Life – Long Learning

In many countries, education is very important sector in development. It has been invested by the countries in much amount of total income. It also takes very important role in producing human resource for countries’ labor demand. Most developed countries focus so much on four education system – schooling, training and vocational education, higher education and continuing learning. These four education systems must be developed together if any country wants to improve the quality of human resource to supply to work demand.

For Cambodia education, I have observed that the educational system has only been focusing on schooling as the first priority and higher education as the next. The technical and vocational training and continuing learning have not been strengthened yet. Actually, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has more concern about professional skill and integrate some courses to curriculum. Nowadays, three of vocational high schools have been established and provide professional skill to students. The technical and vocational training seem to be attracted very less by students. There are some factors that cause this problem. First, most students in Cambodia tend to work in offices because they think that technical and vocational skills are hard work for them. Secondly, students’ parents also want their children to work for office work because they think that it is valuable and acceptable in the society. Thirdly, it can be affected by lacking of orientation from teachers. Most educators never guide their students about the importance of vocational skill.

Related to continuing learning, I have observed that most of people do not want to develop themselves anymore when they are able to live with appropriate standard of life. They feel that they are too old to study. They think that their knowledge is enough and they do not need to learn more. They think that the duty to learn more is for the young generation. The main factor that affect to their decision in continuing learning is the opportunity, except the people who work in the particular field such as teachers or technicians who can upgrade their knowledge and skill in order to gain much more competitive advantages in the market demand.

In conclusion, life-long learning is very important for all people to develop their capacity level and skill in order to working effectively and modernizing their society. If people try to refuse with learning, the will be lack of new knowledge, technology and skill in the future. Moreover, government or NGO should provide the training and vocational education and continuous learning program to people and encourage people to give the value to education especially life-long learning.