GOVERNMENT-DONOR COORDINATION COMMITTEE (GDCC)

Six Month Progress Report of the Joint Technical Working Groups
For the Period: December 2005 - May 2006

This questionnaire on progress made by each Joint Technical Working Group is requested by the Secretariat of the Government-Donor Coordination Committee (GDCC). It should be completed and submitted to the Secretariat of the GDCC before 29 May 2006. It will be used to prepare a summary progress report for the seventh GDCC Meeting scheduled to be held on 14 June 2006. Please return the completed questionnaire to H.E. Mr. Chhieng Yanara at CDC/CRDB in both soft and hard copies.

TWG: Education

A. Progress in Implementing TWG's Action Plans

Please list below activities in the Action Plans that were scheduled to be implemented during the last six months (December 2005 to May 2006) and provide an update on implementation status of these activities.

Scheduled Activities	Implementation Status
Scheduled Activities	On Schedule	Behind Schedule	If behind schedule, reasons for delay	TWG Recommendations for GDCC Consideration, if any
i. Joint Monitoring Indicators (JMI)
1. Submit Annual workplan of JTWG to CDC	ü
2. Submit JMI for the coming CG	ü
3. Submit Education sector Progress/ Annual report to CG meeting	ü
4. Submit Quarterly/ Semester Progress Report to CDC on JMI	ü
5. Regular meeting of the JTWG	ü
6. Endorsement of Education Strategic Plan and Education Sector Support Program 2006-10	ü
7. Endorsement of Education Sector Performance Report 2005	ü
8. Review and agree upon the scope and format of the ESSP Review / Congress 2006		ü	The options and procedures for combining the ESSP Review and Education Congress are still under discussion
9. Endorse Education Sector Performance Report 2006	Oct 06
10. Agreed on Donor's report 2006	Oct 06
11. Conduct Joint ESSP 2007-2011 Review/ Congress	Sept 06
12. Progress report on PAP disbursement at Central Ministry and by Provinces	ü
13. Follow up on the phasing out of individual development partner salary supplementation programs		ü	Awaiting information from development partners and CAR
14. Report on PR, RR and DR and Survival Rate	ü		To be included in Sector performance report 2006

iii. Progress towards Education for All
15. Follow up EFA-FTI request		ü	Awaiting official endorsement of Cambodia by the development partners to the EFA-FTI secretariat in WB Washington.
16. National EFA Mid decade assessment	ü

Are there any other issues affecting the implementation of TWG Action Plan that it would like to submit for GDCC's consideration.

Request the presence of senior official from the MOEF at the JTWG_ Ed meeting.

B. Progress on Joint Monitoring Indicators

If there are any Joint Monitoring Indicator(s) agreed at the 8^th CG Meeting held in March 2006 that fall within the mandate of this TWG, please list the JMIs below and indicate progress that has been made toward achieving the JMI targets.

Joint Monitoring Indicator

What is the current implementation status? What are the constraints that you are experiencing, if any? What recommendations do you have, for GDCC consideration to resolve the identified constraints?

i. Increase the net enrolment in primary school (total, and by sex).

Between school year 2004-05 and 2005-06 the net enrollment ratios in primary schools were as follows:

Total net enrolment ratio decreased from 91.9% to 91.3%
Female net enrolment ratio decreased from 90.7% to 89.7%
Male net enrolment ratio increased from 92.1% to 93.0%

The decreases in net enrolment in primary in total and for females are disappointing. In particular, as this appears to be as a result of increasing drop-out rates, which have increased in all grades 1-6 compared to the previous year. That said, the figures still show some improvement on the 2003-04 the figures of: total NER 90.1%, female NER 88.6%, and male NER 91.5%

In addition, it should be noted that between 2004-05 and 2005-06, Gross enrollment in primary school increased from 119.7% to 129.4%, indicating that significantly more children are accessing education services, but increasingly they are overage. Key reasons for this increase include:

high rates of overage admission into grade 1, which has been persistently high (between 30%-60% over the last 5 years)
persistently high repetition rates, which though falling still contribute significant numbers of overage students.

The MoEYS will focus on these important issues in its next annual policy review and request the GDCC support the Ministry in taking forward its programs to address these issues

ii. Increase the survival rate from grades 1-6.

Between 2004-05 and 2005-06 the survival rates from grade 1-6 were as follows:

Total survival rate decreased from 52.6% to 48.24%
Female survival rate decreased from 51.78% to 47.62%

Again the key reason for this is the increase in drop-out rates over the last year, and highlights that this issue will receive the Ministry's highest consideration at the next policy review. The policy review will look into existing studies and empirical data in Cambodia to identify strategies that will prevent drop out and minimize repetition, both of which will improve cohort survival rate from Grades 1-6. Possible key intervention strategies include: implementing early child development and school readiness programmes, completing incomplete schools, promoting right-age entry in Grade 1, providing school latrines and water facilities and expanding access to lower secondary schools.

