Innovative Approaches to Increase Access of Poor Girls to Secondary Education in Cambodia
MANILA, PHILIPPINES - An US$800,000 grant will help increase access to upper secondary education for poor girls in Cambodia through the provision of residential facilities with media learning centers. While primary education enrollment rates have improved significantly, with participation rates of 84% for boys and 81% for girls, the enrollment rates for secondary education have dropped drastically over the last six years to 17% for boys and 8% for girls in upper secondary grades. This is the lowest in the Southeast Asian region. Poor families cannot afford to keep their daughters in school and consequently, girls in Cambodia drop out of school after grade 6. In addition, for reasons of personal security, girls are generally not permitted to travel long distances and live away from families to attend upper secondary schools because there are no secure residential facilities away from home. To date, residential facilities have been established in Cambodia for primary schools and a few lower secondary schools. These facilities have been primarily used as accommodation for students but do not offer any training opportunities such as life skills training. “Evidence shows that the expansion of such residential facilities to learning centers, which provide life skills training through the use of information and communications technology (ICT), has the potential to broaden their knowledge, thus improving their chances of career development,” says Barbara Lochmann, an ADB Social Development Specialist. “If adolescent girls are to be able to compete for new employment opportunities, they will need greater chances for higher education and access to training outside the curriculum. Residential facilities combined with medial learning centers are one way to expand the training of ICT in education and career development.” The grant, from the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund, financed by the Government of the United Kingdom, will identify and pilot a prototype for residential facilities and learning centers for girls in three upper secondary schools - one each in the provinces of Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, and Siem Reap. The project will finance the construction of residential facilities and media learning centers, including the provision of ICT equipment, training of trainers on basic computer literacy, and life skills training for students and community members. The grant will help about 300 poor girls in the selected pilot schools, who will be chosen based on merit, the distance of their homes from the school, and the socioeconomic status of their families. In addition, the grant will provide scholarships for the selected students. The Government will contribute $150,000 towards the project’s total estimated cost of $950,000, in the form of counterpart staff, office accommodation, and administrative support. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is the executing agency for the project, which will be implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. About ADB | 
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