Despite a growing number of schools and educational institutions built in remote and rural areas which has supported an increase in enrolment at all levels (UNESCO 2010), there remain significant rural/urban disparities in availability of educational services. At preschool level for example, while only 15% of preschool age children live in urban areas, they account for around 25% of total preschool enrolment (2009/2010, IBE 2011). Low access to education largely affects the “hard-to-reach” groups which include the poor, children in rural, remote and border areas, ethnic minority groups and also street children and children with disabilities (UNESCO 2010).

In addition, gender gaps exist at all education levels in Cambodia. For many rural families that rely on agriculture for subsistence, education costs are the highest expense they face annually. Often they cannot afford to educate all of their children and thus girls are likely to be kept at home to help with household work. For reasons of personal security, girls are also not always allowed to travel long distances or to live away from the family to attend school at upper secondary level (UNESCO 2010).

In Cambodia, the quality of teachers and the quality of teacher education and training programmes need major improvement. Currently, about 34.5% of primary school teachers in remote areas and 6.4% in rural areas have not studied beyond primary level. Moreover, the survival rate for grades 1-6 was estimated at 61.7% and 37.2% for grade 1-9 in 2008/2009 (IBE 2011). For upper secondary level (grade 10-12) the dropout rates increase with each higher grade and in 2007 the dropout rate for grade 12 was 20.9% of total enrolment with 15.1% for girls. Some of the main reasons behind the low completion rates are the cost burden, the need for students to work, and a lack of understanding of the importance of formal schooling (UNECO 2010).

Due to the huge number of youth transitioning from schooling to employment in Cambodia, the higher education institutions (HEIs) are currently producing more graduates than the market can absorb (World Bank n.d.(a)). At the same time, employers report it difficult to find professional staff who have strong analytical and decision-making skills (UNESCO 2010).

Furthermore, adequate quality assurance systems have not yet been developed and there are still many HEIs which are well below national or regional quality standards (Rao and Pearson 2009).

The national education budget is derived from several different sources including central government, non-governmental organisations, foreign loans, technical assistance and grants and local revenues generated by each school and community. In 2010, the Government expenditure on education was 2.6% of GDP and the latest statistics of 2007 showed that public expenditure on education accounted for 12.4% of total Government expenditure. While the budget from the central government is mainly used for salary-related expenses, other operational budget support, called Programme-based Budgeting (PB), is used to provide financial support to schools. The funds for PB largely originate from external donors, although a small portion is covered by the government and community (UNESCO 2010).

Except for the poorest areas, early childhood care and education programmes are mainly locally funded and further supplemented by NGO’s and other donors (UIS n.d.).

As a post-conflict country, education development in Cambodia is far behind that of its neighbouring countries. The education reform framework of the MoEYS focuses on four broad policies: (i) universalizing nine years of basic education and developing opportunities for functional literacy; (ii) improving the quality of education through effective reform; (iii) linking education/training with the labour market and society; and (iv) rehabilitating and developing the youth and sport sub-sectors. With assistance from the international community, Cambodia is on its way to achieving some of the EFA goals by 2015 (UNESCO 2010).

The current Education Strategic Plan 2009-2013 and the National Strategic Development Plan Update 2009-2013 both aim to strengthen quality and efficiency of education at all levels (MoES 2010). To effectively tackle the challenges in the education sector, the Government has adopted the use of a sector wide approach (SWAp) by building partnerships to carry out joint planning and programming (Royal Government of Cambodia 2010). Moreover, in 2007 the Government adopted the Child Friendly School Policy, aiming to improve the quality of education through focusing on issues such as access, effective learning, health and safety and gender and community participation (MoES 2007).