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Grant to Promote Innovative System for Improving Access to Primary Education in Cambodia

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (9 February 2005) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$1.87 million grant, from its Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), financed by the Government of Japan, for an innovative project that will help ensure children, especially girls, in six of the poorest provinces in Cambodia have access to primary education.

The project will help improve facilities in schools that do not offer the full range of primary education, which should cover Grades 1 to 6, due to lack of classrooms or teachers, through school improvement grants that schools, parents, and community groups can apply for.

Almost half of the primary schools in Cambodia offer only Grades 1 to 4, and there is a high dropout rate among girls as parents are not as willing to allow them to go to school, the nearest of which could be 10 kilometers away.

"The project will help reduce poverty in the most disadvantaged provinces by boosting access to primary education and cutting back dropout rates among the poorest communities," says Paul Chang, an ADB Principal Education Specialist.

"The assistance will support poor communes where the financial support mechanisms of small primary schools cannot effectively be addressed through ADB loan projects."

All incomplete schools in the provinces of Koh Kong, Kratie, Mondulkiri, Preah Vihear, Ratanakiri, and Stung Treng, and 150 disadvantaged communes are eligible to apply for the grants, which range from $1,000 to $3,500, depending on the nature of the proposed activities.

The schools can propose activities such as school enrolment and attendance campaigns, small-scale classroom expansion and rehabilitation, provision of safe water supply and toilets, and library initiatives to help retain poor children in the upper grades.

The project will also establish school development planning communities in the project schools, and help schools, parents, and community groups to apply for, manage, and implement these school improvement grants.

The project aims to provide training to about 3,400 people and grants totaling $1.2 million to 340 schools over a three-year period.

The project will extend and consolidate previous ADB assistance in Cambodia's education sector, including the Education Sector Development Program, the JFPR scholarship program for poor girls and ethnic minority children at lower secondary level, and the recently completed technical assistance for performance management in the education sector.

It will also complement activities under the recently approved Second Education Sector Development Program, [ PDF ] which will help sustain the project's benefits through additional staffing and budget support for the beneficiary schools.

The Government will contribute $200,000 toward the total project cost of $2.87 million. The beneficiary communities will also contribute $300,000 equivalent, and other aid agencies and nongovernment organization partners will contribute $500,000 toward the total project cost.

The JFPR was set up in 2000 with an initial contribution of Y10 billion (about $90 million), followed by additional contributions of $155 million and a commitment of $50 million.

The Asian Development Bank is dedicated to reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region through pro-poor sustainable economic growth, social development, and good governance. Established in 1966, it is owned by 63 members, with 45 from the region.

More at adb.org/media

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