Your Excellency, Chairperson

Excellencies, Distinguished Ministers and Representatives of Asian Countries,

Ladies and Gentleman,

On behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, I have a great honor and pleasure to speak at this important forum about Cambodia’s education development strategies in the new centuries.  More specifically, I would like to briefly introduce Cambodia’s experiences in public and private sector partnership in higher education. 

In spite of sharing some common characteristics of education development vision, different countries in Asia, I believe, have their own different education development programs and strategies in accordance with their own governments' policies, their countries' levels of development and other particular contexts of development. Cambodia is no exception.

First of all, I would like to introduce our fundamental policy platform entitled “The Rectangular Strategy,” which was launched in July 2004.  The Rectangular Strategy serves as an important tool to support the implementation of the political platform of the Royal Government in the Third Legislature of the National Assembly.  The Strategy’s aim is to promote economic growth, generate employment for Cambodian workers, ensure equity and social justice, and enhance efficiency of the public sector.  As its name implies, the Rectangular Strategy has an integrated structure of interlocking rectangles, namely, 1) Enhancement of Agricultural Sector, 2) Further Rehabilitation and Construction of Physical Infrastructure, 3) Private Sector Development and Employment Generation, and 4) Capacity Building and Human Resource Development.  Enhanced quality of education forms on of the important pillars of the fourth rectangle.  The Royal Government aspires to improve the capacity of human resources with high technical skills and science that respond effectively to the rapidly changing economic environment and the diverse demands of labor market. 

Then in order to put these fundamental policies and strategies, the Royal Government has developed and launched comprehensive and detailed plans and programs.  These include: Cambodian Millennium Development Goals (CMDG), National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2006-2010, Education for All (EFA) National Plan 2003-2015, Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2006-2010 and Education Sector Support Programme (ESSP) 2006-2010.  All of these set out mid- and long-term specific, goals, targets and activities aimed at the achievement of Education for All by 2015. 

The great efforts made in the development of the education sector based on these national strategies and initiatives have brought about significant progress across the sector.  First, there has been a substantial increase in student enrollment in primary education.  In the past decade, the total number of primary students almost doubled from 1.4 million in 1994 to around 2.7 million in 2004.  Accordingly, the net enrollment rate has been steadily increasing, which achieved over 90 percent for both boys and girls in the 2004/05 school year.  It is also worth mentioning that the gender gap has been narrowing in the recent years. 

Steady growth in student enrollment has been observed in secondary education as well.  In the most recent school year, the net enrollment rate in lower secondary education reached around 25%, again with a narrowing gender gap.  Notwithstanding, the secondary enrollment rate is still low, and more concerted effort is essential to provide basic education opportunities to a wider population. 

As the graduates from primary and secondary schools increases, the student enrollment in higher education has been growing rapidly and steadily in the past years.  The total number of students in higher education almost doubled in the past five years from around 25,000 to 47,000.  However, female participation is still limited: about two-thirds of the enrollment is occupied by male students. 

In order to cope with such substantial increases in the demand for education across the sector, the Royal Government has been according high priority to the education sector in its national budget.  In 2004 over 19% of the total public expenditure was allocated to the education sector.  Nevertheless, the Royal Government has faced a serious funding gap in responding to rapidly growing demands for education from pre-primary to tertiary education.  One of the major strategies to address such a financial challenge is to seek further partnership with and involvement of the private sector, especially in higher education sub-sector. 

The Royal Government of Cambodia permitted the first private higher education institutions to operate in 1997.  In line with the Government public/private partnership, the number of private higher education institutions has been dramatically increasing since then.  Currently there are 44 universities and higher education institutions in Cambodia, of which 31 are private institutions. 

Accordingly, student enrollment in private higher education institutions has been expanding substantially.  The number of students in private schools more than doubled in the past five years from around 18,000 to 39,000, while the enrollment in public institutions has remained constant at around 8,000 students.  In the 2004-05 school year, over 80 percent of higher education students were enrolled in one of the private institutions.  This trend clearly suggests that the private sector has come to play critical roles in accommodating ever-growing demands for higher education in Cambodia.  

Notwithstanding such successful involvement of the private sector in higher education, there still exist a range of challenges to overcome in the sub-sector.  First, by international standards, participation in higher education is still low.  In order to cope with rapidly changing global economy, the Royal Government need more and better qualified human resources with higher education qualifications.

Secondly, as I mentioned already, while more and more females have come to go to primary and secondary schools, there still exists a large gender gap in higher education.  More concerted efforts are required to promote further participation of females in tertiary education.  Also, there exist geographical disparities in higher education participation.  The majority of higher education institutions are located in urban areas, thus there are much less further education opportunities for upper secondary graduates living in rural and remote districts.  The dramatic enrollment growth in private higher education institutions has been happening only in urban areas, mostly in Phnom Penh.  Fourthly, many higher education institutions have faced the shortage of facilities, instructional materials, and qualified and experienced teaching staff.  Furthermore, accreditation and credit transfer systems have yet to be fully functional, which has limited flexible exchange and transfer among higher education institutions, especially between public and private institutions. 

In order to tackle these challenges, the Royal Government set out concrete policies, strategies and program actions on higher education development in the Education Strategic Plan and the Education Sector Support Program.  The Government’s policy objective is to ensure expanded provision of quality higher education in response to national priority needs, employment needs, and other market demands and to enable a stronger public/private in higher education.  Specific targets and strategies include the following:

First, increased overall enrollment in higher education institutions.  The Government’s target is 90,000 enrollments by 2008 with 54,000 in private institutions and with 40% female. 

Secondly, improved equity in access to higher education from all 24 provinces.  The Government aims at 30% of higher education enrollment from outside Phnom Penh.

Thirdly, the Government aspires to expand of science, technology and mathematics programs in all public and private higher education institutions

Fourthly, increased opportunities for student transfer and progression between private and public institutions.  This will be achieved through strengthening of the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia (ACC), which was established in 2003.

Finally, the Royal Government commits itself to improving the capacity and qualifications of higher education faculties through a range of capacity development initiatives including in country training as well as partnerships with higher education institutions in other countries in Asia.

I believe that with strong commitment and ceaseless efforts by all stakeholders in higher education both in public and private sectors, Cambodia can successfully achieve these objectives, which will result in more and better higher education opportunities for the people of Cambodia. 

Last but not least, in our ever-changing world, while some developed countries are creating new changes, most developing countries are striving to adapt and deal with changes and in most cases are running behind changes. However, as we have entered the new millennium, the interdependent era, all countries both developed and developing should work together to sustain and develop our globe. This requires a collective thought, creativity and wisdom to generate positive changes in the way people live, work and interact. Therefore, I take the view that we should work collaboratively and creatively to create our desirable changes that underpin the sustainable development, economic growth, while fostering peace and cooperation.

I am sure that the conference will produce a fruitful result for the sake of the educational development in Asia as well as in the world over.

Thank you very much for your attention!