Department of General Secondary Education

1. Objectives

The secondary schools scholarships program objective is to ensure increased education opportunities for students with high academic merit from the poorest and disadvantaged families, especially girls and ethnic minorities, through a gradual increase in the number of targeted scholarships for the poor.

The long-term strategic objective of this program is to increase enrolment, retention and the progression of students from the poorest families and those of high academic merit in secondary education.

2. Responding to ESP Strategies and Policies

Policy 1: Ensuring Equitable Access to Education Services

¯  Increase the number of scholarships (cash or food) for students from poor families, especially girls, to ensure their access to primary and secondary school. Ensure their strengthened support in better poverty/food security-targeted primary school feeding and grade 7-9 incentive programs.

Policy action:

• National scholarship program developed by 2011.
• Sub-decree on the provision of scholarships to students from poor families at upper secondary education level adopted in 2011.

3. Indicators and Targets

• Scholarships for 10% of enrollment per year for lower secondary schools including 60% for females.
• Scholarships for 3% of enrollment per year for upper secondary schools including 60% for females.

4. Main Programs and Activities

4.1) Recurrent programs (Program based budgeting​​​​​ and others budgeting)

• Provide scholarships to students in grades 7-9 selected from the poorest families and other disadvantaged groups including girls and children from minority groups. Girls will represent a minimum of 60% of all scholarship students in the selected schools.
• Upper Secondary Scholarships for grades 10 to 12 students will be mainly merit-driven, but also poverty-indexed, based on grade 9 examination scores. Girls will represent a minimum of 60% of all scholarship students in the selected schools.
• Provide operational budgets for local management committee for monitoring, recruitment and meetings.
• Monitoring of the implementation of national and sub-national scholarship programs.

4.2) Capital programs

Investment

• Provide facilities for the management of the scholarship program.

Technical Cooperation

• Carry out an impact study on the scholarship program in lower secondary education.
• Collect data on students from poorest families in local schools and communities.
• Build capacity for national and sub-national technical experts and managers in the formulation of program plans for targeting the poorest, budget distribution, monitoring, evaluation and carrying out research.

5. Program Management and Monitoring

Program management will be highly decentralized at the level of schools/communities. DGE will be the designated body for the program, responsible for policy and strategic planning and the management and accounting for funds.

Capital-provincial scholarship management committees will be responsible for program management and monitoring and providing technical support to schools and communities. Local management committees in schools and at community level will be responsible for daily scholarship program management in accordance with the scholarship execution guidebook.

6. Financing Plan (million Riels)