Main barriers to education
- Poverty
- Teacher shortages
- Lack of schools and classrooms
Interventions to barriers
- Enrolement & retention iniatives
- Leadership capacity building
- Research & advocacy
Cambodia considers education to be an indispensable component of long-term term peace, security, sustainable development, economic growth and political stability. Though poverty in Cambodia has decreased by 28 percent from 2007-2011 and the net enrolment of girl students reached 97 percent in 2012-2013, an education sector that cultivates the growth, aptitude and ability of each child is yet to be realised. In response to demographic pressures (population growth is thought to be 1.67 percent annually) and the country’s development aspirations, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has opted to invest in pre-school through tertiary and non-formal education.
Of the issues facing Cambodia’s education sector, access to and quality, as they pertain to the basic primary cycle, figure prominently. Moreover, teacher training and professional development lag and are often cited by the government as essential to a sound education system.
To address the needs of the country’s education sector, EAC has partnered with UNESCO to conduct policy-relevant analysis, advocacy and scale up flexible-learning strategies at the primary level. EAC and Aide et Action have partnered with 17 NGOs that specialise in education to increase access to the OOSC population across Cambodia’s 24 provinces. This initiative will have a programmatic focus on the ten provinces with the highest numbers of OOSC. Also, EAC and United World Schools (UWS) are working together to increase access to quality primary education in Cambodia’s most rural areas. Specific project activities include the cultivation of an enabling physical environment and financial access to education; research and policy advocacy; capacity-building initiatives for School Support Committees and the Commune Councils for Women and Children to lead enrolment campaigns and mapping exercises; and school construction and global education partnerships.
Geographic Location: Southeast Asia
Languages: Khmer (official)
sources: WORLDBANK, BBC, UNICEF CAMBODIA, UNICEF, UNESCO
Projects
Education For All: An Integrated Approach
The Education for All: An Integrated Approach project involves enrolling and retaining children in primary education in all of Cambodia’s 24 provinces with a focus on the ten provinces with the highest number of out of school children (OOSC) and implemented by a 22-member consortium comprised of an array of development partners.
Southeast Asia School Development Project for OOSC
Across remote rural communities in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal, access to quality primary education is inhibited for myriad diverse factors. In the Ratanakiri and Stung Treng Provinces of Cambodia, stigmatisation and discrimination against ethnic minority communities have pushed indigenous peoples outside the reach of the public education system. According to UNESCO, Myanmar allocated just 1.6 percent of its GDP to education in 2010, which had been indicative of generations of underinvestment in the country’s education systems. To date, the Myanmar government does not have the capacity or the infrastructure to reach the most remote communities in rural areas. As for Nepal, scant government investment in education and where schools exist, mismanagement, teacher absenteeism, a lack of parental commitment and the high-cost of school fees, coalesce to put education out of bounds for the most disparate members of society.
Strengthening Education System for Out of School Children
The Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and East Timor continue to face challenges in reaching and educating out of school children (OOSC). The EAC-UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for Education Strengthening Education Systems for Out of School Children project seeks to enrol and retain 50,000 out of school children in quality primary education programs in the sub-region.
Partners
Aide et Action International
EAC has partnered with Aide et Action International in Cambodia to ensure that 59,592 out of school children in all 24 provinces of Cambodia will gain access to quality primary education.
Korea International Cooperation Agency (co-Financing Partner)
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) was established as a government-funded agency dedicated to providing grant-aid programmes on the part of the Korean Government in 1991.
UNESCO
EAC partnered with UNESCO to help realise Sustainable Development Goal 4 (ensure inclusive and quality education for all), as well as the former Millennium Development Goal 2 (achieve universal primary education). To that end, the two have joined in partnership to implement education interventions in 11 countries to reach OOSC in Asia and the Middle East.
