UNICEF Quality and Inclusive Education

Sida and UNICEF have had a unique long-standing cooperation in the education sector in Cambodia. From the early 1980s until 2011 100% of Sidas bilateral support to education was channelled tough UNICEF. This cooperation started as a funding for UNICEF's emergency response dealing with the effects of the devastating Khmer Rouge period and the war throughout the 1980's between the Vietnamese military and the forces of the Vietnamese backed Government in Phnom Penh and the opposition forces led by the Khmer Rouge. These emergency interventions were limited in time and scope and only partly aimed at supporting a comprehensive restructuring of an education system. From 1996 UNICEF has implemented 6 major programmes supporting the development and consolidation of a nation-wide public education system. Sida has been the main funder (approximately 90% of respective programmes budgets). These programmes were in the first years to large extent hands-on vis-à-vi the ministry of education and districts and schools in the poorest parts of the country with offices in more or less all provinces. The work was primarily aimed at basic education (pre-school, primary and lower-secondary levels, grades 0-9) and covering all aspects of developing a comprehensive education system. As the education system became more robust UNICEFs work has changed into up-stream work, with tre zone offices covering several provinces each. Supporting capacity development at all levels of the education system with particular focus on gender equity issues, students with disabilities, children from ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups has been UNICEF's main area of work in education during the last one and a half decade. Along with this UNICEF has increasingly focused on quality and improved learning outcomes. The last long-term agreement, Quality and Inclusive Education Support Partnership 2020-2023, between Sida and UNICEF on support to the development of education in Cambodia entered into effect on January 1, 2020, designed as a four-year partnership. However, on June 11th, 2020, the Swedish Government decided to fundamentally change and refocus Swedish official development cooperation with Cambodia. The content of the decision was that all activities that were being implemented within the Strategy for Sweden's international aid to Cambodia should be dismantled no later than 30 June 2021 except interventions for increased respect for human rights, democracy and rule of law. This decision meant that the implementation period for the programme had to be shortened to one and a half year. The Covid-19 pandemic hit schools in Cambodia hard at the same time, with schools closed from mid-March until late November 2020 and from February until the end of the implementation period in 2021. Both the phase out of Sida support and the pandemic had a huge impact on UNICEFs plans and activities with a vital refocusing on the effects of school closure and learning losses. This refocusing was undertaken in close cooperation and communication with Sida and reallocation of funds approved by Sida. Given the challenges of phase out and the school closures and several short-term lockdowns and restrictions of meetings and movement the Quality and Inclusive Education programme reached important results: Through teacher training funded by the programme, 1,250 Community pre-schools have reached Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) minimum standards, allowing teachers in the schools to receive a government salary as civil servants. The Education Quality Assurance Department created a second inspector teacher training stream for internal and external school inspection and teacher mentoring with the financing from the programme, allowing for larger cohorts of inspector trainees. The programme continued to support the previously successful Positive Discipline and Classroom Management Programmes, which aimed to reduce the prevalence of corporal punishment and gender-based violence in schools. Sida funding alone provided in-service training to 2,068 primary school teachers (1,038 female) benefitting 70,500 children (50 per cent girls) in more than 235 primary schools. The programme helped reach more than 50,000 children with key nutrition interventions, which will impact and improve learning. A total of 53,691 children under 5 years were screened (26,220 girls). Of these 277 (137 girls) were found to have severe acute malnutrition and received treatment. Some 2,000 parents/caregivers were reached with focused nutrition counselling. The outreach activities supported by this contribution were able to provide Vitamin A supplementation for 145,217 children aged 6-59 months (75,903 girls) and deworming treatment for 132,559 children aged 12-59 months (69,679 girls) in the three target provinces. The programme continued to build on the previous success of integrating water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) indicators into the Education Management Information System (EMIS) enabling MoEYS to use reliable data to analyse and plan further activities. MoEYS received support to roll out emergency preparedness and response plans and safe school guidelines to sub-national levels, including for schools. The reallocation of the programme budget enabled UNICEF to procure and distribute 35,055 textbooks for students in 50 schools which were used as Covid-19 quarantine centres. Sida financing contributed to broader sectoral efforts to get children back to school after school closures due to Covid-19. Together with other development partners' financing, enrolment campaigns were conducted in six provinces, targeted through a hotspot analysis on the likelihood of student dropout. The special education diploma course, which aims to educate special education teachers, received crucial support through the programme. Since school year (SY) 2019/20, 42 teacher trainees (14 female) have enrolled in the course, and 20 teachers (five female), including six with disabilities themselves, graduated and were deployed to special education schools in 2020. The programme financed the training of 342 multilingual education teachers (189 female) for ethnic minorities. The programme funded efforts to respond to school closures, supporting MoEYS to provide distance learning opportunities through a radio-based learning programme in five indigenous languages, and the distribution of worksheets for ethnic minority students. Health education textbooks for Grades 1, 4, 7 and 10 were finalised, while books for Grades 2, 5, 8 and 11 are in their final draft stage. There is a separate and designated chapter for nutrition related content in all health education textbooks. Nutrition education has been recognized as an essential element of school-based programmes to promote the nutritional status of children and adolescents. There are also separate and designated chapters on sexual and reproductive issues, created in cooperation with RHAC (Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia). With Sidas financial support UNICEF, in its multi-faceted role in the education sector, has continued to lead and coordinate policy dialogue between development partners and the government. The pandemic heightened the urgent need to address the digital divide and unequal access to quality education and proved that the joint efforts of the wider education sector are of utmost importance to ensure the continuity of learning. UNICEF and MoEYS, in collaboration with the Education Sector Working Group (ESWG), conducted the Cambodia Covid-19 Joint Education Sector Needs Assessment to better understand the impacts of Covid-19 on education. This significantly informed and shaped the education sector response. Inclusive continuous distance learning programmes were provided by MoEYS, with support from the programme and other partners. These included learning through online platforms and broadcasts via TV and radio, as well as the provision of paper-based learning materials. However, there was significant learning loss during this period, as evidenced by the results of the Covid-19 Joint Education Sector Needs Assessment, commissioned by MoEYS and the ESWG in 2020. The joint education needs assessment clearly showed a digital divide in Cambodia. Although 74% of education administrators reported access to the internet in some form, only 39% of teachers, 28% of school directors and 26% of students reported regular access to the internet almost exclusively through smartphones. It is assessed, based on the final report, meetings and other reports that the programme in general been successful and delivered in line with expectations given the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and the shortened timeframe of implementation.

The overall objective of UNICEF’s Quality and Inclusive Education Support Partnership 2020-2023 is to support Cambodia in providing and assuring more equitable provision of quality education services. This is expected to be achieved through the three outcomes: Outcome 1: Girls and boys, particularly the most vulnerable, have increased access to sufficient relevant learning resources to meet their needs. Outcome 2: Girls and boys increasingly receive relevant and quality learning in a safe, protective and inclusive environment, including during emergencies. Outcome 3: Girls and boys increasingly nurtured by parents and communities to attend and complete early childhood and basic education and embark on lifelong learning.