EVENT BRIEF

JSDF Day January 2011 Public Disclosure Authorized A New Beginning

Children, primary schools and social change in post-conflict Province

reah Vihear is a Province in northern Cambodia, bordering and PLaos. The Province was an insecure and contested area from the late 1960s until 2000, when stability returned and the participation of children in primary education throughout the province became a possibility. Public Disclosure Authorized Preah Vihear is divided “War makes people into seven districts and hopeless. Minds are 49 communes with 208 villages. Ethnic paralyzed and it is difficult minorities make up a have been out of touch with formal to think of the future. significant proportion education for periods of up to thirty-five It seems impossible to of the population with years. initiate new ideas. We the principal groups being Kouy and need to know this and Lao. The Project to know that people will eventually pass beyond The province is In 2003, the JSDF provided a grant to that stage...Where characterized Save the Children Norway - Cambodia by geographical Public Disclosure Authorized (SCN-CO) aimed at improving access and community development remoteness, cultural quality in all schools and education offices has worked well, the thing diversity and a in the region. This marked an important that has happened is turbulent history break with the past. The period of forced which has left a not the projects. It is the isolation had resulted in an education legacy of distrust in system that operated with a high degree of people of the community public institutions and self-sufficiency, with only limited resources, moving together to any outside agency. both physical and human, coming from support each other.” Isolation, distance and outside the Province. The project offered an limited opportunities - Keo Sarath “Education for opportunity for education officials, teachers for participation in the Social Change : How to bring and communities in these previously cash economy led to back hope to hopeless people” under-served areas to see a quick return widespread poverty, , November 2005 on their investment of labour, energy and with many families professional commitment. living a subsistence lifestyle. The project faced many challenges, not least the need to convince parents of the benefits Public Disclosure Authorized The total population of Preah Vihear is of participation in formal education, beyond relatively small by Cambodian provincial an achievement of rudimentary numeracy standards with people scattered over a wide and literacy. The approach was built on local area. This includes extended family groups people doing something, rather than on who have deliberately sought isolation for having things done to them. reasons of security. Some of these groups

The Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) was established in June 2000 by the Government of Japan and the World Bank as a mechanism for providing direct assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable groups in eligible World Bank group member countries. The approach taken was both comprehensive and gradualist. It was comprehensive in that SCN-CO Project Data believes that any work it does in education should • Implementing Agency: Save the Children Norway, involve all stakeholders, at the local level (school Cambodia staff, community, parents, children) and at various levels of authority within the formal education • Grant (TF052059) Amount: $1.8 million system (District, Province, National). It is gradualist • Implementation Period: 03/20/2003 to 12/31/2005 in that, although long term aims, and the big ideas that drive them, are described, work goes ahead at the level that stakeholders can manage (and for the continuing and concrete benefits that arise from which they already have most of the resources) and education and that the sacrifices they must make to the emphasis is on planning and tasks which can be keep their children at school are warranted. managed successfully. Small successes engender confidence and momentum which can then be built 2 - Improve the quality of education with children upon to move on to more ambitious tasks. as active learners • 85% of teachers demonstrated improved teaching skills, according to agreed quality Results standards. • 85% of children knew how to develop and use A 2006 evaluation confirmed that the combination an individual learning plan starting in Grade 2 of a major infrastructure initiative with activities that and demonstrated the application of life-skills built social capital and which were carried out by starting in Grade 4. an NGO working in partnership with government at the local level produced a powerful mobilizing effect 3 - Improve the efficiency of public education and on disadvantaged communities. All stakeholders promote community participation consulted during the evaluation, from the Governor, • 85% of schools and all District Education Offices education officials and teachers to children and (DEOs) and Provincial Education Offices (PEOs) community members, agreed that public education carried out satisfactory planning, data collection, in Preah Vihear was transformed during the project and monitoring and evaluation and supervision period. procedures. • 85% of schools have involved and responsible The project design was ambitious, setting high School Development Committees (SDC). targets, especially for school participation in the more remote districts of the Province. While many The evaluation team found clear evidence of : of the indicators were achieved in all, or some of, • Large increases in the participation, retention Preah Vihear’s 154 primary schools, some targets and progress of children in primary schools did prove unreachable, partly due to the duration because of school construction, improvements of the project (two years). It was not possible to in the quality of teaching and learning and meet teacher recruitment targets, for example, community support for schools. By the end of although considerable progress was made and academic year 2004-2005, key indicators had experiences in the Province have undoubtedly reached 85.74% (enrolment), 79% (promotion) helped shape the Ministry’s new policy that focuses and 4.18% (drop out). on local recruitment (rather than redeployment • Significant improvements in teacher performance and incentives) to meet the demand for teacher and morale. in remote areas. Two years was also too short to • Innovative, inclusive, child friendly and child- achieve many of the ideas for an ethnic minority centred approaches to teaching and learning. curriculum and materials development set out in the • A functioning, supportive system of design document. management of public education in Preah Vihear, in which staff at each level of management and/ In terms of the project development objectives, the or coordination had direct knowledge, through following results were obtained: regular contact, concerning the institutions and personnel for whom they are responsible. 1 - Increase access to school Grades 1-6 for • Systematic planning and reporting (province to disadvantaged children district, district to cluster and school, cluster to school). Major achievements: • Strong participation by community members in • Enrolment rates increased from 50% to 75% activities that support schools and teachers. • Promotion rates increased from 65% to 85% • Recognition by community members of the in all 7 Districts with the equal participation of linkages between a childs school learning and disadvantaged children the quality of home life (life skills) • Commitment by education officials, school The test of project impact, in the medium term, is head teachers and teaching staff to investigate not so much whether these levels can be sustained and be responsive to the needs and aspirations or improved upon but whether they can be held of children and their families from the villages at levels somewhere around the national average. served by schools Achieving this would provide evidence to families of 2 http://www.worldbank.org/jsdf Innovation • SCN-CO made a commitment to maintain a SCN-CO project staff and their Ministry of presence in the Province for an additional four Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) counterparts years after Grant closing (December 2005), in Preah Vihear piloted a number of innovations albeit at reduced levels. This maintained the which have already proven to be of interest to momentum and enthusiasm created by the education officials and school staff from other Project and ensured the continuation of the provinces in Cambodia. Among these are: strong partnership between SCN-CO and • A major extension of the school mapping MoEYS officials in the province. SCN-CO is also strategy to include a wide range of socio- replicating the Project in . economic data to help schools and school staff better understand the problems and needs of • In addition, the Bank implemented the the communities they serve. Cambodia Education Sector Support Project • Bringing well qualified mentors (District (August 2005 – December 2010), which Facilitators) into Preah Vihear from outside adopted many important lessons learned from the province to provide continuous, on-the-job the JSDF Grant. This Project aimed to assist training for education officials at the District Cambodia in implementing its sector goals level. - to expand access to education services • Approaching primary education holistically with by addressing supply, demand, quality and a strong life skills foundation. efficiency constraints, with a special focus on • Encouraging teacher reflection and self- poor and underserved communities. evaluation as quality improvement mechanisms. • Working with teachers to help them develop more integrated Lessons learned programs, highlighting child-to child and independent learning The project and the evaluation that activities both inside and followed generated a wealth of outside the classroom. lessons learned. Those with broad • Introducing alternative applicability include: approaches to the rigid grade separation model of multi- Participation and Inclusion grade teaching previously in • School mapping activities