This document discusses early childhood education in Cambodia. It begins with definitions of key terms and an introduction to the benefits of focusing on preschool and early development. These benefits include moral, citizenship, economic, and equality incentives. It then describes different types of preschools in Cambodia, challenges facing the system like poverty, and the government's response. It analyzes governance, finance, quality of provision, and compares Cambodia's approach to other countries in the region. It concludes by identifying priorities like improving teacher quality and awareness of early childhood needs, and questions for future research.

1. Chapter 7

2. Chapter 7

3. 1. Mr. Lork Ratha
2. Mr. Zhou Liyun
3. Miss Li Xiaoyan
4. Mr. Som Sovanarong (Peter)

4. 9 – Future research direction
8 – Overriding principles
7 – The ASEAN context and other international comparisons
6 – Governance and finance
5 – Quality of Provision
4 – Access and affordability
3 – Hardware and Preschool types
2 - The benefits of focusing on Preschool and Early School
1 - Opening & Introduction
Contents

5. 1 – Introduction
➥ Preschool (adjective): relating to children who are between about three and five years
old and have not yet gone to school – (noun) a nursery school
➥ Early childhood development (noun): the study of the education of children
➥ To show that attention at an earlier stage in a child’s development

7. 2 – The benefits of focusing on preschool and
early childhood development
1. Moral incentive
 The children will develop their personalities, talents…
2. Citizenship incentive
 The children will develop their social awareness, confidence and group interaction
skills, and to prepare them for primary education
3. Economic incentive
 It focuses on skills development with the country’s growing workforce to enable it to
compete particularly in the wider ASEAN context.
4. Equality and inclusion incentive
 To find and to reduce the inequality of preschool opportunities

8. State preschool
Community preschool
Home-based preschool
Private preschool

9.  State or formal preschools are governed by MOEYS and exist mainly in urban areas.
 Community preschools run by commune councils. It is heavily supported by NGOs, these exist
mainly in rural areas.
 Home-based education programmes are under the general supervision of MOEYS and to
provide education for groups of mothers, focusing on early childhood. They are generally set
up in rural areas where state preschools are not available.
 Private schools come under the umbrella of MOEYS, there is little standardization. They
generally exist in urban areas where, as business enterprises, they have access to families with
sufficient income to pay the fees.

10. 4.1 The challenge of poverty
a. The challenge of poor health and malnutrition
b. The challenge of parents’ own lack of education
c. The challenge of parental practices that are detrimental to child development
d. The challenge of location

11. 4.2 Government response and future plans
a. To acknowledge the need to attract more teachers to the poorer rural areas
b. To reduce grade repetition in primary education, to lessen the dropout rate
c. To increase parental awareness about education
d. To expand the percentage of children enrolled in preschool – state and
community preschools, home-based education programmes, and private schools

12.  To guide for inspectors specifies seven areas of learning
and development: communication and language; physical
development; personal; social and emotional development;
literacy; mathematics; understanding the world; and
expressive arts and design.

13. 6.1 Governance
1. The government agreed that it was about the uncertainty about
roles, and a lack of knowledge about responsibilities among
duty bearers.
2. However, the determination of the new education minister and the
ambitious plans already introduced were considered a compromising
sign.
3. To encourage the service users and providers to understand rights and
responsibilities and to support transparency and accountability.

14. 6.2 Finance
1. The government’s financial limitation
2. “Wish lists” – more effective policy making

15. 1. In the region especially, in comparison with Thailand, Vietnam,
Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia… the government has
not recognized the importance of this stage in a child’s
development.
2. The influence of cultural differences also suggests that
Cambodia needs to view Western approaches with caution,
bearing in mind the role that culture plays in people’s attitude

16.  Quality of teachers in all types of preschool – and their teaching
practice linked to adequate training, is clearly a pressing priority.
 Parents and other caregivers need to be aware of children’s needs
from conception onwards
 A good education in promoting social, emotional and ultimate
economic well-being and their vital role in this.

17. 1. Cambodia is at a very early stage in introducing preschool
opportunities, but the government has indicated a firm
commitment to future development.
2. How are communes performing such a coordination role?
3. What are the problems? How could the situation be improved?
4. What examples of best practice exist that could be shared?