Does Students’ Gender Matter? Parents’ Educational Expectations, Their Determinants, and Consequences in Explaining Students’ Dropout in an Area in Cambodia

Abstract

Cambodia has experienced remarkable educational expansion at all levels since the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979 (Ayres 2000), yet provision of basic education1 to all children remains challenging (Chhinh and Dy 2009). Two major obstacles hamper the provision of basic education to all children: (a) low transition rates from primary to lower secondary school,2 and (b) high dropout rates3 in grades 7–9. According to Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) statistics, 76.8 percent of all promoted 6th graders in 2012/13 transferred to lower secondary school; 21.2 percent of lower secondary students dropped out each grade (MoEYS 2014).