|
| |
3.8. Risk Assessment, Feasibility, and Sustainability
3.8.1.
Risks Inherent in the Reform Process
The success of any intervention within the
education sector will depend largely on the progress of the government’s planned
reform program. The June appraisal report of the ESSP program highlighted
several weaknesses in the planned approach, including the fact that its
magnitude, complexity, and proposed pace of change were mentioned as serious
concerns. In particular the tasks and time frame were described as overly
ambitious. These weaknesses have been acknowledged and partly addressed in the
revised version of the ESSP. This revised version was broadly endorsed by donors
and NGOs by late September 2001. Once the final budget allocation for 2002 has
been determined, revisions to the plan will be required in order to match
available resources with stated objectives to ensure a successful reform process
(See also Annex 4 for the latest version of the Indicative Medium-term
Expenditure Framework for ESSP 2001-2005).
3.8.2.
Assumptions and Feasibility Assessment of the Proposed Program
The Expanded Basic Education Program is based on a
number of key assumptions. Besides the assumption of continued political
stability and peace, other important assumptions can be summarized as follows:
*
The
government can establish and implement a policy framework to facilitate
decentralized and integrated service delivery in the education sector.
Educational development in the past has been top-down. The ESSP developed by
MoEYS makes concerted efforts to underline the need for more local ownership of
education initiatives. But for this to happen, the system must be decentralized.
A policy framework is required to ensure the education system will begin to make
tangible progress in this direction. The Expanded Basic Education Program,
therefore, places a great deal of emphasis on providing the support required by
the Ministry to develop the policy and regulatory framework to enable
this change. Significant progress, however, has already been made in this
direction. The most tangible sign of movement towards decentralization is the
Ministry’s implementation of the Priority Action Plan in which schools now
receive grant funds to improve the quality of teaching and learning based on
locally set objectives and needs. PAP is now in its second year and continues to
improve the efficiency of its implementation, particularly the process of
budgetary disbursement to the local level. In addition, it should also be noted
that the Ministry has commenced the process of developing a common policy
implementation matrix that should greatly increase the coherence in the
allocation of resources and coordination between development activities.
*
Financial reforms enable medium term budget allocations for forward planning and
advance fund release.
This assumption is
strongly related to the government's ability to develop a policy framework to
ensure decentralization. One of the main criticisms of previous activities
implemented by the Ministry at all levels has been the slow release of funds.
This has damaged the Ministry's credibility to make good on promises to
stakeholders (e.g., payments to remedial teachers, contract teachers, etc.). To
a large extent, this slowness in financial processing is as much due to the need
for reform at the MoEF as at the MoEYS. Nevertheless, the government has made a
commitment to reform its financial procedures by moving from item based to
program-based budgeting (as under PAP) as well as developing a medium term
expenditure framework to increase predictability in financial planning. Once
again, implementation of PAP shows significant progress along these lines.
Whereas PAP 2000 was plagued by tardiness in the allocation of grants to schools
in its first year of implementation, PAP 2001 has won the Ministry significant
kudos from development partners for the expeditious manner in which funds are
now transferred from central level to local schools.
*
The
government and donors will be able to increase the resources currently provided
to the education sector.
One of
the important concerns of all those involved in educational development is the
availability of resources with which to carry forward the new reform program.
Donors have traditionally felt that the government has not provided enough of
its own resources to educational development to match the rhetoric that
describes education as a high priority. Since last year, however, the
government has pumped a significant amount of internal financial resources into
the sector under its PAP. (See also Section 2.4.1 for information regarding the
increase of the recurrent spending share for education). It is hoped that donors
will match this commitment shown by the government. In this respect, the list of
scheduled grants by donors cited in the August 2001 ADB Memorandum of
Understanding with the Ministry, gives strong hope that the international
community will respond positively to increased allocations of budgetary
resources to education by the central government (see also Annex 5). While many
problems have been reported with its implementation, the development of PAP has
been an important first step for the Ministry and highlights its commitment to
increasing resource allocations. Thus, the assumption that the government and
donors will continue to increase resources for education seems highly justified.
This bodes well for hopes of sustained educational development.
*
Civil
service reform and teacher rationalization will be successfully implemented.
The
success of the program also depends to a large extent on successful civil
service reform and teacher rationalization, so that adequate numbers of
committed and qualified teachers and education officials are available to
implement proposed education reforms. Such reforms include greater
accountability for performance and more efficient deployment of teaching staff
away from areas of surplus to areas of critical shortages in much of the
countryside. The prominent place given to teacher rationalization in the ESSP
and the plan to double teacher salaries by 2005 indicate that these reforms will
have a high priority for the Ministry. In addition, it should be noted that
there is an historical basis for optimism in this regard given the Ministry’s
establishment of the Prime Pedagogique. This was a selective increase in
salary for certified teachers that tried to increase morale among the teaching
force (but which avoided an across the board increase in salary for all
civil servants).
*
The
amount of real teaching time in the classroom can be brought in line with
curriculum needs.
