ENABLING BROADER
POVERTY REDUCTION
2.1
Poverty
Profiles
Various assessments
point to extensive levels of poverty in Cambodia. The poverty headcount index in 1999 was an estimated 36% (Poverty
Profiles, 1999). Although comparisons between
different poverty measures are difficult, the incidence of poverty appears
largely unchanged from 1997. Poverty
rates are highest in rural areas where roughly 90.5% of the poor live. The remainder of the poor is located in
other urban areas (7.2%) and the capital Phnom Penh (2.3%). The recent Cambodia Socioeconomic Survey
(CSES 1999) largely confirmed these patterns.
Average annual income in rural areas was less than one-third of Phnom
Penh residents (rural US$ 197 per annum, Phnom Penh US$ 691 per annum).
Cambodia compares
unfavourably with other Asian countries on broader human poverty indices. For example, using the UNDP Cambodia human
poverty index (HPI), a score of 42.5% is reported. In comparison, the average score for Southeast Asia and Pacific developing
countries is 25%. Poor performances on
primary school completion, health and sanitation service access and child
nutrition are major contributing factors to the low HPI in Cambodia. Clearly improved access to basic education
services in poor rural areas is a top priority in reducing human poverty
rates.
There are also large
urban/rural disparities in human poverty.
For example, the HPI in urban areas (16% of the population) is
34.2%. In contrast, the figures in
rural areas are 44.9% for 84% of the population. Other indicators reinforce these wide disparities. Per capita consumption in urban areas is
twice that of rural people. Urban
residents have an additional five years life expectancy and higher levels of
education attainment. Cost and access
barriers are a significant factor when Phnom Penh residents spend between 12
times as much on education as the rural population.
Source
: Cambodia Socioeconomic Survey (1999)
These patterns are
confirmed by a provincial analysis of human development indicators. For example, the HDI in Phnom Penh is 0.936
compared to a national average HDI of 0.472.
HDI ranges from 0.22 (Mondulkiri) to 0.659 (Kompong Som). Broadly the smaller, less populated and
poorer provinces have lower HDI.
Amongst the more populated provinces, the lowest HDI occurs in Siem Reap
(ranked 19 from 20), Kompong Thom (ranked 18), Preah Vihear (ranked 12) and
Takeo (ranked 10).
A recent survey (MoEYS
1999) shows some correlation between vulnerability (especially food security)
and education participation and attainment.
For example, in around 550 vulnerable communes, the literacy rate for 10
– 14 year olds was around 63% compared to a national average of 68%. The proportion of people never attending
school from these vulnerable communes was 50% compared to a national average of
45%. These figures suggest that
targeted school feeding programs, especially for upper primary and lower
secondary grades, could have positive benefits for enhanced school enrolment
and retention of pupils from poor families (see Map 1).
Three key issues
emerge. A first priority is to broaden
the availability of education services, especially lower secondary
provision. A second priority is to
alleviate cost barriers to access to primary and secondary education. A third priority is to examine equitable
resource allocation policies, possibly including some affirmative poverty
indexing in Government spending on basic education services.
2.2
Demographic
and Geographical Perspectives
Population growth rates are declining slowly
from 2.7% p.a. in 1990 to an estimated 2.5% p.a. in 1998, due to continued high
child mortality, low life expectancy and high fertility rates. Fertility rates rose in the early nineties
as Cambodian family life settled down after civil strife, but are gradually
declining. At current rates, the
population will rise from a current 11.4 million to around 14 million by
2005. Population growth will be highest
in rural areas (urban TFR 4.2, rural TFR 5.3), contributing to stubbornly high
poverty incidence.
This demographic
outlook, with a 20% population rise over ten years, will fuel demand for
education services and jobs. The school
age population is around 45% of the population and is likely to grow by around
1 – 1.5 million in ten years, with greatest demand in rural areas. Increased pressures on existing primary
education services and demand for expanded secondary education provision are
becoming evident. Specifically targeted
education programs to improve the social and economic circumstances of women
are pressing, given that families represent around 52% of the population and
have higher life expectancy rates.
