Khmer News in Cambodia

Chan Srey Lin, an 8th grade student at Tropang Chres secondary school, enjoys studying in her new Subject-Based Classroom. “I like studying in a subject-based classroom because it is a friendly and good environment. It is easy for me to learn and to absorb what our teachers tell us.”

The subject-based classroom is a part of the Child-Friendly School Policy launched by the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport in December 2007, aimed at improving the quality of the learning environment. Each subject-based classroom is the setting for teaching from one to four subjects; for example, maths, physics and chemistry could be grouped together as one; history and geography as another. Read the rest of this entry »

Challenge: Keeping children – particularly​ poor children – in school beyond the first few grades of primary school, the quality of teachers and the large student teacher ratio (49.7:1 in primary school) are the most significant challenges. Policies that attract children to school at the proper enrolment age and policies that attract, retain, develop, and motivate teachers are key to reducing primary school dropout and improve quality of education.

Child work, which contributes significantly to the livelihoods of households, can interfere with schooling. Also, household direct costs for schooling, such as pocket money, transportation costs, and supplementary tutoring, remain substantial.

School incentive schemes that provide cash or in-kind subsidies to poor children conditional on school attendance are promising.

Approach: TheWorld Bank funded, Cambodia Education Sector Support Project is supporting the Government to expand access to educational services by addressing supply, demand, quality and efficiency constraints. At the same time, a multi-donor trust fund project managed by the World Bank called Education Sector Support Scale Up Action Programme funded by Fast Track Initiative Catalytic Fund (FTI) is also supporting the Government in achieving its educational Millennium Development Goals. Read the rest of this entry »

The Cambodia Education Sector Support Project (CESSP), which is supported financially by the World Bank, has been implemented by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport for four years. The World Bank Cambodia monthly Newsletter interviewed H.E. Ou Eng, CESSP Project Manager, on the project’s achievements and the challenges it faces.

Please could you let us know what the goal of CESSP is?

The goal of CESSP is to assist the Government of Cambodia, particularly the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), to expand access to educational services by addressing supply, demand quality, and efficiency constraints with special focus on poor and under-served communes.

There are two essential objectives. First, to demonstrate characteristics of effective schooling for primary and lower secondary schools, with increased participation from poor and disadvantaged children a specific target. Second, to improve institutional capacity for Government Policy and Administration to address issues of education quality at all levels. Read the rest of this entry »