use. give many opportunities to include • Assisting isolated and under- people from all sectors of the local qualified teachers to improve community - in data collection, teaching skills through analysis and presentation. Extending teacher-to teacher support these activities to include a wide from mobile teacher teams. range of socio-economic data can • Streamlining reporting help schools better understand procedures from school to the communities they serve and District and District to Province promotes the ideas that, (i) schools increases the frequency and depth of visits from serve a local community (rather than the DEO personnel to schools, promoting exchanges reverse) and, (ii) schools should be responsive of good management practice at District level to local socio-economic and environmental with the DEO acting in the role of coordinator conditions when designing their instructional and moderator. programs. • Identifying, utilizing and documenting how the natural environment can be used as a resource Capacity Building for teaching and learning. • The use of mentors is an effective way of • Identifying and engaging local resource people delivering capacity building for managers and in the school’s instructional program. administrators. • Promoting community support in isolated areas • There are competent trainers within Ministry for school infrastructure development and ranks but they must be selected according to teacher support. explicit criteria (not simply the office they hold) and may be best used outside their provinces of origin. Sustainability While there are likely to be challenges ahead, the • The presence of external trainers/mentors results of the Project are expected to be sustained and other NGO agency staff provides an for a number of reasons: opportunity to reduce or eliminate corrupt and/ or dysfunctional management practices. • The ownership and deep involvement • A participatory model of training in which throughout the life of the Project of MoEYS local trainers develop the curriculum (via staff and departments, community leaders and design workshop), present it to participants parents. The Project is highly integrated with (follow up workshop) and then document it the Cambodian public education system and (including content, proceedings and outcomes), Government is paying for teacher salaries. greatly increases the relevance of the reference document. 3 • The training methodology should demonstrate the learner-centred approach advocated for teaching-learning in school; workshops and follow up activities for participants can involve practical applications of key ideas and content; formal documentation can be prepared after (not before) the workshop demonstrating that workshops are dynamic, not simply one-way knowledge transfer processes. • Teacher self-assessment takes a long time - teachers must develop the objectivity and skills required to pass reasonable assessments. It may have been better to begin the process on a more simple footing and move step-by-step. This project was captive, to some extent, to the absence of consistent support. This might also indicators chosen for teacher development. be usefully considered for inclusion in pre- • Teacher training should be conducted as close service teacher education courses. to the workplace as possible to ensure cost • Assisting isolated and underqualified teachers effectiveness. In Preah Vihear most training was to improve teaching skills through teacher-to- done at the Cluster level, but small, workshops teacher support from mobile teams could help were also organized at very isolated schools. build support networks for isolated teachers. • Activities using minority languages are complex Peer support is likely to be more responsive and and require lengthy development periods. less directive in dealing with issues of teaching and learning and more cost effective. from school Community Involvement • Streamlining reporting procedures • Life skills have proven to be a very successful to District and District to Province offers a clear and practical model which could rationalize a way of increasing the community’s perception system characterized by the poor organization, of the relevance of schools, especially when school activities are replicated at home. use and retention of data. It enables Districts to offer effective support to schools on the basis • Community members typically enjoy assisting of evidence of need. It could also help provide a in practical tasks that improve the school solid foundation for building a system of school environment and this is a good way of opening up discussion on more abstract activities such performance appraisal - a stated policy target of as school improvement planning. the MoEYS. • Promoting the concept of District Working • The strategy of communities building “mini- Groups, schools” as a practical way of demonstrating DEO staff are moving towards being interest in, and a commitment to, education has generalists and working together as a group to proven highly successful. These structures can support education activities in the district rather later be replaced by permanent buildings. than operating along departmental lines. • “Culture Centres” have proven to be popular • Promoting exchanges of good management A practical school- installations in many schools, serving as venues practice at District level. for outside learning by children as well as an helping-school process will be a vital part exhibition space for artifacts, implements, of a more formal and comprehensive school musical instruments, fishing and hunting appraisal process being developed by the equipment and other handcrafted products. MoEYS (this activity would be conducted at They have also been very useful as a place Cluster level in less remote, more populous where community members can informally meet Districts). school staff and other visitors. Key Resources Improving Educational Outcomes • Encouraging teacher reflection and self- Richard Geeves, Eng Kim Ly, Sa Lorn,Lon Borrmei, Sok evaluation as quality improvement mechanisms Saran (2006) “A New beginning: Children, primary offers an alternative to current practices schools and social change in postconflict which rely on external assessments through Preah Vihear Province–Cambodia. An evaluation of the infrequent inspection visits. They also provide project Public Education for Disadvantaged Children in a methodology by which isolated teachers can Preah Vihear Province”. work systematically on developing skills in the

The Japan Social Development Fund -- The JSDF is a partnership between the Government of Japan and the World Bank that supports innovative social programs in developing countries. JSDF grants are executed by NGOs/CSOs and local governments and implemented at the community level. JSDF projects meet four basic requirements: (i) they target and respond to the needs of poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged groups, and aim to achieve rapid results, (ii) they are innovative and pilot alternative approaches or partnerships, (iv) they use participatory designs and stakeholder consultation to design inputs and as an integral part of monitoring and evaluation, (iii) they empower local communities, local governments, NGOs/CSOs through capacity building and rapid feedback of lessons learned, and (v) they focus on scale-up potential, replication and the sustainability of interventions.