After I did the entrance exam at NIE, I waited for the good result. I felt frustrated to see the result and I fortunately passed the exam. I had to make a decision to accept the opportunity or to continue my current contracted teaching job at universities. I finally accept the opportunity to be high school teacher and I resigned from my two workplaces. In this essay, I will share some challenges that I faced during the training course at NIE.
The first problem was income. After I, teacher-trainee, passed entrance exam at NIE, I had to attend 10-month training course. Therefore, I had to resign from my workplaces and I had full time classes from Monday to Friday. It was a big challenge for me because I had to feed my two kids. However, I could survive because my wife had a small family business and I still had a part-time job. In addition, I received 80$ for eight months from ADB for I applied to teach at remote area. NIE also offer 20$ per month to every teacher trainee.
Another problem was field study. All teacher trainees were required to do teaching practicum at high school that they applied to. I applied to teach at Bousra high school which is about 400 kilometers from Phnom Penh. I had to spend my own pocket money on my way to do teaching practicum. When I study at pedagogy school, I still had some part-time classes. However, I had to resign from part-time job because I had to do teaching practicum at a remote area.
Finally, after completing teaching practicum and submitting report to school, I started my career as a public high school teacher. I expected to get my first salary on the first month of my teaching, but I was wrong. I had to teach five months before I got all the salary from the first month to the five months. Therefore, from the first month to the fifth month, I had spend my own pocket money again. The following months, I could get my salary regularly two time per month half salary in the middle of the month and another half salary at the end of each month.
In short, if you want to become a high school teacher, you should be aware of those challenges and you should have some budget during the training course. However, Ministry of Education Youth and Sport is considering to offer teacher trainees 70% of their salary during the training period at NIE, and they will get full salary when they start teaching at high school.
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