating internship opportunities for fellow university students. These young people aren’t just succeeding — they’re contributing to Cambodia’s development in ways that extend far beyond what any standardised test measures.
Choosing Our Future
We stand at a crossroads. We can continue a system that produces anxious, exhausted students trained primarily to take tests, or we can nurture confident, capable young people ready to build Cambodia’s future.
Our students deserve an education that develops their full potential — not just their test-taking ability. Cambodia’s future depends not on citizens who can memorise under pressure, but on those who can innovate, collaborate, and adapt to challenges we haven’t yet imagined.
Sinet Sem is a pharmacist-turned high school teacher. He taught at E2STEM Education Preah Yukunthor from 2018 to 2023 before continuing a master’s degree in educational studies, specialised in the Science of Learning at the University of Queensland, Australia. The views and opinions expressed are his own.