Education is regarded by each country in the world as an important field in ensuring the development of human resources to meet national needs. Societies and nations need continuous human resources development. It is a common world trend that reform is an important task to ensure the improvement of the quality of education.

The development of the school curriculum is at the core of this effort to improve the quality and efficiency of education. The establishment of a policy for curriculum development is a necessary task to provide a guide for the development of the school curriculum.

The Policy for Curriculum Development for general education (Grades 1-12) has been initiated and developed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS). It is produced by MoEYS at the time when Cambodia is moving a head in all respects- economic, social and cultural.

It is intended that the policy will contribute to over all government plans and targets, including the Second Cambodian Socio-economic Development Plan, the Governmental Poverty Alleviation Strategies, the Education for All (EFA) for 2003-2015, the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) and the Education Sector Support Program (ESSP) and so on.

This Curriculum Policy is also a response to the demands of globalization, regionalization and individualization. The policy will contribute to equitable access in Basic Education, will expand public-private education partnership for high quality secondary education and increase accountability in developing standards in three school levels (primary, lower and upper secondary education).

Key features of the 1996 Core Curriculum have been upgraded and improved. For example, the curriculum policy establishes teaching time allocation, provide time in a curriculum for a Local Life Skill Program (LLSP) and offers subject choice selection for Grades 11 and 12 students by adding learning hours for each subject and students learn less subjects than before.

This policy is designed for a period of five years, 2005-2009 and will be reviewed in 2009 for another five years, for the period 2010-2014 in order to reflect the development of the country.

The MoEYS hopes that this Curriculum Policy is a useful resource for teachers, school directors, educational officers, parents, scientists, researchers and other stakeholders. The MoEYS believes that all educational institutions, local community, Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs), International Organizations (IOs) and other stakeholders will cooperate and support the implementation of this policy.