Implementation Completion and Results Report (ICR)...

Document of

The World Bank

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Report No: ICR00004151

IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION AND RESULTS REPORT

TF 17490

ON A

GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION GRANT

IN THE AMOUNT OF US$38.5 MILLION

TO THE

ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF CAMBODIA

FOR THE

CAMBODIA GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION SECOND EDUCATION SUPPORT PROJECT ( P144715 )

January 31, 2018

Education Global Practice

East Asia And Pacific Region

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CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS

(Exchange Rate Effective {Dec 08, 2017})

Currency Unit = US$

KHR 4030.2328 = US$1

US$ 0.0002 = KHR 1

FISCAL YEAR

July 1 - June 30

Regional Vice President: Victoria Kwakwa

Country Director: Ellen A. Goldstein

Senior Global Practice Director: Jaime Saavedra Chanduvi

Practice Manager: Harry Anthony Patrinos

Task Team Leader(s): Simeth Beng

ICR Main Contributor: Andrew B. Ragatz and Akiko Sawamoto

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ADB Asian Development Bank

ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

CAS Country Assistance Strategy

CBA Cost-Benefit Analysis

CDPF Capacity Development Partnership Fund

CMU Country Management Unit

CPS Community Pre-school

DOE District Office of Education

DTMT District Training and Monitoring Team

ECE Early Childhood Education

EGMA Early Grade Math Assessment

EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment

ESMF Environmental and Social Management Framework

ESP Education Strategic Plan

ESSSUAP Education Sector Support Scale Up Action Program

ESWG Education Sector Working Group

GER Gross Enrollment Ratio

RGC Royal Government of Cambodia

GPE Global Partnership for Education

ICR Implementation Completion and Results Report

IP Indigenous Peoples

IPPF Indigenous Peoples Planning Framework

IRR Internal Rate of Return

ISM Implementation Support Mission

ISN Interim Strategy Note

ISR Implementation Status and Results Report

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

MEF Ministry of Economy and Finance

MoEYS Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports

MTR Mid-Term Review

NER Net Enrollment Ratio

NPV Net Present Value

OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

PAD Project Appraisal Document

PB Program Budget

PISA Program for International Student Assessment

PMC Project Management Committee

POE Provincial Office of Education

SA Social Assessment

SESSP Second Education Sector Support Project

TTD Teacher Training Department

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DATA SHEET .......................................................................................................................... 1

I. PROJECT CONTEXT AND DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES ....................................................... 5

A. CONTEXT AT APPRAISAL .........................................................................................................5

B. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES DURING IMPLEMENTATION (IF APPLICABLE) ..................................... 12

II. OUTCOME .................................................................................................................... 14

A. RELEVANCE OF PDOs ............................................................................................................ 14

B. ACHIEVEMENT OF PDOs (EFFICACY) ...................................................................................... 16

C. EFFICIENCY ........................................................................................................................... 19

D. JUSTIFICATION OF OVERALL OUTCOME RATING .................................................................... 22

E. OTHER OUTCOMES AND IMPACTS (IF ANY) ............................................................................ 23

III. KEY FACTORS THAT AFFECTED IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOME ................................ 24

A. KEY FACTORS DURING PREPARATION ................................................................................... 24

B. KEY FACTORS DURING IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................. 25

IV. BANK PERFORMANCE, COMPLIANCE ISSUES, AND RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME .. 27

A. QUALITY OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION (M&E) ............................................................ 27

B. ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND FIDUCIARY COMPLIANCE ..................................................... 28

C. BANK PERFORMANCE ........................................................................................................... 30

D. RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME ....................................................................................... 31

V. LESSONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................. 32

ANNEX 1. RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND KEY OUTPUTS ........................................................... 35

ANNEX 2. BANK LENDING AND IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT/SUPERVISION ......................... 49

ANNEX 3. PROJECT COST BY COMPONENT ........................................................................... 51

ANNEX 4. EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 52

ANNEX 5. BORROWER, CO-FINANCIER AND OTHER PARTNER/STAKEHOLDER COMMENTS ... 63

ANNEX 6. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS (IF ANY) ..................................................................... 76

ANNEX 7. ALTERNATIVE SCENARIO OF USING A SPLIT RATING ............................................. 77

List of Tables and Figures

Table 1. Changes to PDO and Intermediate Results Indicators ........................................................... 12 Table 2. Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Expansion of the ECE Sub-Component of the Project ................. 21 Table 3. Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Scholarship Scheme for Disadvantaged Children Sub-Component........................................................................................................................................................ 22 Table 4. Calculations for Outcome Rating under a Split Rating ........................................................... 79 Figure 1. SESSP: Theory Change ..........................................................................................................9

The World Bank Cambodia Global Partnership for Education Second Education Support Project ( P144715 )

DATA SHEET

BASIC INFORMATION

Product Information

Project ID Project Name

P144715 CAMBODIA GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION

SECOND EDUCATION SUPPORT PROJECT ( P144715 )

Country Financing Instrument

Cambodia Investment Project Financing

Original EA Category Revised EA Category

Partial Assessment (B) Partial Assessment (B)

Organizations

Borrower Implementing Agency

Ministry of Economy and Finance, Royal Government

of Cambodia Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport

Project Development Objective (PDO) Original PDO

The objectives of the Project are to assist the Recipient to: (i) expand access to early childhood education (ECE) for 3-5 year olds and (ii) contribute to improved access to and quality of basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.


FINANCING

Original Amount (US$) Revised Amount (US$) Actual Disbursed (US$)

World Bank Financing TF-17490

38,500,000 38,500,000 38,500,000

Total 38,500,000 38,500,000 38,500,000

Non-World Bank Financing

Borrower 0 0 0

Total 0 0 0

Total Project Cost 38,500,000 38,500,000 38,500,000

KEY DATES

Approval Effectiveness MTR Review Original Closing Actual Closing

05-May-2014 16-May-2014 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

RESTRUCTURING AND/OR ADDITIONAL FINANCING

Date(s) Amount Disbursed (US$M) Key Revisions

30-Nov-2016 31.53 Change in Results Framework

KEY RATINGS

Outcome Bank Performance M&E Quality

Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory Substantial

RATINGS OF PROJECT PERFORMANCE IN ISRs

No. Date ISR Archived DO Rating IP Rating Actual

Disbursements (US$M)

01 26-Sep-2014 Satisfactory Satisfactory 1.00

02 09-Jan-2015 Satisfactory Satisfactory 5.62

03 30-May-2015 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 12.64


04 09-Dec-2015 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 19.06

05 30-Jun-2016 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 27.04

06 22-Dec-2016 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 31.53

07 12-Jun-2017 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 38.50

SECTORS AND THEMES

Sectors

Major Sector/Sector (%)

Education 100

Early Childhood Education 62

Primary Education 12

Secondary Education 6

Other Education 20

Themes

Major Theme/ Theme (Level 2)/ Theme (Level 3) (%) Human Development and Gender 100

Education 100

Access to Education 50

Education Financing 50

ADM STAFF

Role At Approval At ICR

Regional Vice President: Axel van Trotsenburg Victoria Kwakwa

Country Director: Ulrich Zachau Ellen A. Goldstein

Senior Global Practice Director: Xiaoqing Yu Jaime Saavedra Chanduvi

Practice Manager: Luis Benveniste Harry Anthony Patrinos

Task Team Leader(s): Simeth Beng Simeth Beng

ICR Contributing Author: Andrew B. Ragatz


I. PROJECT CONTEXT AND DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

A. CONTEXT AT APPRAISAL

Context 1. Country Context. Cambodia has established remarkable economic growth and macroeconomic stability in recent

years. Its growth rate has averaged 12.9 percent per annum since 2002, and in 2011 real GDP increased by almost

10 percent. Per capita income has doubled over the past decade. This record had been achieved as Cambodia had

managed its historical transition from a command-and-control economy toward greater market orientation and

ended its three-decade long conflict. The country’s economic growth had been mainly driven by four sectors

(garments, tourism, construction, and agriculture) and was underpinned by an open trade regime. Exports had

increased by 23 percent per annum since 1998, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) had been greater than 6 percent

of GDP in recent years. Cambodia’s openness began with its membership in the Association of Southeast Asian

Nations (ASEAN) in 1999. With its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in October 2004, it had become

increasingly integrated into the world economy, a process which was deepened by the ASEAN economic integration

in 2015. This exposure, however, increased the impact of the global economic slowdown on the country. Growth

slowed to 6.7 percent in 2008. In the second half of that year, the financial crisis affected foreign demand.

International prices of Cambodian export commodities declined, export orders for garments and other industrial

products collapsed, and a slowdown in manufacturing ensued. As it emerged from the crisis, economic growth

recovered to 10.7 percent in 2010 and 9.3 percent in 2011.1

2. Despite a decade of robust growth, Cambodia is still one of the least developed countries in Southeast Asia.

Approximately 20 percent of its population earns less than US$1 per day, and about 24 percent of Cambodian citizens

live below the poverty line. Daily life is characterized by vulnerability due to poverty, the existence of landmines,

disability, and a high incidence of mortality and morbidity, the effects of which are exacerbated by the lack of

effective social safety nets. One quarter of all households is headed by females, and 59 percent of the population

relies on agriculture for their livelihood. The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) and the donor community are

working together to address many of these issues, and some success has been realized over the past five years.

During this time, poverty has been reduced by more than 60 percent in Phnom Penh and 44 percent in other urban

areas. However, poverty reductions were significantly smaller in rural areas – about 22 percent.2

3. Sector Context. In its efforts to reduce poverty and increase prosperity, Cambodia recognized the key importance of

education to its national development. In the basic education sub-sectors, the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2009 -

2013 (and its successor 2014-2018) focused on two key issues: (i) the achievement of universal access to high quality

basic education; and (ii) the promotion of equity in educational opportunities to increase income and employment.

In addition to improving access (which was already in progress at appraisal), the Government took additional steps

to raise educational quality by aiming to make national assessments an annual exercise as part of its overall strategy.

The expansion of access and the improvement of quality in basic education was also supported by Cambodia’s first

1 World Development Indicators 2 Ibid.


Global Partnership for Education (GPE) (formerly known as the Education for All Fast-Track Initiative (EFA-FTI)) Grant

Project (2008-2012). Comprised of three primary components (the expansion of ECE in disadvantaged communes,

the promotion of universal primary completion, and the decentralization of educational management and

monitoring), this GPE project laid the foundation for the Second Education Sector Support Project (SESSP) through

its adoption of EGRA and the disability survey and its introduction of ECE into Cambodia’s development agenda.

4. Despite the progress that was being made in expanding access and improving the quality of basic education,

Cambodia’s education sector was faced with several key challenges. First, there were fundamental gaps in provision,

particularly rooted in early childhood. At appraisal, 77.5 percent of Cambodia’s three to four year-olds did not have

access to ECE due to the lack of pre-school facilities. Second, large disparities continued in access and quality

between regions, income groups, and males and females. At the time of appraisal, it was reported that universal

access was still not being achieved: 62,000 children were out of school at the primary level and 170,000 were out of

school at the secondary level. The majority of these out-of-school children were from disadvantaged backgrounds,

while more than 40 percent of students in upper secondary education were from the richest income quintile. The

2010 EGRA which was conducted for 24,000 students in grades 1-6 revealed large disparities in performance

between urban and rural schools, as well as students’ low level of reading and comprehension.3 Third, the lack of a

systematic and institutionalized system for student performance assessment hindered policymakers and educational

institutions in Cambodia from making informed decisions and strategic plans to improve quality and foster public

accountability based on reliable and comparable data. Fourth, the low quality of teaching in primary and secondary

schools was an area of concern, particularly in rural, remote and disadvantaged areas. In addition to the dearth of

qualified teachers, teaching and learning materials, low content knowledge of teacher trainers, and an insufficient

intake of teacher trainees contributed to low quality graduates of Teacher Training Centers.

5. Project Context. The Second Education Sector Support Project (SESSP) was supported by a US$35 million grant from

the Global Partnership for Education. The Bank was selected, by the government, to be the supervising entity for

the grant and to assist the MoEYS in the preparation of the GPE application, in close collaboration with other donors

in Cambodia. The finalization of the proposal was coordinated closely with the Education Sector Working Group

(ESWG) in Cambodia and the ESP. The application was prepared in nine months in order to meet the GPE schedule

for their Board of Directors approval of the application. The GPE board approved the application on August 30, 2013

and the Bank Board approval followed on May 5, 2014. The SESSP was prepared based on a three year

implementation period, which is a GPE requirement, as well as with full participation and collaboration of the donor

community. The grant agreement was signed on May 16, 2014 between the Government of Cambodia and the Bank,

acting as the supervising entity of the GPE fund. It should be noted that GPE supported projects follow both GPE

guidelines for preparation and implementation as well as Bank guidelines for both.

6. Rationale for Bank Involvement. The SESSP was closely related to the objectives of the Country Assistance Strategy

(CAS), as well as the emerging Interim Strategy Note (ISN). The CAS proposed to build strong foundations for

sustainable development and poverty reduction by investing in good governance, physical infrastructure, human

capital, and the private sector. The interventions under the SESSP were also aligned with the Bank’s twin goals of

eradicating extreme poverty and increasing shared prosperity. In addition to being aligned to the Bank’s twin goals,

3 Among the 24,000 students who were assessed, 33 percent could not read at all, while 47 percent could not comprehend what they had read.


the SESSP project also complemented various on-going interventions by development partners and had a larger

coherent vision for moving the sector forward and achieving long term positive impact.

Theory of Change (Results Chain) 7. The project’s overarching objective was to contribute to improved access and quality of early childhood and basic

education, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The objectives were to lead to outcomes of increased enrollment and reduced dropout as well as improved teaching and learning as seen through observable teaching practices and measured learning outcomes.

8. Although a wide range of activities were included, there is a strong overall coherence of the theory of change and logic behind the key targeted areas. ECE played a prominent role in the results chain and was comprehensively addressed with access through construction of schools in targeted disadvantaged areas as well as with quality measures in the form of training and materials for pre-school teachers, pre-school resource centers, and parental education. This combination of access and quality was to lead to an increased enrollment ratio of children aged 3-5.

