Theme:
Access & Quality of Education
Location:
Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Thom, Kampot, Pursat and Siem Reap Provines, CAMBODIA
Duration:
2019-2022
Beneficiaries:
- street children
- overage learners (children older than the norm for their grade)
- poor and remotely living children
- teachers and school directors
- local authorities
- parents and members of School Support Committees
- general population
Background
Cambodia has dedicated considerable resources to strengthening education over the last three decades, and improving access and quality of education has been a key priority for in the Education Sector Plans of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) since 2014. As a result, the country has experienced progress toward achieving universal primary education. With the advent of the sustainable development goals focusing on quality, relevance, and lifelong learning, however, there is a need to broaden the focus of educational efforts. The Cambodian education system still faces numerous challenges:
- lack of educational, technical, and financial resources
- insufficient and under-qualified teachers
- poor management systems
- inhospitable school environments, for example, lack of clean water, latrines and hand washing facilities
- quality of education is often substandard – The World Economic Forum recently rated Cambodia 101st out of 140 countries taking into account both quality and enrollment rates
- poor learning outcomes
- increasing drop-out and repetition rates, decreasing completion rates
- many factors that take children out of school, including discrimination against children with disabilities and overage learners, remoteness, poor schooling environments, gender-based violence, migration, child labor, exploitation, and family difficulties – all leading to declining net admission rates and school attendance.
- poverty – more than half of the Cambodian population remain ‘near poor’ and at high-risk of falling back into poverty and often require their children’s labor to survive. Recent education statistics from UNICEF and UNESCO indicate that there are still approximately 250,000 Out Of School Children in Cambodia.
Our Actions
This project, in partnership with Educate A Child (EAC), a global programme of the Education Above All Foundation, and supported by the Qatar Fund For Development, provides marginalized, out of school children (street children, overage learners and children living in poor/remote conditions) with access to equitable, quality, and relevant primary education. We also help strengthen the accountability of those responsible for education and those that have the right to education. We do this as the lead of a broad consortium of Cambodia-based NGOs, through a number of initiatives, such as:
- Building schools in remote areas
- Non-formal education programs and activities for street children
- Accelerated learning for overage students and flexible classes including remedial classes for slow learners and re-entry classes for children who have dropped out of school
- Learning materials support packages for students in target schools
- Needs-based scholarships
- Livelihood and in-kind support and other services for families
- Revision and creation of curricula and education tools
- Professional development for teachers and capacity building for local education actors
- Creation of school management plans catering for street children, overage and poor/remote children
- Implementation of child-friendly measures in schools
- Campaigns promoting the enrollment of street children, overage and poor/remote children
- Engage parents and youth in advocacy for street children, overage and poor/remote children
- Support to communities in conducting accountability reviews
- Forums to share learning and best practices and mobilize resources in support of street children, overage and poor/remote children
- Policy dialogues on street children, overage and poor/remote children issues
- Support documentation and research on issues affecting street children, overage and poor/remote children
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