Cambodian History and Why it Needs Foreign Teachers

The infamous regime of the Khmer Rouge decimated the kingdom's middle class through its leader, Pol Pot's policy of eliminating the educated in a drive to turn the country into an agrarian utopia bereft of social classes, markets and even money.
The 1975-79 regime would even kill people if they wore glasses or nail polish, according to survivors, and after it was overthrown only a handful of educated people remained alive. The organization Documentation Center of Cambodia offers a wealth of information on that bloody period of the nation's history and is providing evidence for the current Khmer Rouge trial of a handful of surviving leaders.
Recently, Cambodia's economy has felt the heat of the global economic meltdown due to its heavy dependency on construction, tourism and garment manufacture, and some school are tightening their belts. But the sheer number of schools and Khmer's hunger for knowledge – especially languages – means there is always demand for teachers, and finding private work through advertisements in local newspapers is also an option.