9. Access to basic education was addressed in the form of scholarships for the disadvantaged with the goal of improving

the lower secondary enrollment rate and reducing dropout of the most disadvantaged. Quality was addressed through improvement in literacy through a comprehensive Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessment (EGRA/EGMA) program that involved teacher training and materials, with the goal of improving teaching practices (as measured by increasing the percentage of teachers applying effective EGRA teaching methods) and also improving student learning (as measured through the percentage of students reaching 45-60 words per minute on EGRA).

10. The theory of change recognized the importance of leadership and management, as reflected in supporting school

leadership through training, strengthening system management through a new student tracking system, a unified

early childhood and primary education sub-sector monitoring system and support of Monitoring and Evaluation

(M&E) through capacity building and policy on M&E as well as support for public financial management.

Project Development Objectives (PDOs) 11. The objectives of the project are to assist the Recipient to: (i) expand access to early childhood education (ECE) for

3-5 year olds; and (ii) contribute to improved access to and quality of basic education4, particularly for those from

disadvantaged backgrounds.

Key Expected Outcomes and Outcome Indicators 12. PDO Indicators: Below are the original key expected development outcomes and outcome indicators. They are

grouped based on a breakdown of the PDO into three discrete objectives. Each PDO indicator was designed to

contribute to the achievement of Cambodia’s long-term ESP Core Breakthrough Indicators.5 These ESP indicators

include, among others, monitoring the percentage of 5 year olds enrolled in all aspects of ECE, and increasing primary

and lower secondary completion rates. PDO Indicator 1, for example, was well aligned with monitoring progress on

4 For the project, this includes primary and lower secondary levels, with six years of primary education (grades 1 to 6) and three years of lower secondary (grades 7 to 9). 5 In each ESP, Cambodia has adopted a set of Core Breakthrough Indicators, which help to prioritize the most strategic interventions and to better address the remaining challenges identified in the ESP. The most recent ESP (i.e., ESP 2014-2018) reflects the country’s stronger focus on equity issues and further reduction of existing disparities.


the percentage of 5 year olds in all aspects of ECE, allowing for a comparison with the national level data on the

participation of 5 year olds in ECE.

Objective 1: To expand access to ECE for 3-5 year olds. The key outcome indicators are:

a. Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where 100 new formal and 1,000 new

community-based pre-school facilities are provided

b. Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where 100 new formal and 1,000 new

community based pre-school facilities are provided (girls)

Objective 2: To contribute to improved access to basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged

backgrounds. The key outcome indicators are:

c. Lower Secondary enrollment rate

d. Lower Secondary enrollment rate (girls)

Objective 3: To contribute to improved quality of basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged

backgrounds. The key outcome indicators are:

e. Percentage of students in Grade 3 reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early Grade Reading Assessment

f. Percentage of primary teachers applying effective EGRA teaching methods as defined by classroom

observation criteria

13. Intermediate Indicators: The following are the original intermediate indicators by objective (as specified by breaking

down the PDO into discrete objectives):

Objective 1: To expand access to ECE for 3-5 year olds.

a. Number of children aged 3-5 reached by project supported ECE services

b. Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where 100 new formal and 1,000 new

community based preschool facilities are provided

c. Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where 100 new formal and 1,000 new

community based preschool facilities are provided (girls)

d. Number of Community ECE teachers and core parents reached by training and materials supported by the

project

Objective 2: To contribute to improved access to basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged

backgrounds.

e. Number of students receiving project financed scholarships

f. Number of teachers completing training on disability screening

g. Average age of students entering grade 1

h. Number of District Offices of Education constructed

Objective 3: To contribute to improved quality of basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged

backgrounds

i. EGMA rolled out in 5 provinces


j. Percentage of ECE formal services rated as level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood education

environment indicators through classroom-observation evaluation (50 FPS)

k. Percentage of ECE formal services rated as level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood education

environment indicators through classroom-observation evaluation (100 CBPS selected)

l. System for learning assessment at the primary level

m. Number of principals completing leadership training n. Utility of the learning assessment system

o. Roll out of Grades 3, 6, and 8 National Assessments (each assessment once during the project lifecycle) and

publication of their results

p. Teachers recruited or trained

Intermediate indicators that apply across the objectives include:

q. Number of provinces implementing a unified early childhood and primary education sub-sector monitoring

system

r. Number of provinces implementing a unified early childhood and primary education sub-sector planning

system Plans

s. Direct project beneficiaries

t. Female beneficiaries

Figure 1. SESSP: Theory Change

Enrollment ratio of

children aged 5 in the

urban and rural

districts where the

new 100 formal and

1,000 community

based pre-school

facilities are provided


Components

The project consisted of four components:

14. Component 1: Improving the Access and Educational Experience of Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Students

(Estimated: US$23.8 million; Actual: US$21.5 million)

15. Sub-component 1.1 Expanding Access to Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) was designed to increase

access to early childhood education and care for disadvantaged 3-5 year olds throughout the country by improving

current services to meet service standards, expanding new services with standards and increasing access in rural and

remote areas without ECE services. The sub-component’s main activities included: (i) the construction of576 school

buildings including 76 formal pre-schools and 500 community pre-schools; (ii) the establishment of 73 formal pre-

schools, 500 home-based pre-schools and 1,000 community-based ECE pre-schools; (iii) providing intensive pre-

service training for ECE national trainers; (iv) the provision of preservice and in-service teacher and “core and lead

mother”6 training, as well as support for the country’s 24 national ECE resource centers; (v) the provision of teaching

and learning materials for new and existing community-based and home-based programs; (vi) the delivery of a

communication campaign aimed at increasing parents’ awareness about the benefits of preschool; and (vii) the

provision of parental education to pregnant mothers and mothers of children under two years old.

16. 16Sub-component 1.2 Increasing Access to Basic Education Services provided support for increased access to basic

education services in rural and remote areas, including for disadvantaged children and children with disabilities. The

main activities under this sub-component included: (i) expanding Cambodia’s successful primary and secondary

scholarship program for poor and disadvantaged students; and (ii) providing vision and hearing support to students

who have poor vision and hearing through teacher training on disability screening, and an expansion of the Ministry

of Education, Youth and Sports’ (MoEYS’s) on-going school health program.

17. Component 2: Benchmarking Student Competencies (Estimated: US$4.3 million; Actual: US$5.2 million)

18. Sub-component 2.1 Nationalizing Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessments (EGRA and EGMA) financed

the development and provision of textbooks for reading and mathematics, as well as training to school administrators

and teachers in preparation for the nationwide administration of the assessment tests. Specific activities included: (i)

administering the assessment tests to primary school students; (ii) scoring and grading the assessment tests; (iii) data

capturing and entry; (iv) quality control mechanisms of the results; and (v) using the results of the assessments to

support system pedagogical and curricular improvement through the wide dissemination of results at various fora

with high-level policy makers.

19. In addition to the rollout of the assessments, sub-component 2.2 Supporting National Assessment also provided

technical support to the Quality Assurance Department to conduct assessments for grades 3, 6, 8 and 11, and

supported them in their annual review of EGRA and EGMA results. The national assessment system was further

strengthened with this project’s support. The Bank team initially supported its institutional capacity development

within the MoEYS through the former project, Cambodia Education Sector Support Project (2005-2011), which

provided constant support to the national assessment team in the ensuing years and contributed to the establishment

of a dedicated national assessment office in the newly established Department of Education Quality Assurance in

6 Core mothers provide parental education to mothers in the villages that join the home-based community preschools; lead mothers provide parental education to mother members who live in nearby homes


2013. Subsequently, the SESSP provided technical assistance to strengthen the technical and analytical capacity of

the national assessment office to conduct the national assessment tests and analyze the dataset for policy

suggestions. Currently, the national assessment office conducts the national assessment tests every year for specific

grades (Grades 3, 5, 8, and 11). In 2014, the Grade 8 national assessment test results showed that almost all students

in this level are capable of reading texts and answering questions about the texts, which students had difficulty in

reading in the EGRA tests in the past. As such, a concerted effort by multiple actors supported improvements in

reading the national languages.

20. Component 3: Improving Cambodia’s Teaching Force (Estimated: US$2.5 million; Actual: US$1.8 million)

This component focused on the systemic challenge of raising teacher quality in Cambodia. Sub-component 3.1

Improving Pedagogical Training provided in-service Inclusive Education training to support teachers in improving

classroom management practices and teaching methodologies for those with disabilities to help foster individualized

instruction. Additionally, the EGRA training supported by the project focused on improving phonemic awareness and

letter recognition among students.

21. Sub-component 3.2 Strengthening School Leadership supported the improvement of academic leadership of school

principals. The sub-component provided in-service training and hands-on support to school principals to help them

provide more effective management of and academic direction to teachers. The training also focused on helping

school directors improve their school development planning and assessment systems.

22. Component 4: System Strengthening and Monitoring and Evaluation (Estimated: US$7.9 million; Actual: US$9.9

million).

23. This component supported the enhancement of early childhood and primary education sub-sector results-based

management under the Public Financial Management Reform Program (PFMR). The component also encompassed

project grant management, monitoring and evaluation.

24. Sub-component 4.1 Strengthening System Management included: (i) the construction of 20 District Education Offices;

(ii) providing training to central, provincial and district education officials as well as School Support Committee

members to develop and implement a unified early childhood and primary education sub-sector monitoring system;

(iii) providing technical assistance and support to district education offices, particularly those in rural areas, to enable

them to provide effective academic management support to schools; (iv) conducting semester and annual sub-sector

reviews and planning; (v) developing a new student tracking system to replace the existing paper-based student

record keeping practice; and (vi) capacity building for financial management (including PFMR), procurement, and

internal audit.

25. Sub-component 4.2 Project Management and Monitoring and Evaluation covered grant management including

external audit and monitoring and evaluation of the progress and outcomes of the project. In addition, this sub-

component provided necessary equipment for all MoEYS departments. MoEYS executed the proposed project, and

the implementation arrangements built on the previous experience of the MoEYS in project implementation with the

World Bank-financed Cambodia Education Sector Support Project and the EFAFTI Grant which was closed in 2012.

The institutional structure included staff from the MoEYS as well as national and international technical advisors


financed by the project. For the enhancement of sector and subsector results-based management, resources

(financial, physical and human) for this office was assured as part of Component 4.

B. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES DURING IMPLEMENTATION (IF APPLICABLE)

Revised PDOs and Outcome Targets

26. A restructuring took place on November 30, 2016 to make some revisions to a PDO indicator and an intermediate

indicator. In the restructuring, two modifications were made to the PDOs and outcome targets. PDO indicator 2 “The

Percentage of students in Grades 3 reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early Grade Reading Assessment” was

revised in the restructuring to reduce the baseline and end target values. This was done because the original baseline

and end target was based on a pilot of the EGRA tool, but with students in the capital of Phnom Penh. When the EGRA

was later conducted at the beginning of the project, it was clear that the original values were not reflective of the

student population to be reached in the EGRA intervention. Therefore, the indicator needed to be adjusted to reflect

achievement in the project specific areas so as to be able to measure direct impact on project areas.

27. One intermediate indicator on the rating of ECE services was modified to use a different instrument. The original

instrument, ECERS-R, was proprietary and would have had a high cost to continue using. The same scaling measure

of levels and the end target (of 30 reaching level 5) were kept, but with a new non-proprietary instrument that used

a similar approach of classroom observation evaluation and measured similar variables. The new instrument factored

in relevance to the Cambodia context and the monitoring capacity of the government. These modifications are shown

in the table below, along with the justification of the change.

Table 1. Changes to PDO and Intermediate Results Indicators Indicators Modification at Restructuring

(November, 2016)

Justification

PDO Indicator 2:

The Percentage of students in Grades 3

reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early

Grade Reading Assessment

The baseline and end target values were

modified as follows:

• Original Baseline: 83.9

• Revised Baseline: 51.5

• Original End Target: 90

• Revised End Target: 66.5

The original baseline value was computed

based on the results of the limited sample

schools in the capital of Phnom Penh and did

not represent the situation nationwide. The

revised baseline was computed on the

national benchmarking activities with 350

schools randomly selected in the country. As

the baseline was revised, the end target was

also revised.

The team estimated that given the increased

input and support from the project, it was

reasonable to assume that the target schools


might reach a 15 + % increase. Hence, the

new endline target of 66.5 was established.

Intermediate Results Indicator 5:

Percentage of ECE formal services rated as

level 5 overall on the ECERS-R scale through

classroom observation evaluation (50 FPS,

100 CBPS selected)

This indicator was dropped and was replaced

with the two new indicators below.

The original ECERS-R instrument was

proprietary and had a high cost. The pre-

school classroom observation method

mentioned in this original Intermediate

Results Indicator had been revised and

adopted by factoring relevance to the project

context and the monitoring capacity of the

government.

Intermediate Results Indicator 5:


level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood

education environment indicators through

classroom-observation evaluation (100 CBPS

selected)

This new indicator was adopted in

replacement of the original Intermediate

Results Indicator 5.

End Target: 30 (same as original indicator 5)

Same as above.

Intermediate Results Indicator 5.1:


level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood

education environment indicators through

classroom-observation evaluation (50 FPS

selected)

This new indicator was adopted in addition to

the new Intermediate Results Indicator 5.

End Target: 30 (same as original indicator 5)

Same as above.

Revised PDO Indicators

Changes to PDO and Intermediate Results Indicators are described above.

Revised Components N/A

Other Changes N/A

Rationale for Changes and Their Implication on the Original Theory of Change

28. The change to the baseline and endline targets for PDO indicator 2 was made simply to have more accurate measures.

It did not change the project activities or the theory of change. While the target was lowered, the actual difference

between baseline and target increased from 6.9 percentage points (90 – 83.1) to 15 percentage points (66.5 – 51.5),

indicating that the project was still aiming to achieve significant increase in the proportion of children able to read

45-60 words per minute.


29. The change in intermediate results indicator 5 was done for cost reasons. The Early Childhood Environment Rating

Scale-R (ECERS-R) instrument originally used to rate ECE formal services was proprietary and would have cost a

significant amount to continue using it. The government decided to change instruments. The new instrument used

similar criteria for rating ECE formal services and the end target remained at 30 percent, indicating the ambition of

the end result was not reduced. It did not change any activities or the original theory of change.

