Given that the poverty line in the rural areas of Cambodia is set at US$0.25 per person per daily consumption, 53.7% of the population in Siem Reap is living below the poverty line. Due to poverty, children in Cambodia are forced to give up education to work and supplement the family’s income; see Child labour in Cambodia. The cost of sending their children to school is very high in some families, making it almost impossible for the children to receive education.

Close to 20% of Cambodian children ages 5–9 are employed. The figures then rise to 47% for children between ages 10–14 and 34% for ages 15–17. Among the number of working children of ages 5 to 17, only 45% have the chance to attend school.

Non-economic productive activities such as housework tend to start earlier than economic activities, although less intensively, causing children in Cambodia to be performing ‘double-duty’ — they are involved in housework and economic activity, leaving them little or no time to go to school. Non-economic activities add an average of eight hours per week to the work burden of the economically active children, leading to an average weekly working hours of almost 31. Children having to work before going to school can affect their literacy and numeracy test scores, by nine percentage points after accounting for the differences in school quality.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Cambodia#Poverty_hindering_education