C. Implementation Status of the Action Plan on Harmonization, Alignment and Results

What actions have you taken to implement the updated Harmonization, Alignment, and Results Action Plan? What are the constraints that you are experiencing, if any?

What recommendations do you have, for GDCC consideration to resolve the identified constraints?

Action Taken	Update
i. MoEYS has developed a prioritized, results based sector policy in line with MTEF and NSDP	MoEYS and development partners jointly endorsed the ESP 2006-10 and supporting operational plan ESSP 2006-10. A mid-year review of the ESP/ESSP Policy action matrix will be conducted in July 2006.
ii. Capacity development issues are addressed in the formulation of sector plans	Capacity development issues are addressed in the formulation of the ESSP MoEYS is investigating the potential for initiating a MBPI scheme for priority areas
iii. RGC and development partners use jointly agreed results-orientated reporting and assessment framework with manageable number of indicators	Annual Education Sector Performance Report and ESSP all report against jointly agreed sector performance indicators, and joint assessments of progress guide the formulation of subsequent ESSPs. However, the number of indicators remains high.
iv. RGC and development partners are mutually accountable for development results	JTWG has agreed to jointly endorse ESP, ESSP and annual Sector Performance Reports. Potential MoEYS endorsement of donor report is under discussion within JTWG

D. Resource Mobilization

Has the TWG been able to mobilize the resources to implement its Action Plan for 2006?

£ yes R no

If no, please answer the following questions:

What is the total amount of resources the TWG had estimated to implement its Action Plan for 2006? (in USD) the total annual budget for PAP 2006 was 116,505,000,000 Riels (US $29,126,250). Recurrent budget for MoEYS in 2006 is 442,000,000,000 Riels (US $110,500,000). Unicef/Sida: USD 5.4M, DFID: USD 1,503,278.80
What is the minimum additional amount that the TWG needs to implement its Action Plan? (in USD)...................................
Which development partners do you think would be able to provide the required resources?...................................................

Report endorsed by:

TOR of the Joint Technical Working Group in Education Sector (JTWG-Ed):
Role, Responsibility and Membership

1 Role and Responsibility

1.1 Role

A Joint Technical Working Group in Education Sector (JTWG-Ed) is mandated as a core group of both parties, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MOEYS) and Development Partners to in charge of managing the performance of the Education Sector in achieving Education For All (EFA), the Cambodia Millennium Development Goal (CMDG), the Rectangular Strategy of the Royal Government of Cambodia, the Harmonization and Alignment Principles as well as, the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) and Education Sector Support Program (ESSP), which are the main agreed key concerns of all partners.

The JTWG-Edu provides guidelines to a Small Working Group (SWG), acting as its secretariat.

1.2 Responsibility

In fulfilling its mandate the JTWG-Ed has a number of primary duties, as follows:

Reviewing the Education Sector Policies, Strategies and Programs when it is needed in order to response to the current development of the country and the available resources allocated by all sources.
Encouraging and mobilizing the available financial, technical, material resources to support Education Sector in an effective manner.
Reviewing and ratifying the MoEYS’s medium term ESP in liaison with external Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) Ministries and donor/NGO partners.
Co-ordinating and managing the production and dissemination of the Quarterly, Annually Joint Monitoring Indicators (JMI) against the Consultative Group (CG) benchmark.

2 Membership

Assignment letter of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport No 3890 dated on 28 December 2004 and No 436 dated on 09 February 2005 which composed of (1). MOEYS Senior Officials and staff. (2). ESWG representatives and (3). NEP representative (See attachment)

2006 Workplan of Joint Technical Working Group (JTWG-Ed)

Descriptions

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

I. Joint Monitoring Indicator (JMI)

1. Submit Annual workplan of JTWG to CDC

2. Submit JMI for the coming CG

3. Submit Education sector Progress/ Annual report to CG meeting

4. Submit Quarterly/ Semester Progress Report to CDC on JMI

5. Regular meeting of the JTWG

6. Endorsement of Education Strategic Plan and Education Sector Support Program 2006-10

7. Endorsement of Education Sector Performance Report 2005

8. Review and agree upon the scope and format of the ESSP Review / Congress 2006

9. Endorse Education Sector Performance Report 2006

10. Agreed on Donor's report 2006

11. Conduct Joint ESSP 2007-2011 Review/ Congress

12. Progress report on PAP disbursement at Central Ministry and by Provinces

13. Follow up on the phasing out of individual development partner salary supplementation programs

14. Report on PR, RR and DR and Survival Rate

ii. Progress towards Education for All

15. Follow up EFA-FTI request

16. National EFA Mid decade assessment