Status: Remarkable progress has been made since 2000 in improving primary education indicators: the primary net admission and enrolment rates for 2009 and 2010 are 92.4 and 94.8, respectively. The gender parity index is 0.996, and regional disparities have been almost eliminated except for Ratanakiri province in Cambodia’s northeast. All of these are on track to achieve the 2015 CMDG targets.

Challenges: The major current challenges are to improve the flow rates in primary education. The repetition rate at 8.9 percent and the drop-out rate at 8.3 percent have not changed much in the last 8 years. Targets for Lower Secondary Schools (LSS) cannot be achieved until primary flow rates are improved: LSS net enrolment rate in is only 31.9. And will likely reach only 53 percent by 2015. There are also large regional differences in LSS, but the gender parity index is higher than 1, at 1.120.

The proportion of 6 to 14 year old children out of school is off track to achieve its 2015 target and as a result, progress in youth literacy is lower than expected at 87.5 percent out of a target of 92 percent.

This figure shows stagnating trends of the repetition and dropout rates in primary education since 2000/01. These trends can be attributed to poor economic situations of students' families, overage admissions to primary schools, high percentage of incomplete schools, insufficient students' readiness to learning, informal school fees, and weak learning achievements of students

The Way Forward: Ensuring equitable access to education for all and strengthening the quality of education have been and remain high priorities of the Royal Government.  Successful programs that need to be continued and expanded include: School Readiness, Child Friendly School, School Feeding, Early Childhood Education Program, and Inclusive Education Program which increased school attendance of disabled children.

Flow Rates in Primary Education

Source: EMIS