30. REASONING FOR NO SPLIT RATING: The project’s restructuring in November 2016 was minor. The determination was

made that a split rating is not required for the following reasons:

• There were no changes to the wording of the PDO, only a revision of the baseline and target in light of more accurate data and did not alter the project activities.

• The changes made to the PDO indicator (revised baseline and end target values) did not lead to lowering the level of ambition, difficulty, or scope of the project. (based on para. 61: Revision to the PDO statement or outcome targets7). It is important to note that the percentage increase between baseline and end target actually increased significantly, with the original having a 6.1 percentage point increase while the revised had a 15 percentage point increase. This is nearly 2.5 times greater and indicates that the level of ambition was not lowered. In some ways, the difficulty increased in that the population involved in EGRA was particularly disadvantaged and made the ambitious increase particularly challenging.

• These changes were specifically concerned with the project’s output targets, which should not trigger a split rating and which resulted from the project team’s effort to adopt better indicators by improving the representativeness of the data at the baseline, thereby allowing them to take a different and better path for achieving the project’s goals. (based on para. 62-64: Changes to PDO indicators8)

• While a split rating was determined to not be necessary, the alternative scenario of a split rating was conducted and the result did not change the final outcome rating of the project. The results can be found in Annex 7.

II. OUTCOME

A. RELEVANCE OF PDOs

Rating: HIGH

Assessment of Relevance of PDOs and Rating 31. The Relevance of PDOs is rated as High. The objectives of SESSP were relevant at the time of project approval and

continue to be so today. The project is in line with the government’s ESP, with all project components addressing key

focus areas of the plan. The SESSP is also directly related to the objectives of the CAS9, as well as the emerging ISN.

The CAS proposed to build strong foundations for sustainable development and poverty reduction by investing in good

governance, physical infrastructure, human capital, and the private sector.

7 World Bank (2017). Bank Guidance: Implementation Completion and Results Report (ICR) for Investment Project Financing (IPF) Operations. 8 Ibid. 9 The CAS was last updated in May 2008. Cambodia’s situation is one where the Bank and the government have not engaged to update the partnership agreement. As a result, the CAS is the most recent official agreement.


32. The interventions under the SESSP were also aligned with the Bank’s twin goals of eradicating extreme poverty and

increasing shared prosperity. The literature on human capital has documented the positive correlation between

human capital investment and social and economic development. Investments in education significantly contribute to

poverty eradication and wealth creation, as higher educational attainment significantly increases the probability of

getting a paid job and has a large and positive impact on monthly wage earnings. This well-known contribution laid

the foundation for one of the landmark pledges at the 2000 UNESCO-sponsored World Education Forum in Dakar that

provided a sustainable and well-integrated sector framework – Education for All – that clearly linked education with

poverty elimination and social and economic development.

33. Since the Dakar forum, international evidence has shown that access to and permanence in the education system,

while necessary, are not sufficient to achieve reduced poverty and greater shared growth. Education systems need to

be of sufficient quality to ensure that their graduates acquire the basic, soft, and sector-specific skills needed to

function efficiently and effectively on the job, adapt as workers or managers in a rapidly evolving technological society,

and innovate and compete as entrepreneurs not only in developing new products but also in adopting those produced

elsewhere.

34. In addition to being aligned to the Bank’s twin goals, the SESSP project also complemented various on-going

interventions by development partners, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Japanese International Cooperation Agency, Swedish

International Development Agency, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the European Commission (EC). It also spoke

to a larger coherent vision for moving the sector forward and achieving long term positive impact. The finalization of

interventions was coordinated closely with the Education Sector Working Group (ESWG) and the refinement of the

ESP.

35. The relevance of design was also High. The project focused on both access and quality and targeted key areas within

basic education. The design, while covering multiple areas, was coherent and indicators achievable. The theory of

change behind the project was sound and the selection of key targets was appropriate. The design was appropriate,

including the emphasis on ECE given the government’s stated objective of increasing school readiness. The objectives

are outcome-oriented, address both access and quality, and are appropriately pitched for the government capacity

and development status of Cambodia.

36. The higher level objectives to which the SESSP contributed were inclusive growth and the reduction of inequality by

extending access to pre-primary and primary education to children from disadvantaged communities and contributing

to improved educational quality. The selection of construction sites across the country focused on districts with low

gross enrollment ratios (GER) in pre-primary and primary education, which was tantamount to targeting service

provision to the underserved, poorer areas. Moreover, emerging evidence shows that education quality (rather than

quantity) is the best predictor of economic growth. The project supported the development of the national

assessment system and the upgrading of teacher quality to help improve the overall quality of pre-primary and

primary education.


B. ACHIEVEMENT OF PDOs (EFFICACY)

Rating: SUBSTANTIAL

Assessment of Achievement of Each Objective/Outcome

37. The Efficacy of the program is rated as Substantial. The project has clear links between the activities, outputs,

intermediate results and outcomes. The wide range of indicators capture key measures of the project and the project

met – and in many cases greatly exceeded – 18 of the 20 indicators. Clearly there was high demand for many activities,

with the number of participants far exceeding original targets. The results show strong commitment from MoEYS and

strong demand from stakeholders. The activities have also had an impact on shaping the education system. It is also

important to place the achievements in the context of time. The results were achieved within 3 years and did not

require an extension.

38. The PDO results, as grouped into the three discrete objectives of the PDO, are as follows:

a. Objective 1: To expand access to ECE for 3-5 year olds

• PDO 1: Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where 100 formal and 1,000

community based pre-school facilities are provided.

Overall Indicator Note: It should be noted that there were two different wordings for this indicator in

project documentation that presented challenges for monitoring the indicator. The preparation team’s

final agreed wording for PDO 1 (in the final Project Appraisal Document (PAD) dated March 3, 2014) was

“enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1,000

community based pre-school facilities are provided.” However, a near-final PAD dated January 6, 2014

did not reflect this wording—it used “enrollment ratio of children aged 3–5 in the urban and rural

districts where new 100 formal and 1,000 community based pre-school facilities are provided”. Because

of the confusion, data for 3-5 year olds was reported in the Implementation Status and Results Reports

(ISRs), as well as in the client’s Implementation Completion Results Report (July 2017). Furthermore, the

pre-final indicator name for PDO 1 (“enrollment ratio of children aged 3-5”) appeared in the second

through the seventh ISRs, as well in the client’s aforementioned report by mistake.10 Moreover, the

baseline and target used national level data for 3-5 year olds because district level data was not available

at the time the PAD was finalized. To accommodate this confusion, the Implementation Completion and

Results Report (ICR) has provided data at the national level for 5 year old children, for 5 year old children

in the project supported areas, as well as 3-5 year old children in the project supported areas. While

there was confusion, an additional benefit of the project was the focus on collecting district level data

which ultimately led to the availability of the data being reported in the ICR.

• The baseline of 56.49 and end target of 59.49 was established based on national level data. At the

national level, enrollment for 5 year old children increased to 66.3 percent, exceeding the end target by

6.8 percentage points. In the project districts, the initial and final average enrollment for children ages

3-5 was 27.5 and 31.0 for a 3.5 percent increase during the project period. All considerable increases in

10 A correction has been made to the wording for the gender-disaggregated PDO Indicator 1 which was used in the seventh ISR. Therefore, Annex 1 of this ICR lists the accurate wording for PDO Indicator 1.


enrollment for a three-year project implementation period and all exceeding the original target increase

of 3.0 percent.

• It is important to note that 170 of the 197 districts were included in the project. This is 86 percent of all

districts, and these districts held 84 percent of Cambodia’s ECE age children. In terms of impact, the

enrollment rate increase was greater in the project districts by about 20 percent, indicating the project

likely had a role in the increased enrollment. For gender, the enrollment of girls increased at twice the

rate as in the non-project districts. There were no other ECE-related projects in Cambodia, so the

increases are likely at least in part attributable to the project.

b. Objective 2: To contribute to improved access to basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged

backgrounds

• PDO 4: Lower secondary enrollment rate: The gender disaggregated baseline and end targets were 35.1

(37.4 female) and 37.1 (38.1 female) respectively. By year two, the target had been met at 38.9 (42.7

female). The final result was 41.9 (46.4 female), substantially exceeding the target.

• The scholarship program had been designed based on a rigorous impact evaluation that had been

conducted before the project which showed that scholarships were effective in increasing enrollment

and decreasing dropout. When considering the intervention of the scholarship program, the substantial

decreases in dropout for the most disadvantaged students played an important contributing role in the

increased lower secondary enrollment rate. The dropout rate of scholarship recipients was significantly

lower than the national average (9.4 percent national compared to 2.0 percent for scholarship recipients

in 2014-2015).

c. Objective 3: To contribute to improved quality of basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged

backgrounds

• PDO 2: Percentage of students in Grade 3 reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early Grade Reading

Assessment: The baseline and end target were 51.5 and 66.5 percent respectively. By the final ISR the

data available at the time was only 64 percent. The endline assessment results became available after

the final ISR and the final achievement was 68 percent, meeting the target. The baseline and endline

data for this indicator was revised during the November 2016 restructuring.

• PDO 3: Percentage of primary teachers applying effective EGRA teaching methods as defined by

classroom observation criteria: The baseline and end target were 0 and 50 percent respectively. The

final result was 63 percent, substantially exceeding the target.

• In terms of attribution, the EGRA component was designed based on a rigorous evaluation conducted

before the project. Initial results of the EGRA tests in 2010 and 2012 showed that changing the way that

reading is taught had large and measurable effects on reading skills. The Bank provided quality control

of these results through an ex-post analysis. The Bank was able to replicate most of the findings, thus

showing that the practices improved literacy and reading with tangible, observable results.

• EGRA was conducted to assess the reading speed of Grades 1, 2, 3 and 6 with a total of 1,440 students

in the 36 target schools of the six target provinces (i.e., Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham, Mondulkiry,

Kandal, Preah Vihear and Battambang) where Grade 2 teachers had received training on the EGRA

methodology during the first year of the project. The revised baseline, which used the test results of the

2015 end-of-year test conducted with 350 randomly selected schools in the country, indicated that the


reading fluency of Grade 3 students was 51.5 percent. For monitoring support, testing, and assessment,

358 schools in 17 districts of seven provinces were targeted. The first-year test results from the target

schools showed that 64 percent of children in Grade 3 could read with understanding at 45-60 words per

minute against a project results indicator of 66.5 percent. The final-year test results showed that 68

percent of children in the target schools in Grade 3 could read with understanding at 45-60 words per

minute against a project results indicator of 66.5 percent.

39. All intermediate results indicators were met, except one: “Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural

districts where new 100 formal and 1,000 community based pre-school facilities are provided (intermediate indicator

2).” 11 For purposes of length, the intermediate indicator results are listed in Annex A.2: Intermediate Results

Indicators. Of particular note, the number of children reached through the ECE services (intermediate indicator 1) was

125,337, which was four times the end target of 32,500. This was achieved though greatly increased demand for ECE,

as well as efficient use of resources. In particular, there was substantial savings through use of the community

construction model for community-based schools. This allowed for using funds in other areas, including training. The

high demand also came through the number of teachers completing training on disability screening (5,640 vs the end

target of 2,000), the number of teachers and parents reached by training and materials supported by the project

(3,861 vs the end target of 1,850), and the number of principals completing training (2,130 vs the end target of 1,600).

Such indicators demonstrate the high demand for the program activities.

40. When considering the PDO and intermediate outcomes in terms of objectives, the project was designed to capture

data that would indicate the project’s efficacy in the three discrete PDO objectives (as described in para. 39) and the

activities are related to the actions of the project.

a. Objective 1 (to expand access of ECE to 3-5 year olds) included a combination of measuring beneficiaries and

capturing enrollment by both age 5 only and age 3-5 by overall and by gender. The project’s activity of

constructing ECE schools, particularly in disadvantaged areas, is logically attributable to the outcome,

particularly since the enrollment rate in these areas increased faster than the national average.

b. Objective 2 (improved access to basic education), the main tool was the scholarship program (PDO 4), which

had clear, attributable impacts. Of particular note was that the recipients, who were disadvantaged and would

tend to have a higher dropout rate, in fact had a much lower dropout rate. Key measures like age of students

entering grade 1 decreased.

c. Objective 3 (improved quality of basic education) included improved teaching practices and improved student

learning outcomes, which are overarching outcomes in education quality. The project activities are directly

attributable to these outcomes through the implementation of the reading program and training to teachers.

Multiple key intermediate indicators were also captured, including the level of ECE services quality, the rollout

11 It should be noted that the intermediate results indicator 2 and the PDO indicator 1 were identical, but their baselines, targets, and actual achievements were different. The discrepancies were due to the following reasons. First, the baseline and the end target of the PDO indicator 1 were established based on national level data, while those of the intermediate results indicator 2 were not. Second, the actual achievements of these two indicators were also different because national level data was used to report the achievement of the PDO indicator 1 for the purpose of consistency with its baseline, while the targeted district data was used for the intermediate results indicator 2. At the project’s completion, the enrollment rate of children aged 5 was greater in the project districts than the national average, which indicates that the project likely had a role in the increased enrollment.


of the national assessment system, and the number of teachers trained and principals undertaking leadership

training.

d. Cross-cutting activities also played a prominent role in the project that could contribute to both access and

quality. Implementation of a unified early childhood and sub-sector monitoring and planning systems and

construction of District Education Offices are indicators of system strengthening that would likely contribute

to the three objectives.

41. When considering that the project activities were well-aligned to the project objectives and were directly attributable

or could logically be considered as contributing and in considering the PDO and objectives were nearly all met, it is a

strong overall indication of the project’s efficacy.

42. Since the final ISR, some new data became available for Intermediate Indicator 5: Percentage of ECE formal services

rated as level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood education environment indicators through classroom

observation evaluation. The original target was 30 and the final ISR only had 10. Since then, new data became available

indicating that 35 percent of CBPS and 66 percent of FPS were rated as level 5 overall, which exceeded the target.

Justification of Overall Efficacy Rating 43. The overall efficacy rating is Substantial. With three of the four PDOs met (and arguably all four when using

comparable data for PDO 1), as well as with 15 of the 16 intermediate indicators being met, the project results were

nearly all achieved. In some cases the indicators were greatly exceeded. The project also had clear impacts on policy.

