EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has been the Executing Agency for the project preparation (TA-4823 CAM). A Steering Committee, chaired by a Secretary of State from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and including a representative from the Ministry of Economics and Finance, oversaw the preparation.

2. Cambridge Education Ltd. of the United Kingdom in association with SDC Consulting Co. Ltd. of Cambodia were contracted by the Asian Development Bank to provide technical assistance for the preparation of the Enhancing Education Quality Project (EEQP). The provision of technical services commenced on the 22nd November 2006. To facilitate collaboration, between MOEYS and the technical assistance team, a task force and seven technical working groups (TWG) were formed. An inception report was prepared in December 2006.

3. The objective of the technical assistance was to assist the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in reviewing identified sub-sectors including institutional development; teacher education; curriculum; textbooks and instructional materials; assessment and examination systems; information and communication systems; secondary schooling; poverty, gender, inclusion; and capacity building.

4. Various approaches were used to consult stakeholders at the central, provincial, district and college/school levels, as well as other projects and development partners: document review, interviews with a wide range of people, task force and technical working group meetings, visits to relevant institutions and national workshops. A number of working papers were prepared by the technical assistance team.

5. An Interim Report (February 2007) was prepared with a list of proposed interventions and submitted to the task force and steering committee. The interventions, accepted as a foundation for further planning were: professional development of teachers, curriculum and instructional materials, assessment and examinations, information and communication technology, secondary schools, teacher development policy and institutional development.

6. A design and monitoring workshop brought together the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport staff from the relevant line departments, representatives from provincial offices and institutions and representatives from other projects in the education sector. The workshop resulted in a draft design and monitoring framework with statements describing the impact of the project, the outcome of the project and possible outputs; and for each output some initial targets, indicators, assumptions, risks and an outline of required inputs.

7. The design and monitoring workshop draft project design was scrutinized and further developed through meetings with technical working groups, meetings of the task force, a second national workshop and a final meeting of the steering committee. The final design covers 20 outputs organised in three components: education system management and development, teacher professional development and strengthening secondary education.

8. Despite its historical disadvantage, Cambodia has made considerable progress in providing education. In 2006-2007, the gross enrollment ratio (GER) at primary level was 123 percent and the Net enrollment ratio (NER) was 92.1 percent. This indicates a 13.5 percent increase against an NER of 77.8 percent in 1997-1998. The impressive growth in enrollments at the primary level has led to high rates of increase in enrollments at the lower and upper secondary levels. Since 1997-1998, LS enrollments have grown by 135 percent and US enrollments grew by 260 percent. But, despite the rapidly growing demand for secondary education, the vast majority of children of secondary school age are not enrolled in school. The GER at the lower and upper secondary level is 60 percent and 21.2 percent respectively. Corresponding figures for NER at the lower and upper secondary levels are 31.3 percent and 11.3 percent respectively. Such low levels of participation in secondary education are a severe constraint to Cambodia’s economic development and the Government faces a formidable challenge in expanding access beyond primary education.

9. Total external funding is financed by 124 development partners through 324 outstanding projects. The World Bank and ADB are the two major funding agencies and from 2002–2007 together account for 42 percent of the total project financing for education. Other funding agencies supporting education include European Commission (EC), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The World Bank’s support has been mainly targeted at primary and lower secondary education. EC has provided budgetary support with technical assistance to strengthen public financial management. USAid has supported curriculum development at the basic education level. JICA support has targeted teacher training, and curriculum development for science and mathematics.

The proposed project

10. The project will increase the number of educated and skilled people in Cambodia from all sectors of the Cambodian population by improving the quality and equity of education in Cambodia and more specifically providing for more effective secondary education, teacher training and education management systems.

11. The education system and management development component will disseminate the new Education Law; develop a policy framework for teacher education and teacher management; review the organization and functions of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport at central, provincial and district level including school management; strengthen the National Institute of Education; strengthen the functioning of information systems at national, provincial, district levels with consolidation at central level; and develop monitoring and quality assurance systems related to schools and teacher education institutions.

12. The teacher professional development component will enhance the management capacity of teacher training institutions; upgrade facilities including information and communication technology at regional teacher training centers and provincial teacher training colleges; increase enrollment in teacher training programs of females and students from disadvantaged areas; improve skills and competencies of teacher trainers in the pre-service teacher training program; improve teaching skills and competencies of secondary teachers; and develop the use of multi-media modalities for teacher education.

