Takako Kitagawa

In the Kingdom of Cambodia, public education was introduced in the days of the French Protectorate. In a recent paper, I suggested that the public education systems were different in each circonscription résidentielle, and examined the situation of Kompong-Cham. In this paper, I investigate the introduction of public education into the circonscription résidentielle de Kampot, located on the Gulf of Thailand. According to a list of schools and students in each circonscription résidentielle in 1930, Kampot had a particular number of écoles de pagodes (schools of pagodas) and we can suppose that the French authority made a special attempt to promote public education in this circonscription résidentielle. The circonscription résidentielle de Kampot was located on the border of three states: the Kingdom of Siam, the French Protectorate of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and the French Colony of Cochin-China. Geographically, it was where inland Cambodia intersected with the maritime world. The distinctive characteristics of Kampot were its openness and its unusually large populations of Chinese, Malays, Siamese and Annamites.<br>In the circonscription résidentielle de Kampot, the public education system was composed of (1) the école résidentielle/école de plein exercice established in Kampot city, (2) the écoles franco-cambodgiennes established in the interior, and (3) the écoles de pagodes rénovées established at the pagodas of rural villages. In the école résidentielle/école de plein exercice, the curriculum, class composition, equipment, and the attendance of students bore a strong resemblance to its counterpart in Kampot and Kompong-Cham. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the purpose of these schools, training candidates of functionaries, and the examination for certificat d'études primaires franco-indigènes and certificat d'études élémentaires led to this homogeneity.<br>On the other hand, the strategy to promote public education among the local population differed among circonscriptions résidentielles. In Kampot, the French administration used the traditional authority of pagodas and Buddhist monks in Cambodian society to establish schools in rural communities. During and after the 1930s, the écoles de pagodes rénovées were expanded from Kampot to other regions of Cambodia and became the foundation of today's public education system.<br>In addition, Chinese and Malay villages had the tradition of schools in Kampot. However, the French did not plan to exploit Chinese or Malay schools as educational resources. Most Chinese had no interest in the French educational system and preferred to send their children to Chinese schools. This fact implies that those who sought opportunities in the French Protectorate of the Kingdom of Cambodia accepted public education, and that most Chinese in Kampot who lived by the maritime trade on the Gulf of Thailand saw no value in the French colonial education. Only further investigation of the Chinese population in Kampot will confirm or refute this hypothesis.

Public education was introduced into the Kingdom of Cambodia starting in 1903. In this year, Éecole Norodom was opened in Phnom-Penh. The first écoles francocambodgiennes were opened in Kompong-Cham and Pursat, and expanded to every circonscription résidentielle. The top of the écoles franco-cambodgiennes system was the college Sisowath in Phnom-Penh, whose purpose was to educate functionaries.<br>With regard to the public education system, it has been said that the school attendance rate among Cambodian was very low compared to Chinese or Vietnamese. The reasons were thought to be derived from (1) the lack of a tradition of schools in Cambodia, (2) the reluctance of parents who would be deprived of their children's labor, and (3) Buddhism, which was considered incompatible with modern education. However, these analysis dealt with Cambodia as a whole. The data that they depended on were mainly taken from schools located in the administration centers of circonscription résidentielle, and they never reflected the rural situation. Futhermore, according to a list of the number of schools in each circonscription résidentielle in 1930, we may assume that the situation or systems of public education were very different in each circonscription résidentielle. Therefore, we should initially examine the situations of each circonscription résidentielle before dealing with Cambodia as a whole.<br>This paper investigates closely the introduction of public education in the circonscription résidentielle de Kompong-Cham, located along the middle course of the Mekong River. The main source is "Rapports périodiques, économiques et politiques de la résidence de Kompong-Cham" from 1898 to 1929.<br>In the résidentielle de Kompong-Cham, there was a disparity between the école résidentielle/école de plein exercise established in Kompong-Cham city and the écoles provinciales/écoles élémentaires established in rural villages. The number of students continued to increase in the former, but in the latter, the number was inactive at all times. The reasons for the inactivity of the écoles provinciales/écoles élémentaires were reported as based on (1) the insufficiency of good teachers and (2) the indifference of parents to education. In contrast, the école résidentielle/école de plein exercise held a splendid ceremony at the end of every school year, and sent excellent students to the college Sisowath to be candidates of functionaries. From 1925 onward, school football matches were held every year, and the team from Kompong-Cham became a powerful team second only to the college Sisowath. The honored and hope-filled prospects must have given students an incentive to attend school. At least in Kompong-Cham, for those Cambodians who lived during the first quarter of the twentieth century, proficiency in the French language and the metric system was beneficial only in cases of people becoming functionaries. For the majority of Cambodians, French colonialism failed to show how colonial education profits a primarily agricultural population.