Achieving an effective balance between accommodating growing education
service demand and improved quality and effectiveness will be the critical
challenge over the next decade.
There are few serious
geographical barriers to efficient access and service delivery. Population density is around 64 people per
km2 (Lao PDR 19, Vietnam 210).
Often severe annual flooding and variable road infrastructure represent
the major service delivery constraints.
This was evident during the severe flooding of 2000. Most of the 5000 villages have a primary
school, though almost half do not offer full primary schooling Grades 1 -
6. There are wide disparities between
urban and rural areas in access and quality of basic education services. A much smaller proportion of rural villages
have a lower secondary or upper secondary school in the village. These access barriers contribute to high
repetition rates in the primary grades and less progression to secondary
schools.
Better coverage
primary education in recent years has contributed to improved use of
plant. Primary school sizes have risen
from 350 to around 400 in recent years.
Secondary school sizes are around 700.
For primary and secondary levels, pupil-teacher ratios are around 45 and
16 respectively (compared to Lao PDR 28 and 15). A rationalisation and efficiency gain for secondary education
staffing deployment policy is a pressing issue. The recruitment and retention of trained teachers for schools in
remote areas remains a critical problem.
A priority will be to formulate and implement new and more efficient
staff deployment guidelines, including targeted incentives for teaching staff
in remote areas and to redeploy non-teaching staff back to the classroom.
2.3
Labour
Market Outlook
Agriculture remains
the predominant sector, employing more than four-fifths of the work force. In rural areas, 89% of the work force is
subsistence farmers or unpaid family workers.
In urban areas, around two-thirds of the work force, work in the service
or small manufacturing sectors, as foreign inward investment (FDI) grew in the
early and mid-nineties. In contrast,
only around 11% of rural workers are in the service sector, mainly as
Government employees.
Demographic pressures
reinforce the urgent need for employment generation. It is projected that the labour force will grow by around 200,000
per annum by 2010. Already the growth
in the size of the agricultural labour force has resulted in overall decline in
agricultural productivity in recent years.
The situation is exacerbated by growing uncertainty in the labour market
outlook. Foreign direct investment
(FDI) has declined in recent years.
Although the tourism sector is showing promising growth, the prospects
for the garment industry (a recent engine of job creation in urban areas) is
somewhat fragile.
The labour market outlook is now less
certain. FDI shrank significantly in
1997/98 due to the political unrest and the tourism sector was badly hit. Nevertheless, the active garment sector
expanded exports and overall the trade balance improved due to a fall in import
demand. Paradoxically, the recent 30%
decline in the currency may restore inward investment levels once political
stability can be assured.
 |
This uncertain labour market outlook means that
mechanisms need to be put in place that increase the responsiveness of the
education and training system. Already
there are strong signs of demand for specific training (e.g. management,
computing, accounting, foreign languages) in urban areas. These private sector and NGO run programs
constitute more than 90% of current technical education and skills training
provision. Selective use of user fees
and public subsidies for private training provision, linked to improved
training/market research and information, is a key measure for reinforcing the
market signal (see Map 3).
In the rural areas, better quality primary education,
non formal education and literacy programmes are pivotal to better farming
productivity. In urban areas, specific
skills training needs to be short duration, highly focused programmes tailored
to changing work force needs. Recent
efforts to reposition vocational training institutions, with greater autonomy
and employer participation, are proving successful in stimulating the
demand-side of skills training. This
will also allow for greater responsiveness to the needs of the informal and
self-employment sectors.
The role of Government should be to selectively
provide programs where public sector involvement is clearly justifiable (e.g.
very specialised technology and technician programs). A second role of Government should be to strengthen regulatory
and quality assurance for this growing public/private partnership. A third role for Government could be to
stimulate and build capacity of both public and private training
providers. The demand-driven National
Training Fund, linked to selective micro-credit is a positive example of well-planned
Government intervention.