13. The secondary education development component will: develop a secondary education development plan; strengthen secondary school networks, secondary school management and secondary school improvement planning; increase enrollment in upper secondary schools of girls and children from disadvantaged areas; upgrade secondary school facilities including information and communication technology, laboratories and libraries; develop and use curriculum in secondary schools; provide textbooks and teacher's guides to upper secondary schools countrywide; enhance the capacity of the Pedagogic Research Department and the Education Materials Approval Board; and base assessment of student achievement in secondary education on curriculum standards.

14. The project investment cost is estimated at US$ 33.4 million equivalent, including physical and price contingencies, taxes and duties. The grant proceeds will be used to finance civil works; procurement of books and instructional materials, vehicles, equipment and furniture; scholarships; consulting services; training, workshops and technical meetings. The proceeds will not finance salaries of regular project staff, rental of office space, taxes and duties.

15. The Government has requested a grant of US$ 27.1 million from the Asian Development Bank’s Special Funds to help finance the Project. The Asian Development Bank will finance 81 per cent of the project costs. The Government will finance the remaining 19 per cent of US$ 6.3 million as counterpart financing.

16. As Executing Agency, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport will have overall responsibility for project coordination and implementation. A Project Steering Committee will provide overall guidance to the project. The Project Steering Committee will be chaired by a Secretary of State from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. The Project Steering Committee will also include representatives from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Women's Affairs and Ministry of Planning.

17. The Director General of Education will serve as the Project Director. He will be supported by a deputy director and 5 staff and four support staff appointed by MOEYS. This staff will be located within the Directorate of General Education to oversee day-today project implementation. The Project Director will be a member of PSC and will report to it directly. A number of project activities will be delegated to relevant technical departments within MOEYS and will be implemented within the existing administrative structure.

18. Three technical units will be established to guide, and support implementation of component specific activities. The implementation of specific activities will be the responsibility of the departments under whose authority those activities fall. TUs will have representation from implementing departments. Each TU will have representation from a member of the Gender Working Group to ensure that gender aspects of different activities are mainstreamed. The TUs will report to the Project Director whose responsibility it will be to ensure coordination and supervision of TUs.

19. The project will be supported by approximately 628 person-months of consulting services (264 person-months international and 364 person-months national). The selection and engagement of consulting services will be procured in a single package, using international competitive bidding.

20. A base-line study will be undertaken at the beginning of the project. The monitoring and recording system and procedures will be reviewed and improved. A project performance management system will be developed and institutionalized within the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to monitor and evaluate implementation performance and development impact at various stages of the project cycle.

21. The Asian Development Bank and the Government will jointly undertake (i) half-yearly project reviews to assess progress in each component, identify difficulties or constraints and help determine ways to overcome them and (ii) conduct a mid-term review during the last quarter of the third year of project implementation to inform planning for the second half of the Project.

22. Direct beneficiaries include: (i) academic staff and management of the teacher training institutions (ii) approximately 8,500 teacher trainees (iii) approximately 14,400 current lower and upper secondary teachers; (iv) approximately 300 upper secondary school management teams (v) staff of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport including provincial and district offices. (vi) 4,000 girls and students from disadvantaged areas will receive scholarships to study at upper secondary schools some of which will be merit-based; (vii) 350,000 upper secondary school students will be provided with textbooks and approximately 7,000 upper secondary school teachers will be provided with teacher's guides.

23. The project has been designed so that recurrent costs will be minimized for the Government and community. The improvement of the quality support systems under the project is intended to reduce wastage, improve the internal efficiency of secondary education and reduce the cost of producing a graduate in Cambodia, particularly in the disadvantaged areas and areas dominated by ethnic minority groups. Although new construction and renovation of teacher education institutions and secondary school facilities are being financed, sustainability is being ensured by the Government and local community’s commitment to contribute to the cost of operation and maintenance.

24. The first three sections of the report set out the context of the proposed project, looking at the objectives of TA-4823, the national context and aspects of the education system. This is followed by an account of reviewed issues and opportunities that concludes that investment in a number of areas to support education system management and development, teacher professional development and strengthening of secondary education was feasible. The proposed project is described and summarized through a design and monitoring framework which includes a summary of required inputs.