Of particular note, ECE has received a substantial increase in budget and is now seen as a top priority. In the area of

scholarships, the PDO of increased enrollment was exceeded, and in considering direct project impact, there is data

indicating that the dropout rate of scholarship recipients is significantly lower than the national average both at the

primary and lower secondary levels.12 With clear achievements in the PDOs and intermediate indicators as well as

impacts in policy, in increased profile of specific programs like ECE and M&E, the project has demonstrated efficacy

on many fronts. These achievements were also accomplished in the relatively short project period of three years.

44. From a Theory of Change standpoint, the project’s strong design led to an effective program with significant

achievements. The project’s activities and outcomes were directly related to the PDO indicators. This led to higher

efficacy of the project and clearer relationship with the results. The PDO indicators were also outcome-oriented,

including enrollment outcomes in early childhood education and basic education, a learning outcome related to

literacy and a teaching practices outcome related to effective teaching. This is a departure from previous Cambodia

projects that tended to focus on outputs and indicates that the country is moving to more advanced outcomes.

C. EFFICIENCY

Rating: SUBSTANTIAL

12 At the primary level, only 2.0 percent scholarship recipients dropped out, compared to a national dropout rate of 9.4 percent, in 2014-2015. At the lower secondary level, 11.02 percent of scholarship recipients dropped out, compared to a national dropout rate of 19.20 percent in 2014-2015.


Assessment of Efficiency and Rating 45. The Efficiency of the project is rated as substantial based on an assessment in terms of internal and external

efficiency indicators.

46. Internal efficiency varied across project institutions and regions, but increased overall due to many of the outcomes

achieved through the project, including: (i) utilization of community based construction model to overcome the

challenge of high costs of hiring firms, which ultimately led to a more effective method for ECE expansion; (ii)

strengthening preschool and district planning and reporting; (iii) provinces implementing a unified early childhood and

primary education sub-sector monitoring system; and (iv) an effective method for assessing ECE formal services.

47. The community-based construction model is a particularly important success of the project from both an efficiency

and effectiveness standpoint. Initially the construction of ECE schools was to be done through the national competitive bidding (NCB) process. Once the bids were evaluated, it was clear that the school construction costs were higher than originally budgeted and would have required a reduction in number of project schools constructed. This led the Bank and government to consider the alternative of community-based school construction, which also led to the more cost-effective, efficient and sustainable use of project resources. School construction costs were reduced and schools were completed in a timelier manner, with a higher level of quality. Quality check/control was relatively easy for community construction as builders and supervisors were based in their own community. Community construction also resulted in strengthening the community’s sense of ownership.

48. External efficiency. To measure external efficiency of the project, two key programs have been analyzed: (1)

expansion of ECE and (2) the scholarship scheme for disadvantaged children.

Expansion of Formal, Home-Based, and Community-Based ECE Centers

49. The first part of the economic analysis for the project employs a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) framework to evaluate

the net economic benefits and internal rates of return (IRR) of the expansion of the ECE sub-component of the project.

There is substantial established evidence from developed and developing countries on the beneficial effect of quality

ECE and development interventions on cognitive ability, years of schooling attained and subsequent earnings

(Naudeau et al., 2010). This is particularly true for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, making investments in

ECE not just an economically sound, but also an equity-promoting investment. The design of the SESSP-supported

program reflects this evidence.

50. A number of assumptions (on beneficiary students completing lower secondary education, on increased learning

outcomes and increased future earnings, as well as costs in terms of increased number of teachers required) are

needed for this exercise, which can be found in Annex 4. The results of the CBA are summarized below in Table 1.

Employing the set of assumptions and actual parameter values elaborated in Annex 4 and a real discount rate of 5

percent, the net present value (NPV) of the ECE expansion component is estimated at USD 1,171.6 million under the

baseline scenario. The corresponding IRR is estimated at 14.17 percent. The CBA exercise thus demonstrates that the

economic benefits from this component of the project is substantial.

51. Three other cases are also analyzed in our sensitivity testing. In Case 2, we assume that the improvement in learning

outcomes turns out to be much lower, at only 0.5 years of secondary schooling. This worst-case scenario reduces the

NPV to USD 64.8 million and the IRR to 6 percent (which is still greater than the 5 percent real cost of capital). Cases

3 and 4 assume that the improvements in learning outcomes are equivalent to 1 and 1.5 years of secondary schooling,


and the estimated NPVs and IRRs for these scenarios are presented in the final two columns of Table 1. Again, these

figures demonstrate significant economic returns from the ECE expansion investment.

Table 2. Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Expansion of the ECE Sub-Component of the Project

Baseline Case 2 Case 3 Case 4

USD USD USD USD

Benefits from increase in lifetime earnings 1,418,931,041

312,156,701

630,545,814

955,291,772

Less:

Increase in public and private recurrent cost

227,307,125

227,307,125

227,307,125

227,307,125

Teacher training cost

3,161,150

3,161,150

3,161,150

3,161,150

Construction and equipment

16,855,521

16,855,521

16,855,521

16,855,521

Net Present Value (5% discount rate) 1,171,607,245 64,832,905 383,222,018 707,967,976

Internal Rate of Return 14.17% 6.01% 9.43% 11.74%

Selected parameters: Improvement in learning outcome (year

equivalent) 2.20 0.50 1.00 1.50

Scholarship Scheme for Disadvantaged Children

52. Another main activity of the project is to provide scholarships to disadvantaged children in rural areas from Grade 4

until lower secondary school completion (Grade 9). Preliminary evidence suggests that the scholarship has resulted in

a reduction in the dropout rate for this group of students, declining from 55 percent to around 25 percent. For the

purpose of the CBA exercise, the baseline scenario is based on the most likely set of assumptions on decreased

dropout, increased earnings, additional costs of more teachers and private recurrent costs and actual parameters

elaborated in the Annex 4 and a real cost of capital (or discount rate) of 5 percent. The results are presented below in

Table 2. The NPV is estimated at US$956.6 million, with an IRR of 8.7 percent. Given the conservative assumptions

employed for the baseline scenario, this project sub-component is deemed economically viable.

53. Two other cases are also evaluated in our sensitivity analysis. In Case 2, we assume that the strength of externalities

value is 4.5 percent, or half that of the estimated 9 percent baseline level. This decreases the NPV to US$70.7 million

and the IRR to 5.3 percent. In Case 3 and final scenario, we assume that there are no human capital externalities

arising from higher educational attainment of these disadvantaged students. Under this pessimistic scenario, the NPV

declines to US$710.6, with an IRR of 1.5 percent.


Table 3. Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Scholarship Scheme for Disadvantaged Children Sub-Component of the Project

Baseline Case 2 Case 3

USD USD USD

Social benefits from increase in lifetime earnings 1,421,075,595 535,094,555 (246,154,052)

Less:

Increase in public recurrent cost (lower secondary completer) 160,816,231 160,816,231 160,816,231

Increase in private recurrent cost (lower secondary completer) 102,301,844 102,301,844 102,301,844

Increase in public recurrent cost (dropout) 201,325,412 201,325,412 201,325,412

Increase in private recurrent cost (dropout) - - -

Net Present Value (5% discount rate) 956,632,107 70,651,067 (710,597,540)

Internal Rate of Return 8.7% 5.3% 1.5%

Selected parameters:

Private return to each year of secondary schooling 4.0% 4.0% 4.0%

Human capital externalities 9.0% 4.5% 0.0%

Dropout rate (before intervention) 55% 55% 55%

Dropout rate (post intervention) 25% 25% 25%

54. Based on the internal and external efficiency of the program, the efficiency of the program is rated as substantial.

D. JUSTIFICATION OF OVERALL OUTCOME RATING

Rating: MODERATELY SATISFACTORY

55. The ratings of High for Relevance, Substantial for Efficacy and Substantial for Efficiency were given. The project was,

and continues to be, relevant to the government and Bank’s agreed overall development and program objectives.

Efficacy is rated substantial because the four PDO indicators were met and 15 of the 16 intermediate indicators were

met. As indicated, there were some challenges with the initial baseline and target data related to the EGRA PDO

indicator that were corrected at the time of the restructuring. In addition, there were challenges related to the

reporting of enrollment data. However, the project team, through continuous support to MoEYS and the districts,

were able to make adjustments to the results framework and collected the needed data to report on the indicators.

New evidence was made available after the final ISR, which resulted in the targets for PDO 2 (Percentage of students

in Grades 3 reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early Grade Reading Assessment) and two intermediate indicators

being met. Efficiency is rated substantial based on the information provided above with the full analysis provided in

Annex 4. According to the IEG guidelines, the High-Substantial-Substantial combination would result in a Satisfactory

rating, but there were some adverse factors to consider. As already discussed, there were data issues related to PDO

1. More importantly, the final five ISRs of the project were rated at Moderately Satisfactory and the new evidence

made available after the final ISR was not deemed sufficient to warrant an increase in rating. Based on all of the factors

presented above, the overall project rating is moderately satisfactory.


E. OTHER OUTCOMES AND IMPACTS (IF ANY)

Gender 56. The program was gender-aware and tracked PDO and intermediate indicators by gender when relevant. The results

also indicate that girls had slightly higher enrolment at baseline in lower secondary (37.4 vs 35.1 overall) and made

greater gains (59.60 vs 55.7 overall). More girls benefited from the scholarship program. The number of project

beneficiaries was also tracked and of the 476,560 total, 48.83 percent were female. This exceeded the expected

proportion, which was estimated to be 45 percent at the beginning of the project.

Institutional Strengthening 57. The project included a focus on institutional strengthening. Some strengthening came in the form of capacity building

of key individuals. A unified sub-sector monitoring system was developed. 1,552 school, District Office of Education

(DOE) and the Provincial Office of Education (POE) from pre-school through upper secondary including non- formal

education and training. Systems were also strengthened through the development and implementation of a unified

early childhood and primary education sub-sector monitoring system, and the development and implementation of

a new student tracking system. There was also strengthening of public financial management through the Project

Management and M&E component. Of significance is the establishment of a Monitoring and Evaluation unit and the

development of an M&E framework.

Mobilizing Private Sector Financing

N/A

Poverty Reduction and Shared Prosperity

58. The project focused on disadvantaged areas. In particular, the Early Childhood Education component targeted

disadvantaged areas for the construction of schools and home-based ECE, and provided parental, teacher, principal

and government staff training in those communities. The fact that a community-based construction model was used

(which was not the original project design) for ECE schools benefited the communities financially and created greater

ownership of the schools. There was also a focus on supporting children with disabilities and in hearing and vision,

with a sub-component on screening for vision and hearing.

Other Unintended Outcomes and Impacts 59. The project had many unintended outcomes and impacts, including:

• The construction of community pre-schools using a community construction model (rather than through NCB)

not only enhanced the capacity development of communities in terms of financial management, procurement,

and team management skills but also strengthened their sense of ownership and produced what was considered

to be higher quality construction.

• The process for the design of the School Director training involved collaboration with various Development

Partners who had initiatives in this area. The process itself was lengthy and described as tedious, but the resulting

program was of very high quality and widely accepted. It is seen as a model for how to work collaboratively. With

its successful implementation, the program was fully adopted by the MoEYS.


• For ECE, there has been an unexpectedly high demand from parents and communities and at the completion of

the project there has been a particularly large commitment from the government both in terms of finance and

policy. It has gained a very high profile and become a cornerstone program.

• There has been a move to a center-based model for parental education, which was an adjustment to the original

design and has been determined to be more effective and sustainable.

III. KEY FACTORS THAT AFFECTED IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOME

A. KEY FACTORS DURING PREPARATION

60. Successful integration of past lessons learned. The SESSP integrated lessons learned from the Education Sector

Support Scale-Up Action Program (ESSSUAP) into both the target setting and design of all project activities. The

ESSSUAP, which was implemented with the EFA-FTI grant (currently known as GPE) from July 2008 to December 2012,

initiated and successfully tested such core activities as both formal and informal ECE service provisions, primary and

secondary scholarship programs, the inclusive education training program, and EGRA and EGMA, all of which were

either scaled up or continued under the SESSP. For example, the key findings of the impact evaluation of the

scholarship program, which had been conducted as part of the ESSSUAP, informed both the target setting and the

design of the scholarship program under the SESSP. These findings included the following: (i) granting scholarships on

the basis of both poverty and merit is more effective in reducing drop-outs than doing so solely on the basis of poverty;

(ii) systematic selection of scholarship grantees based on the analysis of responses to questionnaires by the local

scholarship support committee has proven to be a reliable and cost-effective method. Similarly, the impact evaluation

of CPS, which had also been conducted as part of the ESSSUAP, pointed to the low take-up of children in CPS and

suggested that CPS would not be sustainable without providing more classrooms. Based on these findings, the SESSP

was designed to include demand side interventions and the construction of classrooms for 500 villages. Furthermore,

a study, which was conducted under the ESSSUAP to determine the availability and location of health service providers

to improve student health, found that vision, hearing, and cognitive impairment was the main cause of students’ drop-

out; it also put students at risk of dropping out. Based on this finding and the modules which were developed under

the ESSSUAP, the subsequent SESSP trained 5,640 teachers (against a target of 2,000) to help them identify students

with impairment, and referred these students to appropriate health service providers for further treatment. Building

on the successful piloting of the EGRA program under the ESSSUAP, the SESSP scaled up the program nationwide. By

continuing to encourage teachers to both follow up on their EGRA training and create areas of good practice, the

SESSP’s EGRA initiatives helped expand a conducive environment for students to improve their pronunciation, spelling,

and reading skills.

61. Readiness for implementation with effective structural arrangements for comprehensive sector support. The SESSP

could implement the program immediately by leveraging the institutional and implementation arrangements that

were established in its previous operation. At the highest level, the Project Management Committee (PMC), which

was established by the MoEYS and comprised of their leaders (including Secretaries of State), maintained

responsibility for the oversight of the ESP to streamline policy development, strategic planning, and the

implementation of decision-making processes. At the project level, the Project Management Team, which was led by

a Secretary of State and comprised of Directors General and directors of various departments of the MoEYS, provided

support to the PMC and bore a central role in the project’s implementation. The PMC, with the participation of key


Ministry decision makers, enabled rapid approval of strategic directions and facilitated intra- and inter-departmental

collaboration. Retaining members of the project management, technical, and administrative teams who had worked

on the ESSSUAP also allowed the SESSP to leverage their experience and technical capacities.