2.4
Addressing
the Education/Poverty Trap
The overall financing
of the education system is still heavily reliant on households’ private
contributions to education costs.
Socioeconomic surveys report that on average, unofficial monthly school
fees at primary level are riels 3500 per pupil, riels 8000 at lower secondary
and riels 10,200 at upper secondary level.
At post-secondary level, the private contributions are significantly
higher, especially in urban areas.
Average
Out-of-Pocket Expenditures on School Fees per Student, 1997
(Riels per Year)
|
|
Cambodia |
Phnom Penh |
Other Urban |
Rural |
|
Public Schools : Primary |
3,512 |
5,123 |
5,635 |
3,033 |
|
Lower Secondary |
8,101 |
6,947 |
7,107 |
8,680 |
|
Upper Secondary |
10,215 |
8,417 |
10,777 |
12,274 |
|
Private Schools : Primary |
33,235 |
59,950 |
2,856 |
2,373 |
|
Lower Secondary |
74,016 |
79,115 |
0 |
- |
|
Upper Secondary |
49,356 |
25,973 |
- |
131,170 |
|
All Schools : Primary |
3,680 |
7,001 |
5,569 |
3,014 |
|
Lower Secondary |
8,638 |
9,586 |
7,076 |
8,634 |
|
Upper Secondary |
10,914 |
8,871 |
10,522 |
13,786 |
Source : Cambodia
Socio-Economic Survey (CSES) 1997
Recent surveys also
highlight that households (especially the urban better-off) are willing to pay
substantially for the guarantee of high quality education. The national household survey (1997)
indicated that parents are willing to pay 10 times as much for quality private
schooling, particularly at secondary level.
It appears that parents judge that the greater guarantee of access to
competitive post-secondary education (especially the elite university
faculties) represents a worthwhile investment.
However, this largely
unregulated private financing of education has resulted in a potential
education/poverty trap. For example,
the representation of the poor is much greater in the primary student
population than in the secondary or tertiary student population. This is particularly true of Cambodia, where
20% of primary students but only 2% of upper secondary students are drawn from
the poorest 20% of the population. In
contrast, 61% of the upper secondary students in the country come from the
richest 20% of the population. The
representation of the poor in tertiary education is zero, while the richest 20%
of the population accounts for 57% of tertiary education.
Distribution of Enrolled Students
by Quintile and by Schooling Level, 1997
(Percent of Total Population in
Each Quintile)
|
|
Per Capita
Expenditure Quintile |
|
|||||
|
|
Poorest |
II |
III |
IV |
Richest |
Total |
|
|
Primary |
20.32 |
21.22 |
21.59 |
18.87 |
18.01 |
100 |
|
|
Lower Secondary |
4.85 |
13.34 |
18.51 |
24.85 |
38.44 |
100 |
|
|
Upper Secondary |
1.96 |
4.23 |
11.98 |
20.83 |
61.00 |
100 |
|
|
Post Secondary |
0 |
3.74 |
4.88 |
34.35 |
57.02 |
100 |
|
Source :
MoEYS,
MoEF and Staff Estimates (PER 1998)
This analysis raises a
number of key financial planning and management issues. Firstly, there is a strong argument for
devoting a large share of public resources for primary education where the
poorest are most represented. Secondly,
to assure reduced cost barriers to secondary education, the level of formal and
informal payments to schools and teachers needs to be contained to affordable levels
and better regulated. In some
instances, there may be a case for selective fee waivers for primary and
secondary education.
Another contributing factor
in this education/poverty trap is the need for school age children, often
girls, to contribute to household chores and household income generation. For example, in a recent CSES 1999 survey,
it was estimated that of the 1.6 million school age children not attending full
time, around 25% of these children stated household income/work
responsibilities as the primary factor.
In contrast, only 8% of the sample sighted lack of suitable, accessible
education provision as the primary barrier.
