Secondary Education
                                                                                                           Improvement
                                  IN CAMBODIA                                                                   Project

Background
Over the past 20 years, Cambodia has expanded access to education. In primary school, net
enrollment increased from 83.8 percent in 1992 to 98.4 percent in 2015. Lower secondary
school enrollment also increased from 31.9 percent in 2009 to 51.5 percent in 2015 and the
early childhood education enrollment rate from 5-year-old rose from 24.6 percent in 2004 to 64
percent in 2015.
While these achievements are impressive and well-acknowledged, the education system will
need to continue to expand equitable access to quality lower secondary education in order to
meet the United Nations development goal of providing basic education (grade 1 to 9) to all
children.
In 2015, over 60 percent of children at lower secondary school-age were out of school, and the
dropout rate reached 21 percent between 2013 and 2014. In a 2016 school mapping exercise
carried out by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the World Bank, 70 percent of           Location: Nationwide
sampled schools experienced room shortages, overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages,
inadequate supplies for teachers, and under-qualified teachers. To address these challenges, a
new project was initiated—the Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP).
                                                                                                       Financiers:
                                                                                                        International Development
                                                                                                          Association (World Bank),
                                                                                                          US$40 million,
                                                                                                        Royal Government of
                                                                                                          Cambodia, US$0.9 million




                                                                                                       Implementing Agencies:
                                                                                                        Ministry of Education, Youth
                                                                                                         and Sport



                                                                                                       Approval Date:
                                                                                                       April 14, 2017

                                                                                                       Closing Date:
                                                                                                       July 29, 2022

About the Project
The project development objective is to expand lower secondary education to achieve minimum
standards in targeted areas. This objective will be achieved through:
                                                                                                       Contact:
 Component 1: Improving Lower Secondary Education to meet minimum standards:                          Beng Simeth
     Strengthening school-based management through the provision of the School
                                                                                                       World Bank Task Team Leader
      Improvement Fund at the Provincial and District Office of Education and school levels.           E-mail: sbeng@worldbank.org
     Upgrading the qualifications of lower secondary school teachers, especially in the areas of

      mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, Khmer, and History.
     Improving school facilities through construction and rehabilitation of 100 existing schools

      and construction of 30 new schools to provide enabling conditions for effective teaching
      and learning.
                                                                                                           www.worldbank.org
 Component 2: Strengthening Project Management and Monitoring and Evaluation by
  providing technical and operational assistance for the coordination, administration,
  monitoring, evaluation, and audit of the project.                                                    www.youtube.com/worldbank


Beneficiaries and Results                                                                              www.twitter.com/worldbank
The project’s main beneficiaries will be 16,250 students in 130 targeted lower secondary
schools, approximately 2,200 teachers, 310 school directors and deputy directors, 1,500 school
staff members and 500 provincial and district education staff.                                        www.facebook.com/worldbank