The EFA plan is underpinned by the Royal Governments commitment to education for all. Key milestones of the Government's continued reaffirmation of EFA goals and principles include:

The EFA 2000 Assessment, which provided valuable lessons learnt for the formulation of the medium-term ESP/ESSP and longer-term EFA plan, taking account of the World Conference on Education for All (WCEA): Jomtien, 1990.

The Asia-Pacific Conference on EFA 2000 Assessment at which countries of East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Pacific met at the EFA 2000 Asia-Pacific Conference in January 2000 at Bangkok to review national, sub-regional and regional progress and challenges, and develop an Asia Pacific Regional Framework for Action.

The World Education Forum: Dakar, Senegal, April 2000 where after review of inputs from various regions, commissioned studies, reports, 'round tables', and discussions, the global community adopted the Dakar Framework for Action: Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments (2000).

International Resources for EFA: The Dakar Commitment and the Global Cost; End-decade reviews highlighted the failure of the global community to 'deliver' on the 1990 goals by 2000, and the global community cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the 1990s.

Consistent with its EFA commitments, the Royal Government formulated a Sub-Decree issued by Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, on 27 August 2001. The work of the EFA National, Provincial, District and Commune EFA Commissions is to be co-ordinated at the national level by a Permanent Secretariat General of the National Education For All Commission, led by a Secretary General holding the status equivalent to Director General, assisted by two Deputy Secretary Generals. The sub-decree sets out the duties of the National Education for All Commission.

The sub-decree requires EFA Commissions to be established at provincial, district and commune levels. With the increased devolution of governance to provinces, districts and communes, and with the tradition of professional exchange and data collation through school clusters, EFA Commissions have new opportunities to ensure improved two-way information flow: from communities and schools to the national level; and from global, regional and national levels to communities, schools and other learning centres.

As part of the 2001 and 2002 ESSP Review and EFA planning process, a comprehensive survey was conducted to assess perceptions of parents and teachers of the PAP 2001 programs, namely, reducing costs of basic education for parents; budget for teaching and learning materials; improved transparency of school budget; improved quality of teaching and learning; increased participation from parents; remedial classes for students in primary school. The results and analyses were discussed as part of the 2002 ESSP Review.

Initial assessments were encouraging, with 87 per cent of teachers and 72 per cent of parents reporting overall improvements in the school, especially the more visible changes, such as the school environment. Respondents noted enhanced use of teaching aids. More parents (63 per cent) than teachers (41 per cent) reported new or improved buildings, wells, fences and toilets. Parents and teachers considered that remedial classes had contributed to improved pupil knowledge, and 82 per cent of informants reported that pupils had made progress as a result of these classes.