History
Under the initiative of François Fontaine, the first "modern" Franco-Cambodian school was established in the year 1873. It was the French-language School of the Protectorate, in Phnom Penh. The School of the Protectorate was renamed Collège of the Protectorate in 1893 and then Collège Sisowath in 1905. The Collège prepared students for service in the French colonial administration, the judiciary and the indigenous administration. During the French Protectorate, the school was heavily dominated by Vietnamese immigrant children.
In 1933, the Collège Sisowath became the Lycée Preah Sisowath. The first Cambodian students graduated from the Lycée Sisowath with baccalauréats in 1939. Only 144 Cambodians had completed the full baccalauréat by 1954. The Ministry of Education took measures to use the Khmer language at all education levels including Lycée Sisowath beginning in 1967.
During the Khmer Republic, the school was renamed twice: first to Lycée October 9 in 1970, after the date of the declaration of the republic by the Lon Nol regime, then to Phnom Daun Penh High School in 1974. Under the Pol Pot regime, the high school was closed and used as an army warehouse. The teachers, staff, and students were forced to leave the city and live in undeveloped areas, where they greatly suffered from the killings perpetrated.
After the January 7, 1979, Vietnamese invasion, the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea gradually reopened schools. The lycée was officially reopened on January 21, 1980, under the name of Phnom Daun Penh High School. School personnel requested the ministry of education to change the high school name to its original name of Lycée Preah Sisowath in 1993 to preserve this historic endowment.
In 1996, a Franco-Khmer section was reintroduced again at the Lycée Sisowath.
Read more about this topic: Lycee Sisowath
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