Theme: Access & Quality of Education
Location: Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Thom, Kampot, Pursat and Siem Reap Provinces, CAMBODIA but will be expanded to all provinces
Duration:
Phase 1: 2014-2018
Phase 2: 2020-2024
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 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 handwashing facilities
- Quality of education is often substandard
- Poor learning outcomes
- Many factors that take children out of school, including discrimination against children with disabilities and overage learners, remoteness, poor schooling environments, gender-based violence, poverty, migration, child labour, exploitation, and more
Leading The Cambodian Consortium for Out of School Children in partnership with Educate A Child (EAC), a global programme of the Education Above All Foundation, and supported by the Qatar Fund For Development, we aim to enrol over 116,000 out of school children in school by 2024. However as the current Covid-19 crisis presents the largest education emergency of our time, our aim is to also ensure continuity of education during school closures.
Results in 2020: In 2020, our project activities reached 6,795 children of whom 49 per cent were girls. To support ethnic minority students who did not have access to online or televised learning during school closures, we distributed over 4,000 radios to allow them to tune into educational broadcasts in their native language. We supported 489 children with intellectual disabilities with inclusive education through developing online content and supporting teachers to train parents on homeschooling.
Our project activities include (but are not limited to):
- Enrolling out of school children into education
- Constructing/refurbishing classrooms and schools
- Installing water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) facilities
- Offering emergency food and school material distributions during crises
- Providing in-kind scholarships to marginalised children including need-based scholarships for children with disabilities and ethnic minority children
- Revising curricula and education tools
- Engaging parents and youth in advocacy for children with disabilities and ethnic minority children
- Further developing our suite of quality e-learning applications including Library, Educator, Reader, Writer and Rean An (Learn to Read).
- Setting up/upgrading school libraries
- Providing teacher training on school management, child-friendly pedagogies and more
- Running mobile books & learning toys libraries that reach rural communities
- Providing schools and commune offices with digital facilities (such as TV screens and tablets) and an internet connection
- Providing teachers and local councils with technical support, training and workshops in order to build their capacity in using our digital hub and libraries
Project partners: Damnok Toek, Educate A Child, iLEAD International School, Rabbit School Organisation, Youth Star Cambodia, The Cambodia Young Men’s Christian Association (Cambodia YMCA), Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS)
More info at:
