Cambodia - Education Learning and Innovations Project

Report No. PID6828 Project Name Cambodia-Education Learning and Innovations... Project Region East Asia and Pacific Sector Education Project ID KHPE59971 Borrower Royal Government of Cambodia Implementing Agency Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports # 80 Preah Norodom Boulevard Phnom Penh, Cambodia Tel/Fax: 855 23 362 156/426 791 Date PID Prepared September 9, 1998 Date Initial PID Updated September 9, 1998 Projected Appraisal May 30, 1999 Projected Board Date August 30, 1999 Background 1. Country and Sector Background Cambodia's education system consists of 6 years of primary education, 6 years of secondary education (including 3 years lower secondary school and 3 years of upper secondary school), and 4 years of university education. The constitution requires all Cambodians to be provided with nine years of free education. The gross enrollment rate in primary school is 122%. However, this figure masks a significant number of poor children who do not enroll in school, large numbers of overage and underage children enrolled, high levels of repetition, and early dropout. The net enrollment rate in primary school is estimated to be only between 66% and 85%. The Government has worked with donors to reconstruct the education system after decades of war and neglect. UNICEF, Redd Barna, and TOPS are supporting the development of a cluster school system. This system has made significant progress in improving communication between schools, increasing supervision, improving data collection and use, and bringing previously isolated schools into the formal administrative structure. The World Bank (through the Social Fund) and Government have provided significant resources for school construction, and the European Union has funded a major teacher training program. Other donors are supporting examinations reform, development of an EMIS system, and strengthening of English language teaching programs. The ADB provides technical assistance in project management and monitoring. The education system faces a wide range of challenges, including increasing the quality of education, reaching the most disadvantaged children (e.g. the very poor, girls, and people in very isolated or war-torn communities), and ensuring budget support for critical inputs such as books and materials and teacher salaries. 2. Objectives The objectives of the project are: - to engage community representatives, school leaders and MoEYS professionals  in a process of improving school quality; and - to improve the quality of education offered in participating school clusters. 3. Project Benefits The project will: - fund, implement and evaluate proposals for improving the quality of education in school clusters. - improve the average level of enrollment, repetition, and achievement within participating school clusters. - strengthen key services of the MoEYS to support quality improvements in school clusters; e.g. EMIS, testing and assessment, teacher training, textbook supply, cluster school management, etc. The main beneficiaries will be students and school staff in school clusters that participate in the program. The LIL will likely be limited to 1-3 provinces. MoEYS officials at the national, provincial and local levels may also benefit from components aimed at strengthening core services of the Ministry. 4. Project Risks The project will need to build a constructive relationship between the MoEYS and major stakeholders in education aimed at improving schools. To this end, it will put an emphasis on communication, participatory design and assessment, and training of field workers. The success of the project also depends on the willingness of the MoEYS to grant a certain level of freedom to school clusters to develop their own quality improvement programs. The project will attempt to build consensus within the MoEYS on a vision for effective schools and agreement on a process for involving beneficiaries in program development. 5. Description The project will support: - A network of animators who will: - engage school cluster staff and community members in a dialogue about effective schools - assist them to diagnose issues of school effectiveness in their own cluster - assist them to develop a proposal for improving the quality of schooling - assist them to implement, monitor, and evaluate a development program - Cluster school quality improvement grants - The strengthening of key services at the MoEYS - to be determined - but possibly to include EMIS, monitoring and evaluation, teacher training, and cluster school committees. 6. Financing Estimated project costs are US$5.0 million. Project financing will be on IDA terms. 7. Implementation Implementation will be through the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. It is expected that the MoEYS will work closely with other donors supporting - 2-  cluster schools, such as UNICEF, Redd Barna, and TOPS, to implement the project. 8. Sustainability The project is not expected to generate significant recurrent costs. However, one of the primary purposes of the project is to promote action at the school level to improve education. This requires teachers and school managers to make an "extra effort" in their jobs. Sustaining their momentum over the longer run will depend on the Government's ability to raise their salaries to a level where one could expect a full time commitment to work in the schools. Sustaining the commitment to fund critical inputs for schools, such as textbooks and materials and training will, in the long run, require increased Government funding for non-wage expenditures. 9. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector This is the first World Bank financed operation in Cambodia's education sector. Major lessons from other donors and other sectors are: Develop accountability structures at the local level. The UNICEF school cluster program has designed a system of checks and balances to ensure that funds and materials reach schools. This is especially important in Cambodia because the communications and banking systems are very weak. The Social Fund has also created a system of checks and balances with the goal of developing accountability mechanisms at the local level. Take full advantage of talent at the provincial and district levels. Although weak capacity is often cited as an obstacle to development in Cambodia, the CAPE, PASEC, and Redd Barna projects were able to create networks of skilled and motivated staff at the local level. Many of these staff have years of experience working with Government and NGOs inside Cambodia or in the border camps. Drive resources and decision making down to the school level, where the potential impact is large. NGOs working in education have described (a) the effectiveness of providing training opportunities directly to school teachers and managers (rather than through a cascade system); (b) the motivational benefits of involving teachers and school managers in decision making; and (c) the benefits of using a dialogue around schooling issues to strengthen civil society. 10. Poverty Category Not applicable. The Government and the Bank agreed that under the initial IDA credit LIL project activities would be concentrated in just one to three provinces that have already, usually with donor support, developed school clusters and received in-service training for teachers, school directors, school committees and cluster committees. Subsequent loans would permit expansion to other provinces, building on the experience acquired in this first LIL. 11. Environmental Aspects C - not applicable 12. Program Objective Categories EA 13. Contact Point: The InfoShop -3 -  The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone No. (202)458 5454 Fax No. (202) 522 1500 Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain activities and/or components may not be included in the final project. Processed by the InfoShop week ending September 11, 1998. - 4 -