In a rapidly developing world, Cambodia is slowly but surely keeping up with all the progress. One of the things that Cambodia hasn’t made much progress in is the education system. Students are receiving the proper education that they need through this system but a lot of things are still being done through pen and paper. This is where we see the potential to improve.

The Student Dilemma

Universities in Cambodia are scattered all over the country but a majority of them are located in Phnom Penh. This causes some problems for aspiring students who wants to enroll at a school of their choice. For students to be informed about any of these universities, they either have to get them through their family and friends or from their high school. The lack of public information about universities limits their choices.

From there, they would have to personally travel to these universities to obtain additional information about the school, such as tuition fees, programs, facilities, and scholarships. Students would have to spend a lot of time and money commuting to these schools. There would also be those that can’t make the transit simply because it is simply too far for them.

To enroll, a student would have to spend time waiting to get the forms and then even more time spent on filling in all of it. All of this requires them to make multiple transits to the school and back home. This not only wastes a lot of time and money for them but also for the school too. The schools would be responsible for gathering all the necessary information, getting them printed out, and distributed to any of the students that want them. A lot of money and resources would be spent on delivering these information to the students.

The Digital Solution

Through our personal experience, we were able to see this problem and found a way to improve the situation. A solution that we have is to digitize information about the schools and their enrollment process. There are a number of things that this would solve:

• Anyone would be able to access information about the schools from anywhere, whether they’re inside or outside of the city. Some of these information would include tuition fees, programs, scholarships, exchange programs and general information.
• Students that want to enroll would be able to do so online through the website. By spending several minutes, they would be able to enroll quicker than they would through traditional means.
• They would also be exposed to a greater number of schools that they may not know of through traditional means. This provides them with more options and allows them to find one that suits them.
• Not only would this help students but it is also mutually beneficial for the schools. This would streamline part of the education system, allowing for more students to be aware of more schools and getting them enrolled.
• Time and money would be spent on the actual education itself. This all would lower the cost of the whole process and potentially lower the tuition fees.

This all results in a system that mutually benefits all parties. Students will no longer have to spend too much time searching for the right schools. School administrators will no longer have to spend time distributing information through traditional means. Overall, they’ll be able to spend less paper on flyers and enrollment applications, saving money and the world. In the grand scheme of things, a partially stream lined education system can do so much for not only those involved with it but also for the environment. If the education system were to be fully stream lined, what else could it help?