B. KEY FACTORS DURING IMPLEMENTATION

(i) Factors subject to government and/or implementing entities’ control

62. High commitment and leadership of the MoEYS. The MoEYS’s strong commitment and leadership were key drivers

throughout the project’s implementation. The MoEYS took ownership of the programs under the SESSP by

mainstreaming them into their sector operations, making budgetary commitments, and ensuring that relevant

legislation and regulations were in place. The MoEYS’s commitment was demonstrated by, among others, its full

adoption of the scholarship program, with its continual use of government funding since the 2015/16 school year13

and annual expansion of the coverage, and the integration of the School Director Standards (which were developed

under the school leadership program and formally approved in 2017) into mainstream training. Successful deliveries

of these programs in the SESSP and its precedent operations led to continuous budgetary commitments/additional

government funds (e.g., EGRA, with an additional US$75,000 for both 2017 and 2018, extension of the EGMA training

to 2 districts, in Kampong Cham and Prey Veng, with the use of government funds for the 2017/18 school year, and

increases in the ECE budget in 2018). In addition to approval of Sub-Decree 34 on scholarship in March, 2015,14 a new

Sub-decree on community-based preschools will also soon be formalized. The MoEYS’s commitment to achieving the

PDO was also demonstrated in their adoption of the community construction model after its successful pilot. Their

flexible decision making not only stabilized the project but also fostered the capacity building of communities and

relevant project teams (e.g., procurement, financial management, and project management).

63. Stakeholders’ incentives and organizational capacity. Throughout the course of the project’s implementation, the

MoEYS made strong efforts to address a lack of some stakeholders’ incentives and insufficient organizational capacity.

A major challenge in the home-based care program of the ECE component was the lack of incentives for core parents

(who provide parental education to fellow parents in the villages that join the home-based community preschools) to

prioritize parental education meetings over their own work. Unavailability of both organizational centers and financing

for the home-based program also caused high turnover of core parents and meeting places. Therefore, a new center-

based model for parental education will be introduced in 2018; in this model, preschool teachers will serve as core

parents at their school sites, while parents will work closely with their children’s teachers and increase their familiarity

with ECE. Similar to the home-based care program, the EGMA program was faced with a lack of incentives among

teachers. Teachers who had been inculcated with pre-existing teaching methods were hesitant to adopt new

conceptual mathematics strategies. To mitigate this challenge, the MoEYS’ EGMA team used reflections from their

discussions with relevant stakeholders and development partners regarding the performance of the EGMA program

to reorient their support for teachers and help them adapt to new styles of teaching and learning mathematics.

64. Risk and mitigation measures identified in school construction. Early on, persistent and long delays in both

preschools and primary schools’ construction, which caused concern until the third (and last) year of the project, were

13 ISR No. 7, June, 2017. 14 Aide-Memoire, March 16–April 3, 2015.


considered a major risk. The delays emanated from untimely completion of procurement packages,15 a change in

director in May 2015 (due to the former director’s retirement),16 the slow pace of construction by contractors in Phase

I, and the failure to sign agreements with contractors due to their exorbitant bids for Phase II. Even after the project’s

shift from contractors to community construction in Phase II, following its successful pilot, some delays persisted due

to difficulties in mobilizing enough skilled labor in each community as well as a lack of access to certain roads due to

flooding during the rainy season.17 In response, the MoEYS, with support from the Bank, enhanced its mechanism to

supervise the construction progress via timely reporting and follow-up with community leaders by site engineers,

which in turn helped the DoC take immediate remedial actions for any procurement issues. Consequently, the MoEYS

completed all planned school construction activities on time.

(ii) Factors subject to the Bank’s control

65. Monitoring and provision of support for identified risks. Under the TTL’s strong leadership, the Bank team closely

monitored the project’s progress and provided timely support for the MoEYS’s project teams when risks were

identified. In response to the significant delays in the school construction by contractors in Phase I, the Bank team

held bi-weekly meetings with the MoEYS’s concerned units, particularly the procurement unit and the DoC, to monitor

all progress.18 In Phase II, the Bank continued to assist the MoEYS to accelerate the process. Regarding the contractors,

the team advised the MoEYS to share a time-bound action plan to mitigate slow progress and monitor the

contractors.19 Once community construction was fully adopted by the MoEYS in Phase II, the team provided technical

support for the DoC to ensure quality site supervision and to build an improved monitoring mechanism for ensuring

on-time mobilization of sufficient skilled labor in each community.20 The timely completion of all planned construction,

including the effective integration of the community participation model in the SESSP, is now recognized by both the

MoEYS and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) as a showcase for innovation in the education sector.

66. Finalization of restructuring due to complex procedures involved in GPE-funded projects. The six-month

restructuring process (from preparation of a draft restructuring paper in June 2016 to finalization of the restructuring

in November 2016) interfered with the operation of the three-year project. First, the Bank team unofficially sought

review from GED02 and the Country Management Unit (CMU) on the proposed restructuring after the September –

October 2015 implementation support mission (ISM), during which the need to revise the original results framework

(including the initial baseline of PDO Indicator 2) was first addressed by the MoEYS. The Bank and the MoEYS then

reached an agreement on restructuring on April 4, 2016 and initiated the process to obtain an official clearance from

the GPE Secretariat. After the GPE Secretariat requested ESWG to endorse the restructuring, the MEF sent an official

letter to the Country Director.21 Lastly, the official restructuring was processed by the Education Global Practice and

the CMU. Ultimately, adjustments were made to change the baseline and targets for the indicator on EGRA to reflect

the national baseline22 after the project initiation (PDO indicator 2) and to use the newly developed national ECE

15 ISR No. 2, January 2015. 16 ISR No. 4, December 2015. 17 Aide-Memoire, March 1–24, 2017. 18 Aide-Memoire, March 16–April 3, 2015. 19 Aide-Memoire, October 24–28, 2016. 20 Aide-Memoire, March 1–24, 2017. 21 It took a prolonged period of time to have clearance from both ESWG and the GPE Secretariat. No systematic guideline for restructuring GPE-funded projects was available until 2017. 22 Rather than the inaccurate Phnom Penh data initially used to set the baseline


environment indicators in place of the international scale for the indicator on ECE service quality standards

(intermediate results indicator 5).

IV. BANK PERFORMANCE, COMPLIANCE ISSUES, AND RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME

A. QUALITY OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION (M&E)

Rating: SUBSTANTIAL

M&E Design 67. Strengthening monitoring and evaluation was a central part of the SESSP, which included a component specifically to

establish an M&E unit within MoEYS and to develop an ECE M&E framework. The program also aimed to support public financial management and strengthening of systems management. The design included the development of a unified early childhood and primary sub-sector monitoring system and a new student tracking system with the goal of being able to more effectively monitor these areas and use the information to make decisions. The program aimed to improve government reporting mechanisms on the quality of preschools and enrollments and attendance. Moreover, the ECE services system aimed to measure the level of services at the school level. Assessments also played an important role in the design, with the support preparation, administration, and analysis of national student assessments. Such activities indicate a strong focus in the design of M&E for a country that is at a nascent stage of utilizing M&E.

68. As indicated above the design of the results chain and results framework were appropriate for measuring progress toward achievement of the PDO. However, there were two PDO indicators that had initial baseline data mistakes that presented challenges for data collection during the project period. PDO 1 used national enrollment data rather than project area district data because it was not available at the time of preparation and PDO 2 used Phnom Penh EGRA data rather than project district level. PDO 2 baselines were modified at the time of project restructuring, November 30, 2016, and over the course of the project, district EGRA data became available and could be accurately reported. Project documentation also had some inconsistency in the wording for the PDO 1 indicator as indicated above.

M&E Implementation 69. Establishment of M&E for the various activities posed challenges and was not always smooth in the start of the

project, but by the third and final year of the project many of the M&E activities had taken root. The project implementation unit consistently tracked the project indicators so that progress toward achievement of the PDO could be measured. The original ECE services system and baseline for some of the intermediate indicators used the proprietary ECERS-R system and because of costs the project had to find an alternative, but in the end a better, more Cambodia-specific instrument was utilized that functioned well, and the data helps to understand where and in what ways services would need to improve. The new M&E unit greatly strengthened its capacity and had established the ECE M&E framework. The EGRA system for measuring literacy was utilized to effectively show where students struggled and informed how to improve learning. These changes were integrated into the teacher training program.

M&E Utilization 70. The MoEYS utilized the M&E data in informing the program directions (particularly ECE with level of ECE services,

scholarships and targeting and EGRA training for teachers) and in conveying progress to key stakeholders, particularly


in demonstrating the extent to which the programs were achieving their objectives. The findings often contributed to increasing financial commitments (particularly ECE), with the government able to demonstrate results. The ECE proportion of the MoEYS budget increased. The M&E results also helped government prioritize spending on improved quality, as well as on better targeting of program resources.

Justification of Overall Rating of Quality of M&E 71. The overall rating of quality of M&E is Substantial. The M&E program was established for the project and built capacity

of MoEYS in M&E activities and in establishing systems that could be utilized well beyond the project. There were some shortcomings in the setting of some baselines and targets and in reporting some of the results in the ISRs (particularly the ECE enrollment data), but overall the project was also able to track a wide range of indicators and to obtain good information on how the project was functioning through robust instruments now integrated into the system. In the project ISRs, the M&E rating was consistently Substantial.

B. ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND FIDUCIARY COMPLIANCE Social (including Safeguards)

72. The project had a strong focus on children in remote areas, those from poor families and those with disabilities, and

aimed to provide better access to ECE and better access to and quality of basic education services. The World Bank’s

safeguard policy OP 4.10 on Indigenous Peoples (IPs) was triggered because some identified potential project areas

were inhabited by IPs.

73. A Social Assessment (SA) was conducted in March 2013 to evaluate the project’s positive and adverse effects on

potential subproject sites and to examine project alternatives where adverse effects may be significant. Free, prior

and informed consultation was conducted in two IP communes (Sekong and Krang Teh) selected from a pool of

potential project sites during the SA exercise. The assessment showed strong support from the communities for the

implementation of the project and identified project benefits to the IPs. An Indigenous Peoples Planning Framework

(IPPF) was prepared and disclosed on August 11, 2013 in Phnom Penh on the MoEYS website and on August 22, 2013

in Washington, D.C. at the InfoShop. The IPPF provided guidance for the development of site-specific IPPs (Indigenous

Peoples’ Plans) that were developed during implementation.

74. A pool of potential construction sites was identified, all of which were located on MoEYS-owned lands. The

construction activities for the ECE classrooms were extensions of existing primary school facilities within their current

grounds’ boundaries, and DoE constructions occurred on vacant MoEYS-owned lands. Based on site visits to a sample

of primary schools throughout the country, the task team had confirmed that no acquisition of land under the project,

no relocation or loss of shelter, no loss of assets or access to assets and no loss of income sources or means of

livelihood would occur. No legacy issues existed, and physical relocation was not necessary. Therefore, Bank’s OP4.12

on Involuntary Resettlement was not triggered. In the sector’s previous projects in Cambodia, the Cambodia Education

Sector Support Project (2005-2011) and the Cambodia Education Sector Support Scale Up Action Program (2008-

2012), which included similar interventions, neither land acquisition nor physical relocation was necessary. The MoEYS

was asked to keep copies of the stamped certifications of the land entitlement from the Phnom Penh municipal

authority and other local governmental authorities on file.


75. The project areas supported by the SESSP included communities which were inhabited by ethnic minority group

parents and children to ensure equitable access to education services, including ECE. Some of the key results included

the following:

• 96 community pre-schools out of a total of 500 were constructed in ethnic minority communities, which

represented 19.2% of the community pre-schools constructed.

• 9 out of the 73 formal pre-schools constructed were located in ethnic minority communities, which

constituted 12.8% of the formal pre-schools constructed.

• 120 school directors who attended the school director training program were from schools serving ethnic

minority communities, which accounted for 4.8% of the school directors trained.

• 62 community pre-school teachers trained were from ethnic minority communities, which made up 5% of the

community pre-school teachers trained.

• 4.5% of the teachers who were applying effective EGRA teaching methods and 6% of the students in the

project target areas who could read 45 – 60 words per minute were from ethnic minority communities.

Environment (including Safeguards)

76. The project’s environmental impact was deemed to be minor, site-specific, and short-term in nature, for which

mitigation measures could be readily designed. The project’s environmental category was “B” given the nature and

small scale of the proposed civil works under the project, and a formal environmental assessment report was not

necessary. However, to mitigate potential inconveniences or nuisances for surrounding areas during construction, an

Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF), which included an Environmental Management Plan

(EMP23) and Environmental Codes of Practice, were prepared. These guidelines contained contractor specifications to

address environmental and sanitation issues, including construction dust and noise control, waste and construction

site management, safety controls, provision of clean water and sanitation facilities, unexploded ordinance removal,

and asbestos-containing material demolition management. The ESMF was included in the requisite bidding

documents. Site-specific environmental management plans were prepared for each construction site prior to work

commencement. The ESMF was publicly disclosed on August 11, 2013 in Phnom Penh on the MoEYS website and in

Khmer language in community libraries throughout the country, as well as in the InfoShop in Washington, D.C. on

August 22, 2013. In accordance with OP4.01 on Environmental Assessment, the project ensured that all activities, such

as cutting trees for construction of school buildings and voluntary donations (e.g., land, trees), were properly recorded

by school committees and made available for review. All issues and comments were recorded by site supervisors,

while contractors and engineers were informed of their role to comply with an environmental protection framework

and implement the environmental management plan as shown in the contract agreement. The DoC reported progress

on safeguards to the Bank in their semi-annual reports.

77. A change was made to the project’s initial plan to hire a national consultant for social and environmental safeguards

under the PMC; the MoEYS could not identify a suitable candidate, despite advertising the position twice.

