In Cambodia, Community Learning Centres (CLCs) offer equivalency programmes, literacy programmes and other life skills courses, such as hair cutting, sculpturing, sewing and rice planting, in order to aid income generation. Statistics from 2008 shows that 55,160 adults (64% female) became literate and more women than men (about 63.3% females of the total 58,967) were enrolled in functional literacy programmes. Furthermore, nearly 47,000 young people (48.3% female) were trained in different equivalency and re-entry programmes at all levels and the CLCs helped another 3,528 adults (62.4% female) gain new skills (UNESCO 2010).
The NFE Management and Information System (NFEMIS) is now being upgraded for full operation in the capital city of Phnom Penh and 23 provinces of the country (UNESCO 2010).
In Cambodia, 77% of adults, aged 15 and above, who are illiterate depend on manual labour in farming or goods production. Although both enrolment in and provision of NFE has increased in recent years, NFE in Cambodia is battling issues such as frequent migration, low staff capacity and little community support. Particularly, the capacity for literacy programmes needs to be improved and there is a serious lack of human resources. Furthermore, the national capacity for managing, monitoring and evaluating NFE must be strengthened in order to more effectively plan and implement literacy and NFE programmes. In general, the MoEYS needs to partner with other line ministries and engage NGOs and the donor community in its efforts, especially to support literacy programmes for youth and adults (UNESCO 2010).
