In many countries, schools are classified in official data as simply
public or private. This may be misleading. While at first sight the
boundaries between public and private sectors in education might
seem obvious, closer inspection may reveal them to be blurred. In
some countries, schools which are classified as private receive
substantial public resources; and schools which are classified as
public receive substantial private resources. Cambodia fits into the
latter category: the vast majority of Cambodia’s schools are classified
as public institutions operated by the government, but in almost all
schools a large proportion of the finance comes from households,
communities and other non-government sources.