Consequently, 30 project staff were trained by the Bank’s safeguards specialist to fill this role. This increased the

capacity development of all sub-component staff, especially in the DoC. The MoEYS’s enhanced knowledge and

capacities in conducting safeguard assessments are expected to provide a substantial foundation for subsequent

interventions. For example, a community construction manual is being developed under a new project operation by

23 The EMP used for the ESSSUAP was updated for the purposes of the proposed project.


leveraging the SESSP’s experience in ensuring the project’s compliance with the Bank’s safeguards’ policies and its

planning of mitigation activities for school construction by local communities. It was proposed that a full assessment

of both social and environmental safeguards’ implementation be conducted before the completion of the SESSP in

July 2017. However, the project failed to recruit a national consultant; hence, it has been unable to complete the full

assessment

Other Safeguards Policies Triggered

78. Not applicable.

Financial Management and Procurement

79. There were Financial Management ratings of Satisfactory throughout the project and no significant issues arose.

80. The project Procurement ratings throughout the project were Satisfactory with the exception of one Moderately

Satisfactory rating in the June 2016 ISR. The reason for the lower rating was delays to construction, but key steps were

identified that expedited the procurement and led to an upgrade again during the next ISR.

C. BANK PERFORMANCE

Rating: MODERATELY SATISFACTORY

Quality at Entry

81. The project preparation team ensured that the project design was closely aligned with the Bank’s CAS. The design

was complex, but coherent and with a good overall theory of change. The PDO was clear and key indicators were

appropriate for measuring progress toward achieving the PDO. The design took into consideration the

recommendations from the Quality Enhancement Review, peer reviewers and lessons learned from other Bank-

supported projects in Cambodia. The design included the appropriate activities that, if implemented well, could be a

demonstration project on the benefits of effective pedagogy for replication. The preparation team identified the

appropriate risks and incorporated design features to mitigate them and included the relevant technical specialists to

develop the project. However, at the preparation stage, there were inconsistencies in project documentation related

to setting appropriate baseline and endline targets for enrollment of 5 year olds (PDO 1) and 3-5 year olds

(intermediate indicator), as well as the proportion of students reaching a reading rate of 45-60 words per minute

(PDO 2). The instrument for rating ECE services – the ECERS-R – was proprietary and the project had to change

instruments. These resulted in a need for an eventual restructuring, but GPE only accepted the change of instrument

and setting the new baseline for PDO 2. (Discussed under Quality of Supervision.) These inconsistencies and data

challenges led to some reporting challenges during implementation. Based on this, the quality at entry for the SESSP

project was Moderately Satisfactory.


Quality of Supervision

82. There were seven Bank review and implementation support missions.24 The project team was actively engaged in

supporting the government in its efforts to implement the project. Whenever implementation challenges arose, the

Bank team worked with government to find appropriate solutions that would not compromise the integrity of the

design. The supervision teams consistently reported on Financial Management and procurement progress during ISMs

and worked with the PMU team to build their capacity in these areas. They also systematically documented project

progress in aide-memoires, back-to-office reports and ISRs, all of which kept Bank management informed of progress

and provided the foundation for the ICR analysis.

83. Key to the project’s achievements was the consistent supervision by the Bank team, both in country and from

headquarters, which had the needed technical expertise to support the PMU. The Bank team also took the initiative

to restructure the project and make the needed modification to the results framework. However, this process proved

to be cumbersome because of the bureaucratic challenges of accommodating GPE, Bank and government processes.

There were also data reporting challenges due to baseline and documentation inconsistencies, which are reported

above. In should be noted that the Bank’s role extended beyond supervision to being a supportive partner in SESSP,

with a particularly strong relationship of trust. Various key stakeholders within the government stressed the

relationship with the Bank as having been a particularly important contributor to its success. All-in-all, the excellent

collaboration on project implementation and coordinated work with the government contributed to the many project

successes. Based on all of the above, the quality of supervision for the SESSP project was determined to be

Satisfactory.

Justification of Overall Rating of Bank Performance

84. The overall rating of Bank Performance is Moderately Satisfactory. The project was able to accomplish a great deal

given the 3-year implementation period. This was due to strong government commitment to ECE, project design and

project readiness. The project was also well supervised in terms of activities and collaboration with government.

D. RISK TO DEVELOPMENT OUTCOME

Rating: Medium to Low

85. The project made great strides in ensuring that the development outcome is not at risk and that the program activities

are sustainable. First, MoEYS has taken ownership of all activities and many institutional aspects have been

institutionalized. Of particular note is the scholarship program, where the government took over after the first year

of the program. Not only was MoEYS running the program on their own, but they also significantly increased the

number of recipients. This shows clear commitment to the scholarship program and its successful outcomes. The ECE

24 A Mid-Term-Review (MTR) was not conducted for the SESSP. There was inaccurate recording of MTR dates in the ISRs by mistake (the first ISR cited a planned date of MTR for October 3, 2016, and the second through the seventh ISRs cited November 17, 2014 as an actual MTR date). The team communicated this issue with the Operations Policy and Country Services and they fixed it on our behalf so that no MTR date would appear in the datasheet section of this ICR.


program is another area where there is clear commitment. The budget has been increased since the closure of the

project, ECE policies have been subsequently put in place (e.g. the sub-degree on CPS and the ECE standards) and it

has become a prominent feature in the government’s strategy. Interestingly, the risk to development outcome in ECE

is that it is now a very high profile program and there are high expectations to go along with the additional funding

provided. The EGRA program is now well established and will continue to expand across the country. The M&E unit

within MoEYS was established under the program and has taken root with the new M&E framework and a

commitment to integrate M&E into MoEYS programs that follow the standards and process of the framework. Changes

were also made where sustainability issues were recognized. A good example of this is the move to a center-based

model for parental education when it was recognized that relying on volunteer parents would not be sustainable in

the long-term.

86. An important part of sustainability is the recognition of the risks and remaining challenges involved. Interestingly, in

the ICR mission, each group presented what they saw as the remaining challenges. These are listed below. While listing

the challenges may be taken as a sign that there are deficiencies, it should not be interpreted this way. The programs

generally all become well-established and are receiving support, but the government’s candidness and self-reflection

is a signal that they are looking to the long-term. A full list of challenges identified by the government is in Annex 6,

but key challenges include:

- Meeting the ever-increasing demand for ECE with quality pre-school teachers and adequate teaching and

learning materials/equipment and classrooms. - Expanding accessibility to ECE for disadvantaged children in remote areas with limited transportation. - Meeting the increasing need for school director training despite the reduced amount of funding after

completion of SESSP. - Ensuring scholarships for grades 4-6 recipients after their transition to grades 7-9.Local Scholarships

Management Committees have never been trained on new PB Primary Scholarship Operational Manual (training was conducted only for PoE and DoE); there is currently no guarantee that students who received scholarships in grades 4-6 will be awarded scholarships in grades 7-9.

Some experiences and lessons learned from the SESSP have already been and will be reflected in the development of

the post-completion phase and other relevant operations in Cambodia. Regarding ECE, the Early Childhood Care and

Development for Floating Villages Project (P146085) has fully integrated the SESSP’s experiences in both teacher

training for CPS and its quality measurements. Moreover, upon completion of an ongoing impact evaluation study of

ECE (P157069)—which is being conducted in parallel with the SESSP and investigates the impact of three components

of a pre-school expansion program supported by the MoYES (i.e., CPS, home-based programs, and door-to-door visits

of village chiefs for raising awareness)—the Bank is expecting to propose a new ECE operation plan to the government

as a follow-up to the SESSP. The follow-up operation will also include EGRA and EGMA components, which will be built

on the SESSP’s experiences.

V. LESSONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

87. Lesson 1: Building on the foundations and achievements of precedent interventions is critical for relatively short-

term operation projects to facilitate implementation readiness as well as achieve results. The SESSP’s successful

integration of lessons learned from the ESSSUAP, when combined with its leveraging of the institutional and


implementation arrangements that had been established in the ESSSUAP, enabled the SESSP to achieve results within

its three-year operation. The SESSP either scaled up or continued core activities that had been initiated and

successfully tested under the ESSSUAP, including both formal and informal ECE service provisions, primary and

secondary scholarship programs, EGRA and EGMA, and an inclusive education program. The project also integrated

the key findings and lessons learned from studies that were conducted for certain continued interventions into its

project design; these studies included the impact evaluations of the scholarship program and community-based

preschools and a study on the inclusive education training program (as described in more detail in Section III. A. Key

Factors During Preparation). Furthermore, the structural arrangement of the SESSP—which was designed to be fully

integrated into the MoEYS’s mainstream offices, with no parallel Project Management Units—enabled the members

of the project management, technical, and administrative teams to further build on the skills, technical capacities,

knowledge, and confidence that they had acquired through their experience in the ESSSUAP.

88. Lesson 2: The implementing agency’s ownership of program interventions is vital for increasing both their

sustainability and their cohesiveness. Under the SESSP, the MoEYS exhibited strong ownership by adopting a

leadership role and committing to improving both access to and quality of early childhood and basic education in

Cambodia. They did this by mainstreaming SESSP programs into their sector operations, making budgetary

commitments, and ensuring that relevant legislation and regulations were in place (as described in more detail in

Section III. A. Key Factors During Preparation). At the root of the MoEYS’s strong ownership were (i) a sense of mutual

trust between the MoEYS and the Bank, which emanated from their long-standing collaboration that began with the

first Bank-supported educational operation in Cambodia in 2000, (ii) the MoEYES’s increased capacities through

previous operations, and (iii) their successful implementation of the ESSSUAP’s interventions, many of which were

succeeded by the SESSP (e.g., ECE, EGRA, scholarship program, sub-sector planning).

89. Furthermore, the institutional and implementation arrangements, which had been established in the ESSSUAP and

continued in the SESSP, allowed the MoEYS to make strategic decisions for both planning and implementation in the

areas of early childhood and basic education at both the policy and project levels. MoEYS’s commitment to achieving

results also created a conducive environment for both intra- and inter-ministerial collaboration and the strengthening

of synergies among development partners, which improved the cohesiveness of related interventions. Examples

included, among others, the following:

(i) The important role of the PMC in facilitating strategic intra-departmental collaboration via the participation of key ministry decision makers. For example, the ECE Department actively collaborated with 14 different ministries to both ensure a synergetic approach and to increase the project interventions’ impacts.

(ii) MoEYS’s initiatives to coordinate harmonization among different development partners. For example, the Teacher Development Department coordinated with the school director training program by working closely with ADB, UNICEF, and other stakeholders using funds from the government PB, the SESSP, and the CDPF.25 This collaborative approach resulted in the development of a holistic foundation training program that not only presented no conflicting messages but consolidated the best practices of different development agencies’ previous interventions.

90. Lesson 3: Wording of indicators and baseline/target data need to be consistent and confirmed with governments

during preparation. Baselines established for two PDO level indicators were based on national level data rather than

25 CDPF has been managed by both ADB and UNICEF.


project specific area data. This was primarily because data was only available at the national level at appraisal. In

addition, there were inconsistencies in the wording of the PDO indicator to measure enrollment of children ages 3-5.

These inconsistencies led to challenges in reporting progress related to the indicators. Despite these challenges, the

implementation teams were able to get the needed data and measure progress toward achievement of the PDO.

91. Maximizing the impact of relatively short-term operations, such as the SESSP, requires, among others, the

following:

92. Recommendation 1: Rigorous quality assurance of a results framework assessment during a project’s appraisal,

including both the identification and measurement of baselines and targets. To properly track the project’s

implementation progress and assess its outcomes and impacts, a mechanism is needed to provide more rigorous

quality assurance to all the teams involved (in this case, the client’s, the GPE’s the the Bank’s teams) during any

project’s appraisal. The teams should then be encouraged to set viable baselines and targets using appropriate

measurement tools. Given the GPE’s short processing period of interaction with the donors, rigorous quality assurance

becomes even more critical as it directly impacts the project’s quality at entry. In the case of inappropriate targets, it

is essential that they be addressed through restructuring as early as possible in the project.,

93. Recommendation 2: Fully leveraging the foundations built as well as the lessons learned from previous

operation(s). Wherever possible, these projects should fully integrate the client’s project teams into the

government/implementing entities’ mainstream offices and retain those team members who had developed

technical and administrative capacities during previous operations. This arrangement would support project

readiness for implementation, which would improve the project’s quality at entry as well as its sustainability.

Successful integration of key findings and lessons learned from previous operations, impact evaluations, and other

relevant interventions and their associated studies during any project’s appraisal would also enable both the client’s

and the Bank’s teams to implement a project that has been designed with a more focused and targeted approach to

achieving results. .


ANNEX 1. RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND KEY OUTPUTS

A. RESULTS INDICATORS A.1 PDO Indicators Objective/Outcome: To expand access to ECE for 3 to 5 years old

Indicator Name Unit of Measure Baseline Original Target Formally Revised

Target

Actual Achieved at Completion

Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1,000 community based pre-school facilities are provided

Percentage 56.49 59.49 59.49 66.30

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1,000 community based pre-school facilities are provided (girls)

Percentage 49.50 51.50 51.50 65.50

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Comments (achievements against targets):

Objective/Outcome: To improve access to basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged background.



Target


Lower Secondary enrollment rate

Percentage 35.10 37.10 37.10 41.90

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Lower Secondary enrollment rate (girls)

Percentage 37.40 38.10 38.10 46.40

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017


Objective/Outcome: To improve quality of basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged background.


Target


Percentage of students in Grades 3 reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early Grade Reading Assessment

Percentage 51.50 90.00 66.50 68.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017



Target


Percentage of primary teachers applying effective EGRA teaching methods as

Percentage 0.00 50.00 50.00 63.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 04-Nov-2016


defined by classroom observation criteria


A.2 Intermediate Results Indicators

Component: Component 1: Improving the access and educational experience of vulnerable and disadvantaged students


Target


Number of children aged 3-5 reached by project supported ECE services (70 FPS, 1000 CB, 500 HB)

Number 0.00 32500.00 32500.00 125337.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 04-May-2017

Comments (achievements against targets): The ECE target indicators are for the SESSP only. However, the availability of sufficient budget to include support to children aged 3-5 who were enrolled in the CPS and Home Based Care Program (HBCP) (which had been established under the ESSSUAP) has led to the original target being vastly surpassed. Para 10 of SESSP PAD’s Annex 2 states as follows: “this sub-component [(Sub-component 1.1: Expanding access to early childhood care and development (ECCD))] will also provide various forms of support in the form of goods and services to the CPS and HBCP established under ESSSUAP, contributing to the existing 24 national ECE resource centers enabling them to provide support to CPS and HBCP as well as provide support to women in reproductive age, pregnant mothers and mothers of children 0-2 years old to have access to health services” (p. 31).