25. The targets and indicators included in the impact and outcome rows of the design and monitoring framework summarize the anticipated impact the project at the macro-level of the project design. The risks and assumption included in the impact and outcome rows of the design and monitoring framework identify a number of conditions and threats to the implementation of the project.

26. Three special features are integrated into the three components: information and communication technology, capacity building and broad interventions related to gender, poverty and ethnic minority representation. The sections on the project investment plan, the financing plan and project benefits supported by technical annexes describe the cost of the inputs in detail. Project benefits supported by an economic analysis, a sustainability section and a summary of the impacts and risks complete the feasibility report.

ADB Asian Development Bank

AusAid Australian Agency for International Development

BETT Basic Education Teacher Training

BEP Basic Education Project

BMC Budget Management Committee(s)

CBE Cambodia Basic Education

CCTD Committee on Continuous Teacher Development

CESSP Cambodia education Sector Support Programme

CIPS Cambodia Intercensal Population Survey

CFS Child Friendly Schools

DAC Disabilities Action Council

DGE Directorate of General Education

DHE Department of Higher Education

DOE District Office of Education

EC European Commission

ECED Early Childhood Education Department

EFA Education foe All

EFANP Education for All National Plan

EMAB Education Materials Approval Board

EMIS Education Management Information System

EQIP Education Quality Improvement Project

ESDP Education Sector Development Program

ESP Education Strategic Plan

ESSP Education Sector Support Program

ESWG Education Sector Working Group

EVEP Elective Vocational Education Programmes

FNW First National Workshop

GMSE Gender Mainstreaming Strategy in Education

GSED General Secondary Education Department

HED Higher Education Department

HIV Human immunodeficiency virus

IAAD Information and ASEAN Affairs Department

ICDL International Computer Driving Licence

ICT Information and Communication Technology

IEC Information Education and Communication

ISMEC Improving Science and Mathematics Education at Upper Secondary Level

IT Information Technology

JICA Japan International Co-operation Agency

KIA Key Improvement Areas

LLSP Local Life Skills Programme

LSS Lower Secondary School

MIS Management Information System

MOEF Ministry of Economics and Finance

MOEYS Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport

MPIPCD Master Plan to Implement the Policy for Curriculum Development

NCE National council for Education

NFE Non-formal Education

NGO Non-Governmental Organisation

NIE National Institute of Education

NIED National institute for Educational Development

NIS National Institute of Statistics

NSDP National Strategic Development Plan

PAP Priority Action Programme(s)

PB Programme Budgeting

PCD Policy for Curriculum Development

PDH Publishing and Distribution House

PED Primary Education Department

PGEMR Poverty, Gender and Ethnic Minority Representation

PMU Project Management Unit

POE Provincial Office of Education

PPTA Project Preparation Technical Assistance

PRD Pedagogical Research Department

PSC Project Steering Committee

PSTTC Pre-school Teacher Training College

PTR Pupil Teacher Ratio

PTTC Provincial Teacher Training College

QA Quality Assurance

RGC Government of Cambodia

RTTC Regional Teacher Training Centre

SBA School Based Assessment

SCN Save the Children Norway

SOE Statement of Expenditures

SRP School Readiness Programme

TA Technical Assistance

TEMIS Teacher Education Management Information System

TG Technical Groups

TGL Technical group Leaders

TU Technical Unit

TNA Training Needs Analysis

TT Teacher Training

TTC Teacher Training College

TTD Teacher Training Department [MoEYS]

UNESCO United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USD United States Dollars

USS Upper Secondary School

WB World Bank

Appendix 1Design and monitoring framework

Appendix 2 DMF Expanded list of activities

Appendix 3 Approaches to consultation

Appendix 4 TA-4823 CAM working papers

Appendix 5 Structure of the Education System

Appendix 6 Teacher demand projections

Appendix 7 Secondary education statistics

Appendix 8 MOEYS organisational chart

Appendix 9 Selected education sector documents

Appendix 10 Education Indicators

Appendix 11 External assistance to the education sector

Appendix 12 Key projects delivering external assistance

Appendix 13 Distribution of RTTC and PTTC

Appendix 14 Summary poverty reduction and social strategy

Appendix 15 Capacity building guidelines

Appendix 16 Information and communication technology

Appendix 17Detailed cost tables

Appendix 18Implementation schedule

Appendix 19Procurement packages

Appendix 20Terms of reference for consultants

Appendix 21 Economic and sustainability analysis