Overcoming Education Challenges for Marginalized and Poor Children in Cambodia

Violent civil conflict in the 1970s and1980s destroyed much of the country’s social infrastructure. Cambodia’s education sector faces numerous obstacles.

The government and local Global Partnership for Education partners are focusing on challenges such as keeping children in the classrooms beyond the first years of school, enhancing the quality of teaching, and reducing the large class sizes.

Keeping children in school is difficult for many Cambodian families as children are expected to work to contribute to family incomes and the direct costs for schooling such as pocket money, transportation costs, and supplementary tutoring, are a heavy burden for the average Cambodian family.

The Global Partnership for Education decided to support Cambodia’s national education plan with US$ 57.4 million which is pooled with contribution from the World Bank International Development Association (IDA) and other donor funds.

GPE-supported program aims to attract children to attend schools at the appropriate age and at the same time recruit and retain teachers in order to reduce dropout rates and improve the quality of education.

Furthermore, the program finances the construction of schools and school facilities in the poorest areas, offering scholarships to disadvantaged children, supporting early childhood initiatives and providing training and capacity building to communities and school districts.

The Global Partnership for Education partners helped the government with reforming the education sector which led to the following results:

• a total of 27,502 students in the last grades of basic education received scholarships to complete all nine years of basic education;
• the primary education dropout rate was reduced from 10.8 to 8.8 percent between academic years 2006 and 2009;
• a total of 6,343 primary school teachers were trained to become basic education teachers (up to grade 9, which includes three years of lower secondary education);
• 234 school buildings for lower secondary education and 13 buildings for primary school were built or renovated (adding new classrooms);
• a total of 908 school directors were trained in effective school management

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