Education planning and programming also needs to take account of other social dimensions, especially child health and nutrition and the potential impact of HIV/AIDS. For example, child malnutrition has risen from 38 per cent to 40 per cent in the past decade. Almost one-fifth of children suffer from severe malnutrition. In addition, roughly 70 per cent of the population has no access to safe water and roughly 85 per cent have inadequate sanitation.

International evidence indicates that these health factors can have significant impact on student performance at school. Unsafe water correlates strongly with the incidence of diarrhea, which impacts adversely on student attendance. Conversely, family nutrition education programs and the availability of micronutrient supplements as part of integrated health/education planning can bring positive results.

There is a strong case for increasingly using the primary school network as part of this proposed integrated health planning. The national health clinic network is only one-third of the size of the primary school network. Health clinic staffing levels are around 17 per 100,000 people compared to over 80 per 100,000 people for primary schools. The current pilot primary school feeding program is a good example of such an integrated approach.

Future education planning may need to take increasing account of the prevalence of HIV AIDS in Cambodia. In 1998, it was estimated that 180,000 (or 3.7 per cent of the sexually active population) were HIV positive. There are currently an estimated 6,000 AIDS sufferers in Cambodia. While there is no reliable data on Cambodian teachers, a recent study indicated that around 25 per cent of young men in Cambodia engaged in high-risk sexual behaviour (Cambodia Women's Development Association, 1995). International experience suggests relatively better-off, male professionals (including teachers) are potentially a high-risk group.

HIV prevalence has potentially great significance for long-term teaching service planning. HIV/AIDS could contribute to growing attrition rates and absenteeism in the teaching service. Growing AIDS prevalence could add significantly to teaching service and teacher training costs if it becomes a major problem. Equally, in some countries, teacher-training institutions are often the epicenter of high-risk sexual behaviour. Given the significant public and private investment in secondary and post secondary education, a first measure could be a targeted HIV/AIDS awareness program for the education sector. A second measure could be further research into potential HIV/AIDS impact on education planning with the intent of building on the initial HIV/AIDS education situation analysis initiated by MOEYS (September 2000).