Promoting Equity to Achieve MDGs 2 and 3 in Cambodia

High Level meeting on Cooperation for Child Rights in the Asia Pacific Region

4-6 November 2010, Beijing

Dr. Nath Bunroeun, Secretary of StateMinistry of Education, Youth and Sport, Cambodia

Outline of Presentation

• Policy Environment with focus on Equity and related Strategic Policy Decisions

• Achievements in narrowing Equity Gaps• Remaining Challenges and How to

Address them• Ideas for South-South Partnerships

Policy environment: Equity and Pro-Poor Focus

• Rectangular Strategy Phase 2 was formulated by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC);

• National Strategic Development Plan updated for 2009-2013;• National Programme for Sub-National Democratic

Development and IP3 (2011-2013)• National Plan for Education for All 2003-2015; • Cambodia has Education Strategic Plans since 2001.• Current ESP 2009-2013 with three policy pillars:

– Equitable Access to Education. – Quality and Efficiency of Education. – Institutional Development and Capacity Building for Decentralisation

Key Strategic Policy Decisions to promote Equity

• School operational budget for all schools• Abolished school registration fee since 2000 • National School enrolment campaigns• Child Friendly School as a Framework and National Policy

for inclusiveness and quality improvement• Cost-effective Expansion of Early Childhood Education,

e.g. community based and home based preschool education

• Scholarships targeting poor children• School feeding program• Bi-lingual education for minority children in highland area• Re-entry and Accelerate Learning programs for students

who dropped out • School facility development, particularly in remote areas

Major Achievements

Baseline Target ActualEMIS 2003/4 2008/9 2008/9Net Admission Rate 81.0 94 91.9Primary NER Total 91.9 95 94.4Primary NER Female 90.7 95 94.0Primary NER Remote Areas 82.5 90 90.3

Population Census Data 1998 2008School Attendance 6-14 59.6 80.2School Attendance 6-14 F 57.8 80.4Literacy Male+Female 62.8 78.3Literacy Female 55.3 73.1

Good Progress in Terms of Access and Narrowing Equity GapsEquity Gaps narrowed considerably - by sex / urban&rural / among provinces&districts / socio-economic

5

Narrowing Equity Gaps:Primary Net Enrolment

By Sex: Gender Parity Achieved By Area: Improvement in Remote Areas

Major achievements (continued)• Draft CMDG report 2010: Cambodia on track to achieve

the 2015 CMDG targets• Good Analysis possible thanks to Strengthened MoEYS

Capacities in Data Collection and Analysis and well established EMIS system

• Use of recent Census and Survey data (Census 2008, DHS 2005) allows for more comprehensive analysis and understanding of the remaining challenges

• MoEYS: Acknowledgment of challenges and commitment to address them. This is important: we can only deal with the challenges if we acknowledge they exist and understand them.

Atttendance by Age: Comparing DHS 2005 & Census 2008

Progress:1.Getting children in school at an earlier age

2. Keeping children in school longer

BUT: No progress to increase attendance beyond 90%

Who are “the last 10%”?- the poorest- the disabled- the ethnic minorities- the child labourers- ............

Remaining Challenges

• Remaining Equity Gaps: particularly when looking at Wealth Quintiles and Geographical Areas (Provinces / Districts)

• Related: still not all children start school at the right age and high repetition rates, particularly in the early grades

• Focus on “the last 10%” not in school requires special interventions

….. Some examples using tables and maps ……

A look at Equity Issues ....

School Attendance

Gender Area of ResidenceTotal

Female Male Rural Urban

Attend 73.6% 70.7% 71.4% 76.9% 72.1%Not attend 25.1% 27.6% 27.1% 21.3% 26.3%n.a. 1.4% 1.8% 1.5% 1.8% 1.6%Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

School Attendance by Gender and Area of Residence among 6-11 yr Children

School Attendance

Wealth QuintileTotal

Poorest Poorer Middle Richer Richest

Attend 57.9% 68.3% 75.8% 78.9% 85.4% 72.1%

Not attend 39.9% 29.8% 23.0% 20.1% 13.2% 26.3%

n.a. 2.2% 1.9% 1.2% 0.9% 1.4% 1.6%

Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

School Attendance by Household Wealth Quintile among 6-11 yr Children

1. Gender

2. Rural / Urban

3. Wealth Quintiles

Source: DHS 2005

4. Sub-national:Province / District

Addressing Remaining Challenges• ESP 2009-2013 includes Core Breakthrough Indicators (CBIs) that help to

focus on continued improvement of equity in education, e.g. districts reaching at least 80% completion & number of schools achieving maximum 10% repetition.

• CBIs reflect priority areas where it is acknowledged that more progress is needed to reduce equity gaps and are crucial for achievement of (C)MDGs.

• Moving towards Sub-National Annual Operational Plans and provincial sector performance reviews. This will allow for targeted strategies that are responding to the actual situation in each province. Addressing disparities and focus on the most disadvantaged often requires targeted interventions that sometimes require higher investment (rights based and pro-poor remains at the core of the ESP)

• Continue Comprehensive Analysis of Census 2008 data with particular emphasis on Equity Issues and Out of School Children and Children At Risk of not completing Basic Education

South-South Partnerships

• Cambodia is interested to share with and to learn from other countries, for example related to:– Strengthening south-south partnership for education

analysis, e.g. exchange experiences with EMIS, Census analysis, qualitative research.

– Sharing experiences with innovative pilots that address equity issues.

– How decentralization and deconcentration can impact positively or negatively on equity in education.

Thank you very much for your attention!