Post-Angkor est la période qui suit l'abandon d'Angkor au XV^e siècle et qui va jusqu'à la colonisation du Cambodge par les Français en 1863. Quand on étudie l'histoire du Cambodge, il y a un problème de continuité entre la période angkorienne et post-angkorienne. D. P. Chandler disait que le Cambodge a beaucoup changè entre le XIII^e et le XVI^e siècle. Effectivement, on peut observer des changements dans les domaines suivants: emplacement de la capitale, caractère des documents historiques, religion etc. De plus, le XIV^e siècle même signifie un grand tournant dans l'histoire de l'Asie du Sud-Est.<br>Les historiens ont ignoré pendant longtemps cette période de "Dark Ages", puis dans les annees 1970, ceux qui commençaient à étudier l'histoire post-angkorienne se concentraient seulement sur l'éclaircissement des circonstances de l'indépendance du Cambodge par rapport au Siam et au Vietnam. D'autres problèmes, tels que les institutions politiques n'étaient pas étudiés, et aujourd'hui encore, nous connaissons peu l'État postangkorien.<br>Les inscriptions modernes sont les seuls documents historiques écrits dans la période post-angkorienne. Nous avons aussi les codes post-angkoriens datés du XVII^e siècle, que nous pouvons éventuellement utiliser comme documents historiques à titre de comparaison avec les inscriptions modernes. Dans ces documents, il y a beaucoup de noms khmers avec les titres khmers. Or dans les oeuvres de Sahai et H. G. Quaritch Wales, les titres angkoriens et ceux du Siam ont été classés, et, nous pouvons les comparer avec les titres post-angkoriens. Ainsi, dans notre article, nous avons examiné ces titres et les avons comparés avec ceux d'Angkor.<br>En premier lieu, les relations commandées par les titres post-angkoriens ont été explicitées. Par leur titre, les Cambodgiens post-angkoriens peuvent se classer en 3 catégories, (1) les hauts dignitaires de 10-6 haupéan, (2) les bas dignitaires de 5-1 haupéan, (3) les gens du peuple (femmes et esclaves compris). I1 peut y avoir des liens de parenté entre les gens des catégories (1) et (3), ou (2) et (3), mais nous n'avons pas pu trouver de relation entre les gens des catégories (1) et (2). I1 y a une grande séparation sociale entre les hauts dignitaires et les bas dignitaires.<br>Par comparaison avec les titres angkoriens, ceux de post-Angkor n'ont aucun point commun. Du point de vue des titres, l'Etat post-angkorien ne continue pas celui d'Angkor, cependant les titres post-angkoriens ressemblent à ceux d'Ayuthya. Dans cette période les communications sont fréquentes entre le Cambodge et Ayuthya. On peut dire que le Cambodge post-angkorien et Ayuthya forment une même région ce qui favorise des titres communs. Mais nous ne pouvons pas encore déterminer dans lequel des deux royaumes ils ont été créés par manque de documents pour toute la période du XIV^e au XVI^e siècle.