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Education |
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(i)
Introduction The
Royal Government of Cambodia in its report for the 2002 CG states
“Concerted efforts have been made to implement fiscal reform,
including...re-orienting government spending to priority programs in
agriculture, rural development, health and education; and improving
administrative procedures to ensure that social sector targets are met.”
(Executive Summary, p.4) Education
for All forms the basis of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports’
(MoEYS) Education Sector Plan for 2001-2005. This NGO report addresses the
relationship between the statement of the Government and the reform
platform of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. The
MoEYS’ milestone documents, the Education Strategic Plan (ESP)
and the Education Sector Support Program (ESSP),
a five-year sectoral plan, presents an integrated reform program, which is
pro-poor and policy-led. Formulated in collaboration with stakeholders,
these documents provide a basis for addressing the constraints to
achieving education for all, and specifically target marginalized groups
(the poor, girls, disabled, ethnic minorities). The donor and NGO community involved in education applaud the policy, planning and implementation progress made in the past few years by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) and the MoEYS. For example, between 1998/1999 and 2001/2002 there has been an absolute increase of 32% in primary enrollments, with relative growth favoring disadvantaged and newly opened areas. Daunting challenges, however, remain in implementation. Currently, 86% of primary age students are enrolled in school, but transition rates drop quickly, and by lower secondary school, only 17% of students enroll. Gender disparities remain across most levels of education and highlight the need for specific education strategies to enroll and retain girls. Although the gender gap is narrowing at the primary level, the percentage of girls in school falls from 47% in grade 1 to 32% in grade 6. Girls represent only about one- third of total enrollment in secondary schools and 20% in post-secondary institutions. In the education service, across teaching ranks (outside of primary level) and in administration, men represent approximately three-quarters of the work force. In
the financial arena, the RGC allocated almost 16% of its national
recurrent budget to education in 2001 and has increased the allocation to
18.2% in the current year. The growth in the education share in both years
is strongly commended. Unfortunately, due to inadequacies in revenue
policy and collection, the share still falls short of meeting needs. The
shortfall is compounded by the fact that the level of disbursement
invariably tends to be well below the amounts allocated in the national
budget This gap between promise and delivery seriously impedes the
progress of educational reform. The lack of funds is perhaps most notable
in low (and often delayed) teacher salaries but also in poor availability
of adequate facilities and learning materials. This lack of the minimal
finances required results in a supplementary system of unofficial payment
of school/teacher fees by parents, which excludes poor children because of
their inability to pay. While
the major attention of the MoEYS is on the provision of basic grade 1-9
education, there is inadequate emphasis on the provision of non-formal
education and vocational training to the many children and youths whose
learning needs have not been addressed by a formal education. By grade 5,
the majority of the appropriate
cohort of school-age population is outside the formal system and receives
almost no resources from MoEYS. Currently, 36% of Cambodians are
illiterate and 27% are semi-literate. Projecting these figures into the
total population, this indicates that 4 million Cambodian youths and
adults (15 years old and
older) are basically illiterate. These individuals lack the
skills necessary to enter the modern work force and respond to the
nation’s development needs. The
low level of basic skills in the populates has serious implications for
Cambodia’s comparative advantage in global markets. The textile trade
has rapidly grown to be worth over one billion dollars a year to Cambodia —
i.e. well in excess of the
aid budget. However emerging competition, as neighbors such as China and
Vietnam are accorded the same tariff free trading preferences as Cambodia
has enjoyed, may well result in Cambodia’s comparative disadvantage (in
terms of a workforce
relatively illiterate by comparison with those of her new competitors). It
is possible that Cambodia may be about to pay the price for her low level
of investment in basic education. The NGO community fully endorses the policy and position of the RGC/MoEYS in its commitment to providing basic education for all Cambodian children, and remains a willing and dedicated partner in the educational reform process. NGOs’ major infusion of resources and technical advice has made a significant contribution to the reconstruction of the education system. The NGO community has entered into the NGO Education Partnership (NEP), with the encouragement of the MoEYS, as a major collaborative mechanism between NGOs, the RGC and MoEYS. (ii) Review of Key Issues in the
2001 CG Education Document Coordination and Collaboration
The
NGO community is encouraged by the participatory approaches embedded in
the ESP and ESSP. Programs, such as the MoEYS program to give grants to
local schools, the planned program for minority students in Ratanakiri,
and the scholarship programs for needy students at the primary and
secondary levels in Kompong Cham, represent examples of successful
cooperation between government and local communities. The MoEYS Priority
Action Program (PAP) was designed primarily to guarantee and decentralize
school funding. It was successful in stimulating local government and
school community planning. The first tranche was disbursed and mostly used
for materials and supplies. However, further payments were generally late,
non-existent or didn’t match planned allocations. This undermined the
credibility of MoEYS among education stakeholders. However, the NGOs do
affirm all these participatory efforts in education reform and urge
continued and expanded efforts to engage stakeholders in education
development. Allocation of Resources
By
April of 2002, an average of 65% (increased
from 40% for last year) of the 2001 PAP funds had been disbursed to
schools and about 50% to tertiary education. None of the 2002 funds have
been disbursed at this writing. While NGOs are encouraged by budgeted
increases in educational funding, they are extremely concerned by the
patterns of non-disbursement and late disbursement of committed funds.
These lead to inefficiency in the system itself, poor progress towards
educational goals, and disillusionment among stakeholders. In particular
the whole notion of decentralization of expenditure planning to local
levels is undermined when funds are not delivered on time and plans cannot
be realized. The
NGO community realizes that difficult issues of allocation and
disbursement of funds exist between the MoEYS and the Ministry of Economy
and Finance (MoEF), and that unplanned or competing priorities for money
sometimes intervene in the delivery of funds to education. However, NGOs
feel strongly that a top priority of the RGC/MoEF should be increased
cooperation among ministries to ensure that adequate funds are collected
and allocated for education reform, and that they be disbursed in a
transparent and timely schedule. The NGOs also recommend harnessing and
regulating the unofficial but often-significant fees collected by
teachers, so that they can be transparently and effectively used to pay
teachers and to provide services for disadvantaged children. Lastly, NGOs
would like to see the MoEYS implement some actual pilot programs which
would give teachers salary incentives for extra duties, supplementary
programs, split schedules, etc. The
MoEYS 5-year Education Sector Plan (ESP)
The
NGO community feels that these issues are represented in the ESP but would
like to see better coordination of cross-cutting issues to ensure the
needs of marginalized children are considered in all mainstream MoEYS
planning. Policy implementation strategies are not clear. NGOs feel there
needs to be a concerted effort towards actual implementation of quality
programs to address these issues and suggest that MoEYS looks
at programs that NGOs already have in progress to get implementation
ideas. There are many good examples of programs that are being done in
areas such as promotion of girls and ethnic minorities, participation in
community-based ECCD, and HIV/AIDS. At this time however, there has been
no focus study on the number of individuals in the teaching service that
are infected by HIV/AIDS, a study requested in 2001. The quality of education remains a big concern. The focus of education improvement programs should emphasize learners as the subject of policy reforms, rather than continuing to concentrate. Solely on institution building and quantitative indicators. Qualitative indicators are needed of student learning textbook adequacy, teacher effectiveness and local management capacity. (iii) Recommendations
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