Poor
accountability in the management of schools and weak coordination between school
year scheduling and curriculum development activities have resulted in a
significant mismatch between teaching time and curriculum needs. Research has
shown that real study time is well below the 780 hours per year required to
teach the curriculum in many schools (McLaughlin and Sprechman, 1999). However,
based on the findings of the study mentioned above, the Department of
Pedagogical Research has begun a process of curriculum revision that will help
to bring the curriculum in line with the number of hours available for study.
For its part, the Department of Pre and Primary School is strengthening its
monitoring activities to ensure that schools are kept open on the days they are
supposed to be open.
*
The
education system can reduce its reliance on external technical assistance with
the momentum for continued development coming increasingly from local capacity
both within and outside the Ministry.
The
early stages of educational development in Cambodia have been characterized by a
very high reliance on outside consultants. Development formulated in this way is
clearly very costly and not sustainable. Concerted efforts are now underway by
UNICEF and others to reduce this reliance. For example, UNICEF is currently
helping the Ministry to form tri-partite partnerships with local NGOs as well as
itself in the development of pilot programs. These trends will be expanded in
the future thereby giving hope to the assumption that reliance on external
assistance can indeed be reduced. In addition, the parameters of a feasibility
study on ways and means to harness educational development to local capacity,
possibly with the assistance of an external agency, are presently being
considered by MoEYS, UNICEF and UNESCO.
*
Strong
coordination can be maintained at central level, in the convergence provinces,
and within UNICEF.
The holistic
approach to educational development proposed in the Expanded Basic Education
Program assumes strong coordination among line Ministries such as MoWVA, MoEYS,
MoSALVA, and MoH. It also assumes that components within UNICEF such as Health,
Education, Child Protection and Seth Koma can also work together
efficiently. The first year of implementation of UNICEF’s new MPO gives strong
cause for optimism that such coordination can indeed be maintained and further
strengthened. Through certain organizational reforms such as the identification
of team leaders in its provincial sites, the Seth Koma program has demonstrated
a reliable means to ensure such coordination not only with each individual
sectoral component but also with the various line ministries.
*
There is
lasting commitment to partnership by the government, donors, NGOs, and local
stakeholders.
The
education sector development program proposed by the Ministry assumes that all
stakeholders will move to more collaborative approaches in developing the
education sector. This means avoiding past practice of developing parallel
implementation systems for each project or program on the donor side and being
more flexible in terms of control on the Ministry’s side. This change in
approach is a dramatic shift from past practice. Because the sub-program Basic
Education Capacity Building Priorities for SWAp Readiness is so closely linked
with the ESSP process, the assumption that there will be greater ‘partnership’
among all stakeholders is, therefore, critical. A very good start has been made
in terms of wide stakeholder consultations during the ESSP process and the
formation of a grouping known as the NGO Education Partnership (NEP). Because of
the massive task suggested by even a scaled down ESSP, UNICEF is counting on the
availability of considerable technical expertise among local and international
NGOs in particular to assist the Ministry in implementing education reform. In
addition, the assumption of strong commitment by donors is further bolstered by
the endorsement of a Statement of Intent by many major donors to continue
support for the education system in Cambodia, March, 2000). This document was in
turn complemented by the development of a Note on Partnerships (February, 2001)
leading to regular consultative meetings between donors, NGOs, and MoEYS.
*
Target
groups are responsive to interventions to offset the direct costs of education,
increase community participation in education, and reduce HIV/AIDS.
Many of
the interventions identified in the proposed program assume a value system among
stakeholders that is not antagonistic to purported goals. This includes placing
high value on education, literacy, and the recognition that everybody can be
affected by HIV/AIDS. Because of the stress on demand-side interventions in
MoEYS’ ESSP Program, the presence of a compatible value system with respect to
proposed interventions would be particularly important. Nevertheless, current
pilots in the area of scholarships for the poor, girls, etc. do suggest that a
large part of the population will be highly receptive. In addition, the 2001
campaign by the government to increase school enrolment has so far seen an
impressive response by the population. These developments as well as a Parent
Satisfaction Survey undertaken by PAP, all indicate strong receptivity of
parental stakeholders to proposed interventions to be supported under the
program.
3.8.3
Environmental sustainability
The proposed program does
not address any particular environmental issues directly. Nevertheless, there is
a clear association between education and environmental awareness. More educated
persons will be able to better understand their own role in environmental
degradation and conservation, and therefore will be more inclined to consider
changing their attitude and behaviour, if provided with appropriate information.
As such, the proposed program has a number of expected outputs that are relevant
in this context, such as efficiency of schools increased, teacher
professionalism improved, enrolment of girls in lower secondary education
increased, literacy levels of adolescents and adult population improved. As
observed in many countries around the globe, increased literacy levels are
particularly important for the link between poverty and environmental
degradation.
With regard to
environmental protection the Expanded Basic Education Program will provide
supplementary reading materials on environmental education in close cooperation
with NGOs. Furthermore it is fully recognized that environmental protection
should become an integral part of the contents of literacy and life skills
materials, as well as of the new generation of curricula and textbooks.
|
