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Executive Summary
Cambodia has
entered a new era of opportunity for a sustainable, more secure future for its
people. Fundamental to achieve this goal are a well-educated, skilled and
motivated work force, adequate infrastructure, sustainable economic growth, and
a shared national commitment to equality and human rights. A key challenge will
be the development of a more effective and efficient education system benefiting
in particular the poorer sections of the population.
The national
reforms proposed by the Ministry of Education,Youth and Sports (MoEYS) are
gradually moving towards a sector-wide approach to education development and a
shift from “donorship to partnership”, characterized by strong national
ownership and genuine partnerships in development. MoEYS’ concerted efforts to
spearhead a process of increased stakeholder consultation have resulted in the
preparation of an Education Strategic Plan (ESP) and Education Sector Support
Program (ESSP) broadly endorsed by parties concerned. Simultaneously, the Royal
Government of Cambodia (RGoC) has initiated a process of decentralization, with
increased responsibilities being transferred to the district levels. This
development is enforced with MoEYS’ implementation of the Priority Action
Programme (PAP), which is a program-based, output-oriented budgeting modality.
These changes
are expected to address the poor performance of the educational system in
Cambodia, including: low levels of educational access, inadequate planned and
actual instructional time, low levels of internal efficiency as reflected in
high repetition and drop-out rates, low levels of progression and basic cycle
completion, and limited availability of early childhood development activities.
Furthermore the substantial gender, locality and sub-national disparities are
being prioritised.
With support
from Sida and in collaboration with other partners, UNICEF has been assisting to
rebuild Cambodia’s education system since 1996. Over these years a number of
important achievements have been made, such as: redesign of the primary and
lower secondary curriculum and textbooks, strengthening of the Education
Management Information System, decentralized planning, enhanced training,
management and monitoring processes through cluster school development, and
reconstruction of schools and classrooms destroyed by floods.
During the
year 2000, the UNICEF/Sida support became also more pro-active and dynamic in
the currently ongoing reform process, through provision of support for the
evolving PAP Program, as well as for the Education Sector Review process and
related consultations with various stakeholders. Furthermore, the program’s
increased emphasis on “learning by doing” increasingly contributed to improved
skills and understanding at all levels.
The present
UNICEF/Sida agreement expires 31 December 2001. Since RGoC/ UNICEF’s Master Plan
of Operations (MPO) entered a new phase in January 2001, a new education program
was formulated for 2001 - 2005, building on the recent trends in the sector. A
recent analysis of the MoEYS’ ESP and the RGoC/UNICEF’s MPO indicated that in
general there is a good match between the objectives and strategies outlined in
both documents.
The present
proposal, amounting to around USD 13 million over four years, has been jointly
prepared by senior and technical staff from MoEYS and UNICEF. The program
develop-ment objective of the proposed Expanded Basic Education Program is to
contribute to the improved planning and implementation of education reform
policies and programs, as set out in the ESP and ESSP 2001/5, for achieving
inclusive basic education that is efficient, high quality, and equitable so that
the rights of Cambodian children to education are fulfilled.
This is to be
achieved through the planned interventions of the two mutually enforcing
sub-programs “Basic Education Capacity Building Priorities for SWAp Readiness”
and “Expanded Learning Opportunities for School and Child Readiness”.
The first
sub-program, amounting to around USD 7 million, is designed to put in place the
necessary capacities to enhance the readiness of the Ministry to gradually
implement a broader sector wide approach, addressing both short and long-term
challenges in the basic education sector.
The second
sub-programme, with an approximate budget of USD 6 million, aims at providing
crucial additional education basic services in selected provinces, including the
newly integrated areas and floating villages on the Tonle Sap Lake. This project
will help to bring local experiences into the policy development process, and
contribute to the improved quality, equity and decentralized management of
education services. It addresses in-school as well as out-of-school factors,
thereby also enhancing education opportunities for disadvantaged groups.
The present
document, jointly formulated by RGoC and UNICEF, is a proposal for further RGoC/UNICEF/Sida
co-operation. It carries through the logical consequences of the new MPO. A
second foundation of this proposal is the ongoing reform process and its
progress made so far. Given the expected shortfall of available resources in
Cambodia in the short-run (1 – 2 years) and renewed donor contributions starting
by 2003, a substantial part of the disbursement is proposed to be front-loaded.
The two
sub-programmes are comprised of several components designed to properly address
the main problems in the sector. On the whole, the programme has a number of
outstanding features, justifying the overall qualification of having a
holistic child rights-based approach:
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Priority on
Children, with a main focus on the right to, in and through
education .
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Decentralization, with a dual process of developing enabling policies at
national level as well as institutional and individual capacity building at
local level to implement them.
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Linkages between Formal and Non-formal
Interventions, in order to accomplish the goals of EFA by 2015.
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Partnership
not Donorship, making concerted efforts to involve all stakeholders in the
development, appraisal and monitoring of the sector reforms and initiatives.
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Holistic
Approach, integrating with UNICEF’s other programmes such as Health, Children in
Need of Special Protection (CNSP) and Community Action for Child Rights (Seth
Koma), while focusing on interventions related to the quality of the learner, of
the learning environment, of the content, of the teaching/learning processes and
the quality of the learning outcomes.
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Balance between supply-side and demand-side
interventions, addressing not only supply side factors within the sector such as
quality of teaching, infrastructure, and textbook availability, but also
demand-side factors.
It is expected
that successful implementation of the planned activities stipulated in this
proposal, will considerably contribute to long term development of the education
sector with strong national ownership.
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