Target


Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1000 community

Percentage 56.50 71.00 71.00 67.98

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 05-Jun-2017


based pre-school facilities are provided

Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1000 community based pre-school facilities are provided (girls)

Percentage 53.50 67.20 67.20 69.36

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 05-Jun-2017



Target


Number of students receiving project financed scholarships

Number 0.00 133000.00 133000.00 142655.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017



Target


Number of teachers completing training on disability screening

Number 0.00 2000.00 2000.00 5640.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 04-May-2017

Comments (achievements against targets): The training on disability screening was conducted at the school level. This enabled more participants to attend as the per diem was very low and all teachers at the target schools were able to attend rather than a select few as proposed in the original plan.



Target


Percentage of ECE formal services rated as level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood education environment indicators through classroom-observation evaluation (50 FPS)

Percentage 0.00 30.00 30.00 66.00

05-Dec-2016 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Comments (achievements against targets): The completion of the new pre-schools took place almost at the end of the project. As a result, an increased number of pre- schools were able to meet the criteria related to infrastructure which they had previously not been able to reach.


Target


Percentage of ECE formal services rated as level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood education environment indicators through classroom-observation evaluation (100 CBPS selected)

Percentage 0.00 30.00 30.00 35.00

05-Dec-2016 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017




Target


Average age of students entering grade 1

Number 6.90 6.80 6.80 6.80

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017



Target


Number of Community ECE teachers and core parents reached by training and materials supported by the project

Number 0.00 1850.00 1850.00 3861.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 08-May-2017

Comments (achievements against targets): The ECE target indicators are for the SESSP only. However, the budget was sufficient to include support to core parents and pre-schools which were established under the ESSSUAP as well. As a result, the end-line value of this indicator was significantly higher than its original target. Para 10 of SESSP PAD’s Annex 2 states as follows: “this sub-component [(Sub-component 1.1: Expanding access to early childhood care and development (ECCD))] will also provide various forms of support in the form of goods and services to the CPS and HBCP established under ESSSUAP, contributing to the existing 24 national ECE resource centers enabling them to provide support to CPS and HBCP as well as provide support to women in reproductive age, pregnant mothers and mothers of children 0-2 years old to have access to health services” (p. 31).


Target


Teachers recruited or trained Number 0.00 6000.00 6000.00 32719.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017


Comments (achievements against targets): The original wording of this core sector indicator was “Number of additional qualified primary teachers resulting from project interventions,” which was used in the PAD. However, the core sector indicator was revised in November 2016 to “Teachers recruited or trained.” The baseline and end target remains unchanged.

Component: Component 2: Benchmarking student competency


Target


EGMA rolled out in 5 provinces

Yes/No N Y Y Y

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 04-May-2017



Target


System for learning assessment at the primary level

Yes/No N Y Y Y

28-Feb-2014 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 04-May-2017

Utility of the learning assessment system

Number 0.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

28-Feb-2014 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 04-May-2017



Target



Roll out of Grades 3, 6, and 8 National Assessments (each assessment once during the project lifecycle) and publication of their results

Yes/No N Y Y Y

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 04-May-2017



Target


Direct project beneficiaries Number 0.00 170950.00 170950.00 476560.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Female beneficiaries Percentage 0.00 45.00 45.00 48.83

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Comments (achievements against targets): This is a cumulative number which includes the following groups of beneficiaries: all teachers and head teachers who benefited from the project; children who benefited from the scholarships program; parents; pre-school children; those who benefited from national M&E training; ministry staff who benefited from in-house training on finance, Public financial Management Reform, Financial Management Information System, and procurement; and community support committees who received training for construction.

Component: Component 3: Improving Cambodia's teaching force


Target


Number of principals Number 0.00 1600.00 1600.00 2474.00


completing leadership training

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Comments (achievements against targets): Additional funding was made available by CDPF to support expansion of the leadership training.


Target



02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017


02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017



Target


Teachers recruited or trained Number 0.00 6000.00 6000.00 32719.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Comments (achievements against targets): The original wording of this core sector indicator was “Number of additional qualified primary teachers resulting from project interventions,” which was used in the PAD. However, the core sector indicator was revised in November 2016 to “Teachers recruited or trained.” The baseline and end target remains unchanged.


Component: Component 4: System strengthening and monitoring and evaluation


Target


Number of District Offices of Education constructed

Number 0.00 20.00 20.00 20.00

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017



Target


Number of provinces implementing a unified early childhood and primary education sub-sector monitoring system

Number 0.00 12.00 12.00 18.50

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017

Comments (achievements against targets): Actual achieved number is the average of Primary Education and Early Childhood Education.


Target


Number of provinces implementing a unified early childhood and primary education sub-sector planning system Plans

Number 0.00 12.00 12.00 18.50

02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017


Comments (achievements against targets): Actual achieved number is the average of Primary Education and Early Childhood Education.


Target



02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017


02-Dec-2013 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017 31-Jul-2017


KEY OUTPUTS BY COMPONENT

Objective/Outcome 1 To expand access to ECE for 3-5 year olds

Outcome Indicators

1. Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1,000 community based pre-school facilities are provided

2. Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1,000 community based pre-school facilities are provided (girls)

Intermediate Results Indicators 1. Number of children aged 3-5 reached by project supported ECE

services


2. Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1000 community based preschool facilities are provided

3. Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where new 100 formal and 1000 community based preschool facilities are provided (girls) 4. Number of Community ECE teachers and core parents reached by

training and materials supported by the project

Key Outputs by Component (linked to the achievement of the Objective/Outcome 1)

1. 500 CPS and 76 formal pre-schools were constructed and 3 buildings were renovated with furniture and equipment installed (125,337 children (including 68,706 girls) had access to new pre-schools)

2. 3,861 CPS teachers and core mothers received training and materials; 2,532 formal pre-school teachers, 128 pre-school resource center teachers, and 346 sub-national trainers were trained

Objective/Outcome 2 To contribute to improved access to basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds

Outcome Indicators 1. Lower Secondary enrollment rate 2. Lower Secondary enrollment rate (girls)

Intermediate Results Indicators

1. Number of students receiving project financed scholarships 2. Number of teachers completing training on disability screening 3. Average age of students entering grade 14. Number of District

Offices of Education constructed


1. 142,655 students in Grades 4 – 9 received scholarship 2. 1,276 school and health center staff were trained on health

screening for Grade 1 students 3. 3,000 schools received first aid kits and manuals 4. 5,640 teachers had training to identify children with hearing or vision problems 5. 33 primary schools were constructed.


6. 20 DOE buildings constructed with furniture and equipment installed

Objective/Outcome 3 To contribute to improved quality of basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds

Outcome Indicators

1. Percentage of students in Grades 3 reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early Grade Reading Assessment

2. Percentage of primary teachers applying effective EGRA teaching methods as defined by classroom observation criteria


1. EGMA rolled out in 5 provinces 2. Percentage of ECE formal services rated as level 5 overall on the

adjusted early childhood education environment indicators through classroom-observation evaluation (50 FPS)

3. Percentage of ECE formal services rated as level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood education environment indicators through classroom-observation evaluation (100 CBPS selected)

4. System for learning assessment at the primary level 5. Utility of the learning assessment system 6. Number of principals completing leadership training 7. Roll out of Grades 3, 6, and 8 National Assessments (each

assessment once during the project lifecycle) and publication of their results

8. Teachers recruited or trained


1. EGRA & EGMA conducted, and the data was analyzed 2. EGMA: 1,324 teachers and school directors were trained in new

methods for effective teaching of mathematics 3. EGRA: 21,736 grade 2 teachers and stakeholders, 24,094 grade 3

teachers and stakeholders, and 1,347 District Training and Monitoring Team (DTMT) trainers received training on use of the Khmer language textbooks

4. The national assessment team from the Education Quality Assurance Department had on-the-job training


5. 2,474 school directors had the school director training program

Intermediate results indicators that apply across the objectives


1. Number of provinces implementing a unified early childhood and primary education sub-sector monitoring system.

2. Direct project beneficiaries 3. Female beneficiaries

Key Outputs by Component (linked to the achievement of intermediate results indicators that apply across the objectives)

1. A unified sub-sector monitoring system was developed. 1,552 schools, DOE and POE staff at all levels (from pre-school through upper secondary including non-formal education) had training

2. 50 primary, lower secondary, and upper-secondary schools in 7 provinces installed a student tracking system


ANNEX 2. BANK LENDING AND IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT/SUPERVISION

A. TASK TEAM MEMBERS

Name Role

Preparation

Prateek Tandon Team Lead

Simeth Beng Team Lead

Tsuyoshi Fukao Team member

Raja Bentaouet Kattan Team member

Atsuko Muroga Team member

Manush Hristov Legal Specialist

Sreng Sok Procurement Specialist

Sophear Khiev Financial Management Specialist

Reaksmey Keo Sok Financial Management Specialist

Tep Makathy Environmental Safeguards Specialist

Satoshi Ishihara Social Safeguards Specialist

Chau-Ching Shen Disbursement Specialist

Ravan Chieap Administrative and Client Support

Chandra Chakravarthi Administrative and Client Support

Rajiv Aggarwal Team member

Supervision/ICR

Simeth Beng Task Team Leader(s)

Sreng Sok Procurement Specialist(s)

Reaksmey Keo Sok Financial Management Specialist

Bunlong Leng Environmental Safeguards Specialist

Veasna Bun Team Member

Sophear Khiev Team Member

Martin Henry Lenihan Social Safeguards Specialist


Ravan Chieap Team Member

Tsuyoshi Fukao Team Member

Prateek Tandon Team Member

Takiko Igarashi Team Member

Fata No Team Member

B. STAFF TIME AND COST

Stage of Project Cycle Staff Time and Cost

No. of staff weeks US$ (including travel and consultant costs)

Preparation

FY14 41.943 124,221.70

FY15 0 - 0.40

Total 41.94 124,221.30

Supervision/ICR

FY15 16.950 82,206.15

FY16 19.356 134,832.34

FY17 28.484 115,261.16

FY18 15.237 75,001.86

Total 80.03 407,301.51


ANNEX 3. PROJECT COST BY COMPONENT

Components Amount at Approval

(US$M) Actual at Project

Closing (US$M) Percentage of Approval

(US$M)

Component 1: Improving the Access and Educational Experience of Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Students

23.8 21.5 90.3

Component 2: Benchmarking Student Competencies

4.3 5.2 120.9

Component 3: Improving Cambodia’s Teaching Force

2.5 1.8 72.0

Component 4: System Strengthening and Monitoring and Evaluation

7.9 9.9 125.3

Total 38.5 38.4 99.7


ANNEX 4. EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS

A1. Estimating the Private Rates of Return to Education The project’s main development impact is through generating better educational attainment which leads to increased private and social returns. The Economic Analysis therefore begins by exploring the direct impacts of the interventions on increasing the skills of the beneficiary students, which would then translate into their higher lifetime earnings. In particular, we employ a standard Mincer human capital earnings function (Mincer, 1974) to estimate the private rates of return to an additional year of education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels using data from the Cambodian Household Socio-economic Surveys 2014. Specifically, weighted least squares is used to regress log (real) hourly wage 𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝑖) for an individual 𝑖 on the interactions betwen years of schooling completed with indicators for the three broad levels of education attained, and a quadratic in years of potential experience.26 Only individuals between the age of 15 and 64 who have completed their formal education at the time of the surveys are included in the sample. Each observation in the regression is weighted by the survey sampling weight multiplied by weekly hours worked (during the last 7 days). Estimates of the log wage regression coefficients for the 2014 total sample, as well as separated by gender are reported below in Table A1.

Table A1. Results from Log Hourly Wage Regression – CSES 2014

All Male Female

Years of schooling if Primary 0.050*** 0.036*** 0.059***

(0.004) (0.006) (0.006)

Years of schooling if Secondary 0.045*** 0.036*** 0.049***

(0.002) (0.003) (0.003)

Years of schooling if Post-secondary 0.065*** 0.059*** 0.069***

(0.002) (0.002) (0.002)

Experience 0.018*** 0.020*** 0.014***

(0.002) (0.003) (0.003)

Experience2 -0.000*** -0.000*** -0.000***

0.000 0.000 0.000

Intercept 7.198*** 7.275*** 7.159***

(0.021) (0.029) (0.030)

Observations 13,724 7,824 5,900

R-squared 0.153 0.133 0.181

Robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1 The estimated regression coefficients on the years of schooling variables are then used to calculate the returns to an additional year of schooling for the three broad schooling levels of interest by gender groups.

26 For those individuals who have completed more than secondary education (more than 12 years of schooling), we have 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟 =𝑎𝑔𝑒 − 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 − 5. For those who have completed no more than primary education (6 years or less), we assume that he/she enters the labor market at the age of 15 so that 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟 = 𝑎𝑔𝑒 − 15. And for those who have completed between 6 and 12 years of formal schooling, we assume that he/she enters the labor market at the age of 17 so that 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟 = 𝑎𝑔𝑒 − 17.


The results are presented below in Figure A1 and Table A2.

Figure A1. Estimated Hourly Wage Premiums Relative to Workers with No Formal Education for Male (Left) and Female (Right) – CSES 2014

Table A2. Rates of Return to Each Year of Education – CSES 2014

All Male Female

Primary 5.1% 3.6% 6.1%

Secondary 4.0% 3.7% 4.0%

Tertiary 9.7% 9.5% 10.0%

We can see that each additional year of schooling at the secondary level is associated with an increase in the average real hourly wage rate of 4 percent for the overall sample. Interestingly, the private rate of return at this (and the primary) level is much lower than that observed at the tertiary level. The higher private returns associated with more advanced levels of education are also clearly depicted in the charts in Figure A1, which show the expected hourly wage premiums relative to workers with no formal schooling. A2. The Impact of Pre-Primary Education on Learning Outcome This section quantifies the expected improvement in learning outcome for students arising from their participation in preprimary education. We first estimate an empirical educational production function using the non- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sample of students from the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 dataset. Specifically, the test scores of students on the PISA 2015 assessment (average score in mathematics and science) are regressed on age, grade level, gender, a quadratic in the PISA index of economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS),27

27 The PISA index of ESCS was derived from the following three indices: highest occupational status of parents, highest education level of parents, and home possessions. The index of home possessions comprises all items on the indices of family wealth, cultural possessions, home educational resources, as well as books in the home.