2.5
Broader
Social Development Perspectives
Education planning and
programming also needs to take account of other social dimensions, especially
child health and nutrition and the potential impact of HIV AIDS. For example, child malnutrition has risen
from 38% to 40% in the past decade. Almost
one-fifth of children suffer from severe malnutrition. In addition, roughly 70% of the population
has no access to safe water and roughly 85% have inadequate sanitation.
International evidence
indicates that these health factors can have significant impact on student
performance at school. Unsafe water
correlates strongly with the incidence of diarrhoea, which impacts adversely on
student attendance. Similarly, family
nutrition education programs and the availability of micronutrient supplements
as part of integrated health/education planning can bring positive
results. There is a strong case for
increasingly using the primary school network as part of this proposed
integrated health planning. The
national health clinic network is only one-third of the size of the primary
school network. Health clinic staffing
levels are around 17 per 100,000 people compared to over 80 per 100,000 people
for primary schools. The current pilot
primary school feeding program is a good example of such integrated approaches.
Future education
planning may need to take increasing account of the prevalence of HIV AIDS in
Cambodia. In 1998, it was estimated
that 180,000 (or 3.7% of the sexually active population) were HIV
positive. There are currently an
estimated 6000 AIDS sufferers in Cambodia.
While there is no reliable data on Cambodian teachers, a recent study
indicated that around 25% of young men in Cambodia engaged in high-risk sexual
behaviour (Cambodia Women's Development Association, 1995). International experience suggests relatively
better-off, male professionals (including teachers) are potentially a high-risk
group.
HIV prevalence has potentially great
significance for long-term teaching service planning. HIV/AIDS could contribute to growing attrition rates and
absenteeism in the teaching service.
Growing AIDS prevalence could add significantly to teaching service and
teacher training costs if it becomes a major problem. Equally, in some countries, teacher-training institutions are
often the epicenter of high-risk sexual behaviour. Given the significant public and private investment in secondary
and post secondary education, a first measure could be a targeted HIV/AIDS
awareness program for the education sector.
A second measure could be further research into potential HIV/AIDS
impact on education planning building on the initial HIV/AIDS education
situation analysis initiated by MoEYS (September 2000).
2.6
 |
Gender Dimensions
There are significant
inequities in the representation of females in the education system. There is a significant drop in the
proportion of enrolled girls in the later grades of the primary school
system. As shown in the table above,
the share of girls falls from 47% in Grade 1 to 32% in Grade 6. Girls represent about one-third of total
enrolment in secondary schools. Females
are also significantly under-represented in technical and higher
education.
These outcomes are a
combination of a number of social, cultural and economic factors. Firstly, although girls enroll at roughly
the same age as boys, earlier dropout occurs with the onset of puberty and as
family responsibilities begin to predominate.
Secondly, it is reported that parents are often less willing to invest
in educating females, which is a critical factor when parental contributions
are a large share of education spending.
A number of policy/strategy interventions for assuring equitable access
to schooling could be considered.
One strategy is an
awareness campaign and possible regulations to secure girls enroll at the
official entry age. A second strategy
could be a targeted incentive program for girls from poor families linked to
school performance and attendance measures.
An associated strategy could be linking the proposed incentive scheme
with a targeted school-feeding program.
Such approaches are currently being piloted in selected provinces with
external assistance (e.g. Asia Foundation in Kompong Cham, World Bank/World
Food Program support in Takeo).
Similar gender
disparities are evident in the education service. Male teachers represent 63% and 73% of the primary and secondary
teaching force. In the managerial and
administrative cadres, men represent 73% of total. In the provincial and district education offices, males represent
around 80% of total staffing. In many instances,
the females are concentrated in lower level secretarial and support staff
duties. The main factor is the low
proportion of women with the required academic and professional qualifications
for high level and teaching positions.
The long-term strategy should be to gradually assure equitable access to
secondary and post secondary education, possibly linked to short-term
affirmative action in promoting qualified female education personnel.