Policies
on education development
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MoEYS
defines four major policies as follows:
·
Making
nine years of basic general education available throughout the
country, and developing new opportunities for functional
literacy
·
Modernizing
and improving the quality of the educational system through
effective reforms
·
Linking
education and training development with the socio-economic
requirements and the labor market
·
Rehabilitating
and developing the youth and sport sub-sectors in both formal
and non-formal education systems
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To
implement the above-mentioned policy, the Ministry pays due attention to
the following priority policy objectives:
-
To
create equal opportunities for school-age children of all regions
and all ethnic groups to attend schools so that they have the chance
to complete primary education and receive the full nine years of
basic education: In
this sense, MoEYS will encourage at least 75% of primary schools a
complete range of grades (Grade 1 through Grade 6) for primary level
within the next five years and encourage schools in the areas where
the school-age is sparse to apply multi-grade teaching methods.
At present, 48.3% of primary schools do not have a complete
range of grades in the primary cycle. If 250 schools manage to have
a complete range of grade (Grade 1 to Grade 6) for primary education
level within each year, 75% of all primary schools will have a
complete range of grades by year 2004.
-
On
the other hand, 28 districts do not have yet their own lower
secondary schools. Children aged from 12 – 14 years, especially
girls, do not have access to secondary schools. In principle, MoEYS
encourages core schools within school clusters to expand themselves
into lower secondary schools so as to increase chances for children
to receive full nine years of basic education.
-
To
increase the internal efficiency of the education system.
This is done by implementing measures such as retraining
teachers; increasing the number of learning hours; providing
adequate textbooks and teacher’s guides; applying modern teaching
methodology; forming inspector teams; reforming methods to evaluate
students’ achievements; and motivating members of the local
community to be more active in educational development.
-
To
restore the physical infrastructure and build new schools.
MoEYS will also continue to construct at least one
lower-secondary school attached to the core school of each school
cluster.
-
To
develop other important sub-sectors.
In parallel with these efforts, MoEYS will also develop other
important sub-sectors, including upper-secondary education, non
formal education, education for vulnerable groups, higher education,
technical education and vocational training in order that more young
people may have a chance to further their study in higher grades or
to acquire technical skills according to their own interests and
talents
-
To
enhance all levels of education administration and management in
order to increase efficiency and effectiveness in education sector
planning, administration, management, and inspection through the
implementation of development of human resources programs.
Central and provincial levels receive some modern equipment for
their use. A number of basic documents are developed and then put
into use step-by-step by central, provincial, district levels and
school principal. The
Ministry is also beginning the process of staff rationalization and
the inception of administrative decentralization.
-
To
organize functional literacy classes and to launch a campaign aimed
at coordinating the activities of the Literacy Commissions at
provincial and district levels.
To rehabilitate and develop Youth and Sport in the formal system and
non-formal education.
|
·
Literacy
rate
Both sexes: 68.7%
Male: 81.8%
Female: 58.1%
·
Tertiary
institutes: 64 students per 100,000 people
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Education
administration and planning
The
general administrative structure of the education system can be seen to
adopt elements of a centrally-planned public administration structure.
While many of the educational administrators in Cambodia have a
great deal of experiences in leading and managing their work, they have
never completed any standardized training.
At
the central level, tasks are divided among general departments and
specialized departments. In various domains of management (finance,
materials/equipment, personnel, and curriculum), decisions are made on
the basis of consent and appointment. Because of poor communication
links at the horizontal line of authority, education administrators at
the grass-root level are obliged to make decisions on many things
without referring to higher levels. Consequently, the implementation of
the Ministry’s guidelines or instructions by each administrative unit
varies according to geographical or specific conditions of each
locality.
The
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has four levels, or horizontal
lines of authority, consisting of the Ministry at Central level, the
provincial/municipal level, the district or “khan” level, and the
schools. It should be noted
that the school cluster is not a new hierarchical line of authority.
A school cluster is a group of schools located near each other
that can provide mutual technical and material assistance to make the
teaching-learning process more effective.
Educational
planning is a major component useful to educational administrators at
all levels to evaluate the results of their work and to make their
decisions more effective. The process of planning requires accurate
information on the current situation of each unit or system and involves
many steps, including data collection, analysis, diagnosis and
identification of priority activities to be subsequently carried out.
At the present, the Department of Planning runs an Education
Management Information System (EMIS) Center.
Its mission is to collect data from all schools across the
country for processing, analyzing and then compiling into statistics and
indicators yearbooks for distribution to and use by all levels of
educational administrators.
