EVENT BRIEF JSDF Day January 2011 CAMBODIA Public Disclosure Authorized A New Beginning Children, primary schools and social change in post-conflict Preah Vihear Province reah Vihear is a Province in northern Cambodia, bordering Thailand 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, Phnom Penh, 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 Pursat province. 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,