2.1 Key Achievements in Past UNICEF/Sida Support to Education Sector

The education sector partnership among the MoEYS, Sida and UNICEF started during the emergency rehabilitation period of the country in the late 1980s. The partnership that has now spanned more than two decades is anchored on the common objective of realizing the right of all Cambodian children to quality basic education. During the last five years between 2001 to 2005, the UNICEF/Sida technical and funding assistance has supported the Ministry’s implementation of a comprehensive education reform following the principles of a sector-wide approach (SWAp).

The multi-year funding support from Sida has enabled UNICEF to provide strategic and sustained support to the MoEYS. Sida’s assistance through UNICEF has been instrumental in setting national policies, building Ministry capacities, developing innovative models to improve quality of primary education, and providing intensive education service delivery support to six of Cambodia ’s 24 provinces. UNICEF’s flexible programming and funding modalities—through five-year country programme process, joint annual work plans and cash and supply assistance—have enabled the MoEYS to respond with the same flexibility to requirements of a fast-moving education reform under SWAp.

Good progress has been achieved under the UNICEF/Sida-supported Expanded Basic Education Programme (EBEP) from 2001 to 2005 despite several constraints, both sector-wide and within the programme. Although it not so simple to attribute achievements of sector results to specific donor contributions and actions under the SWAp, it is nevertheless possible to pinpoint areas where substantial support and action has been provided by UNICEF/Sida, and hence establish its contributions to specific sector outcomes. This includes the following.

Increased public spending on education through a sector-wide approach to education reform - The sector-wide approach has contributed to higher prioritization of education sector in Cambodia . The education budget increased from 13.6 per cent in year 2000 to 19.5 per cent of the government budget in 2004. Moreover, the non-salary ratio of the recurrent budget has increased, making more resources available to improve education. This positive trend notwithstanding, the education budget of Cambodia , remains one of the lowest in the region.²⁷. Teachers’ salaries remain below a living wage—with adverse effects on quality of education and the learning outcomes. Support from UNICEF/Sida played a key role in facilitating the SWAp process and in strengthening the Ministry’s capacity to lead and coordinate sector reform, but serious challenges remain to address the interrelated fiscal issues of low and unpredictable disbursement of Priority Action Programme (PAP) and low salaries of teachers.

Strengthened MoEYS ownership and capacities to implement education reform under SWAp - In 2001, the Ministry with extensive inputs from donors and expatriate technical advisors formulated the ESP/ESSP 2001-2005. Since then, the Ministry together with donors and NGOs has jointly reviewed the ESSP, and in 2004 updated the ESP to cover the period of 2004-2008. Over the years, MoEYS has increasingly taken a clear leadership role in the ESP/ESSP processes and has become less dependent on external technical advisors. For instance, for the first time in 2003, the ESP/ESSP documents were initially drafted in Khmer by the Ministry staff—in contrast to previous years’ practice where English versions were first drafted by external consultants. The Ministry in 2005 likewise successfully led the SWAp seminar to assess the lessons learned from nearly four years of SWAp implementation in the country. With increasing confidence, the Ministry is also leading the formulation of the ESP/ESSP 2006-2010 without external technical advisors and with minimal technical support from a group of donor staff.

Increased Access to Primary Education with Narrowing Gender Gap - Net enrollment ratio (NER) has steadily increased from 87 per cent in school year (SY) 2001-2002 to 92 per cent in SY 2004-2005 and gender gap in enrolment was reduced by more than half during the same period. The fastest rate of enrollment increase from 1999 to 2001 occurred among girls and poorest quintile groups. This indicates that the Ministry’s implementation of pro-poor policies in the first three years of the education reform is on track.

Development of an enabling Education Law - With strengthened technical capacity of the Legislation Unit from UNICEF/Sida support, the MOEYS completed the draft Education Law in 2003— after a comprehensive consultative process involving MoEYS officials at all levels, the NGO sector and donors. The draft law was further reviewed in 2004 and will be submitted to the Council of Ministers by the end of 2005. The delayed formation of the Government in 2004 contributed to the slowdown of the review and finalization process.

Increased attention to quality issues in primary education - The EBEP support enabled the Ministry to implement a number of initiatives to improve the quality of both the learners and the teaching-learning process. Innovations introduced through this approach include Community-based Pre-school, Home-based Early Learning, Child-Friendly Schools (CFS) and School Readiness Programme (SRP) in Grade 1. Through them implementation assumptions were tested and effectiveness of innovations was assessed. Following a successful pilot implementation, CFS and SRP are now poised for nationwide implementation.

Increased awareness and attention to Early Child Care and Development (ECCD)- ECCD is a relatively new concept in Cambodia and is not yet accorded a high priority in the current education reform. With support from UNICEF/Sida a national policy on Early Childhood Education was developed by MoEYS and a separate Early Childhood Education Department was established in 2000. Notwithstanding these encouraging start-ups, access to ECCD services remains very limited and the target of 30 per cent ECCD coverage envisaged in EFA National Plan is unlikely to be achieved by 2005. In addition, the draft National ECD Policy has yet to be approved.

Strengthened capacities in decentralized planning, management and monitoring - UNICEF/Sida supported the MoEYS to establish decentralized mechanisms and train provincial/district staff to implement Educational Management Information System (EMIS), Financial Management Information System (FMIS), Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) and Budget Management Centers (BMC). Development planning was decentralized all the way down to schools through the school cluster system and was supported with school operational budget.

²⁷The total public expenditure on education of Cambodia in 2001 is 1.4 % of GDP. This is much lower than the regional average for East Asia of 3.6%, and of developing countries at 4.2%. (Source: UNESCO, Global Monitoring Report, 2005).