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

140%

160%

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213141516

Wag

e p

rem

ium

ove

r n

o s

cho

olin

g

Years of schooling

Male

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

140%

160%

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213141516

Wag

e p

rem

ium

ove

r n

o s

cho

olin

gYears of schooling

Female


preschool attendance, the PISA index of shortage of educational material,28 the index on educational staff shortage, 29 school enrolment size, and the proportion of fully certified teachers in the school. The estimation results for the educational production function are presented in Table A3.

Table A3. Estimated Educational Production Function – PISA 2015 (Non-OECD Sample)

Variable

Age in years -5.608

(8.105)

Grade level 29.299***

(7.272)

Male -1.082

(1.227)

ESCS 13.296*

(7.047)

ESCS squared 3.909***

(0.498)

Preschool attendance: No Yes, for one year or less 29.147**

(10.831)

Yes, for more than one year 64.374**

(21.554)

Shortage of educational material index -4.151**

(1.564)

Shortage of educational staff index -1.383

(2.946)

School size 0.006

(0.005)

Proportion of all teachers fully certified 27.985**

(10.405)

Intercept 482.611***

(132.826)

Observations 55,011

R-squared 0.313

Robust standard errors in parentheses (clustered at the country level) *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

28 The index of shortage of educational material (EDUSHORT) was scaled using the following four items: a lack of educational material (e.g. textbooks, IT equipment, library or laboratory material); inadequate or poor quality educational material (e.g. textbooks, IT equipment, library or laboratory material); a lack of physical infrastructure (e.g. building, grounds, heating/cooling, lighting and acoustic systems); and inadequate or poor quality physical infrastructure. 29 The index on staff shortage (STAFFSHORT) was derived from the four items: a lack of teaching staff; inadequate or poorly qualified teaching staff; a lack of assisting staff; and inadequate or poorly qualified assisting staff.


For the purpose of our cost benefit analysis, we are primarily interested in the coefficient estimates of the “Preschool attendance for more than one year” and the “Grade level” variables. Each year advancement in grade level is associated with an average increase in the PISA test score of 29.3 points, while having attended preschool for more than one year is associated with an increase in the test score of around 64.4 points, ceteris paribus. In other words, having attended preschool for more than one year is expected to lead to an average gain in learning outcome equivalent to 64.4 ÷ 29.3 = 2.2 years of secondary schooling. A3. Identifying Human Capital Externalities We have thus far considered only the private return to education for individual workers (Section A1). However, higher average level of schooling of workers is likely to incentivize the adoption of better production technologies. Hence, schooling may have large positive externalities on the productivity of all factors. Ignoring the external returns may therefore lead to significant underestimation of the social benefits of education. This study employs a method of estimating human capital externalities developed by Ciccone and Peri (2006). In this framework, workers are the only factor of production so that total output is equal to aggregate income. Consider the simplest possible case where there are two types of workers; high skill (𝐻) and low skill (𝐿). Normalizing total employment to unity, we have 𝑃𝐻 highly-educated workers and 𝑃𝐿 = 1 − 𝑃𝐻 less-educated workers. Total income is thus given by:

𝑌 = (1 − 𝑃𝐻)𝑤𝐿 + 𝑃𝐻𝑤𝐻 (3.1) where 𝑤𝐿 and 𝑤𝐻 are the wages of less- and more-educated workers respectively. If employment of more-educated workers produce positive externalities of strength 𝐸𝑋𝑇 on output 𝑌 (equivalently the effects on total factor productivity or TFP), then their marginal social product 𝜕𝑌/𝜕𝑃𝐻 exceeds the high-skill wage premium (𝑤𝐻 −𝑤𝐿) by 𝐸𝑋𝑇:

𝜕𝑌

𝜕𝑃𝐻= 𝐸𝑋𝑇 + (𝑤𝐻 −𝑤𝐿) (3.2)

The identification strategy entails differentiating both sides of equation (3.1) to obtain:

𝜕𝑌

𝜕𝑃𝐻= (𝑤𝐻 −𝑤𝐿) + (1 − 𝑃𝐻)

𝜕𝑤𝐿

𝜕𝑃𝐻+ 𝑃𝐻

𝜕𝑤𝐻

𝜕𝑃𝐻 (3.3)

where 𝜕𝑤𝑖/𝜕𝑃𝐻 denotes the effects of the increase in the supply of more-educated workers on wages. Combining equations (3.2) and (3.3) yields:

𝐸𝑋𝑇 = (1 − 𝑃𝐻)𝜕𝑤𝐿/𝜕𝑃𝐻 + 𝑃𝐻𝜕𝑤𝐻/𝜕𝑃𝐻 (3.4) Divide both sides of the above equation by 𝑌 so that externalities are measured in percentage of total output, and denote by 𝛽 the share of total earnings accruing to more-educated workers (𝛽 = 𝑤𝐻𝑃𝐻/𝑌) result in the following important equation:


𝜃 =𝐸𝑋𝑇

𝑌= (1 − 𝛽)

𝜕𝑤𝐿/𝜕𝑃𝐻

𝑤𝐿+ 𝛽

𝜕𝑤𝐻/𝜕𝑃𝐻

𝑤𝐻 (3.5)

Hence, (3.5) shows that externalities can be expressed as the earnings-weighted average percentage change in wages in response to the change in the supply of highly-educated workers. Another key result from Ciccone and Peri (2006) is to express equation (3.5) as the logarithmic change in the average wage, holding skill composition constant. Specifically:

𝜃 =𝜕

𝜕𝑃𝐻ln([1 − �̅�𝐻]𝑤𝐿 + �̅�𝐻𝑤𝐻) (3.6)

where the bars denote that the number of workers in the two skill groups are held constant. This is what Ciccone and Peri (2006) refer to as the “constant composition” approach to the identification of aggregate human capital externalities. Subtracting 𝜃 from both sides of equation (3.5) provides a useful alternative perspective:

0 = [1 − 𝛽] (𝜕𝜔𝐿 𝜕𝑃𝐻⁄

𝜔𝐿− 𝜃) + 𝛽 (

𝜕𝜔𝐻 𝜕𝑃𝐻⁄

𝜔𝐻− 𝜃) = [1 − 𝛽]𝑁𝐶𝑆𝑃𝐿 + [𝛽]𝑁𝐶𝑆𝑃𝐻 (3.7)

where 𝑁𝐶𝑆𝑃 denotes the neoclassical supply effects from the increase in the number of more-educated workers. Notice that the term 𝑁𝐶𝑆𝑃𝐻 = (𝜕𝜔𝐻 𝜕𝑃𝐻)/𝜔𝐻⁄ − 𝜃 ≤ 0 represents the decrease in the wage of highly-educated workers net of externalities, and 𝑁𝐶𝑆𝑃𝐿 = (𝜕𝜔𝐿 𝜕𝑃𝐻)/𝜔𝐿⁄ − 𝜃 ≥ 0 represents the increase in the wage of less-educated workers net of externalities. Hence, the constant composition approach exploits the fact that the neoclassical supply effects exactly offset each other when weighted by the share of earnings. Ciccone and Peri (2006) also show that the existing “Mincerian” approach to identifying human capital externalities (Rauch, 1993; Rudd, 2000; Acemoglu and Angrist, 2001; Conley, Flyer, and Tsiang, 2003; Moretti, 2004) yields positive externalities even when there are none. To see this, notice that the approach obtains the strength of externalities, denoted by 𝜃𝑀, as the marginal effect of human capital on the intercept of a Mincerian wage regression. Again, consider the simplest case with two types of labor, 𝐻 and 𝐿, only. The regression equation for this simplified case is as follows:

𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝑖) = 𝜃𝑀𝑃𝐻 + 𝑎 + 𝑏𝐷𝑖 (3.8) where 𝑖 indexes an individual and 𝑏 = 𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝐻) − 𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝐿) is the high education log wage premium. Averaging the previous equation across individuals to obtain:

(1 − 𝑃𝐻)𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝐿) + 𝑃𝐻𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝐻) = 𝜃𝑀𝑃𝐻 + 𝑎 + 𝑏𝑃𝐻 (3.9) The strength of externalities can be identified by differentiating and rearranging equation (3.9) to get:

𝜃𝑀 =𝜕

𝜕𝑃𝐻((1 − 𝑃𝐻)𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝐿) + 𝑃𝐻𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝐻)) − 𝑏 (3.10)

Computing the differential in equation (3.10) yields:


𝜃𝑀 = (1 − 𝑃𝐻)𝜕𝑤𝐿/𝜕𝑃𝐻

𝑤𝐿+ 𝑃𝐻

𝜕𝑤𝐻/𝜕𝑃𝐻

𝑤𝐻 (3.11)

By comparing equation (3.11) to equation (3.5), we can see that instead of computing the earnings-weighted average percentage change in wages as in the constant composition approach, the Mincerian approach computes the employment-weighted average percentage change in wages in response to an increase in the supply of more-educated labor to identify the strength of human capital externalities. The resulting bias can be calculated by subtracting 𝜃 from the both sides of equation (3.11):

𝜃𝑀 − 𝜃 = [1 − 𝑃𝐻] (𝜕𝜔𝐿 𝜕𝑃𝐻⁄

𝜔𝐿− 𝜃) + 𝑃𝐻 (

𝜕𝜔𝐻 𝜕𝑃𝐻⁄

𝜔𝐻− 𝜃)

= [1 − 𝑃𝐻]𝑁𝐶𝑆𝑃𝐿 + [𝑃𝐻]𝑁𝐶𝑆𝑃𝐻 (3.12)

Therefore, equations (3.7) and (3.12) show that the two approaches yield consistent estimates of the strength of externalities when there are no neoclassical supply effects (that is, when the slope of the relative demand curve for more-educated labor is flat). However, in the presence of the neoclassical supply effects, 𝜃𝑀 > 𝜃 as the Mincerian approach puts more weight on the rising wage of less educated workers and less weight on the falling wage of more-educated workers (that is, 𝛽 > 𝑃𝐻). As a result, the Mincerian approach yields positive externalities even when there are none. A4. Empirical Methodology for the Constant Composition Approach in Identifying Human Capital Externalities The empirical counterpart of the expression 𝜕ln([1 − �̅�𝐻]𝑤𝐿 + �̅�𝐻𝑤𝐻) in equation (3.6) for each province 𝑝, extended to encompass a wider range of schooling and experience groups can be constructed by first computing the constant composition average wage rates at two points in time, 𝑡0 and 𝑡1, as follows:

�̂�𝑝,𝑡0 = ∑ �̂�𝑝,𝑡0(𝑠, 𝑒)𝑃𝑝,𝑡0(𝑠, 𝑒),𝑠,𝑒 �̂�𝑝,𝑡1𝑡0 = ∑ �̂�𝑝,𝑡1(𝑠, 𝑒)𝑃𝑝,𝑡0(𝑠, 𝑒)𝑠,𝑒 (4.1)

where (𝑠, 𝑒) indexes the skill group with educational attainment 𝑠 and potential labor market experience level 𝑒, and 𝑃𝑝,𝑡0(𝑠, 𝑒) is the share of workers in the (𝑠, 𝑒) skill group in province 𝑝 at the initial time

period 𝑡0. The provincial average wage rates for each skill group at each time period, �̂�𝑝,𝑡0(𝑠, 𝑒), are in

turn computed by regressing 𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝑖,𝑝,𝑡) for individual 𝑖 on a set of dummies that saturate the schooling

and experience space,30 𝑙𝑛 (𝑤𝑝,𝑡(𝑠, 𝑒)), as follows:

𝑙𝑛(𝑤𝑖,𝑝,𝑡) = 𝑙𝑛 (𝑤𝑝,𝑡(𝑠, 𝑒)) + 𝛽𝑡𝑋𝑖𝑡 + 𝑢𝑖𝑝𝑡

where 𝑋𝑖𝑡 is a vector of additional individual level control variables (gender and marital status). The “cleaned” skill specific average wage rate �̂�𝑝,𝑡(𝑠, 𝑒) corresponding to married male workers in province 𝑝

is computed using the formula:

30 The schooling (𝑠) and experience (𝑒) space encompasses 24 cells combining six schooling groups and four potential experience

groups. The schooling groups are: 𝑠1 = [0,1), 𝑠2 = [1,4), 𝑠3 = [4,7), 𝑠4 = [7,10), 𝑠5 = [10,13), and 𝑠6 ≥ 13. The experience

groups are: 𝑒1 = [0,10), 𝑒2 = [10,20), 𝑒3 = [20,30), and 𝑒4 ≥ 30.


�̂�𝑝,𝑡(𝑠, 𝑒) = 𝑒𝑥𝑝 (𝑙𝑛 (�̂�𝑝,𝑡(𝑠, 𝑒)))×exp(1

2

∑ 𝜔𝑖ℎ𝑖�̂�𝑖𝑝𝑡2

{𝑖|𝑖∈𝑝,𝑡}

∑ 𝜔𝑖ℎ𝑖{𝑖|𝑖∈𝑝,𝑡})

where 𝜔𝑖 is the survey sampling weight and ℎ𝑖 is the weekly working hours for individual 𝑖. The change in the log constant composition average (real) wage for province 𝑝 over the time period of interest, which effectively captures the change in TFP in the province, is therefore given by:

∆𝑙𝑛(𝑇𝐹𝑃𝑝,𝑡1−𝑡0) = ∆ 𝑙𝑛(�̂�𝑝,𝑡1−𝑡0𝑡0 ) = 𝑙𝑛(�̂�𝑝,𝑡1

𝑡0 ) − 𝑙𝑛(�̂�𝑝,𝑡0) (4.2)

This variable will serve as our dependent variable in the regression of the log change in TFP on the change in the average schooling attainment of workers ∆𝑆𝑝,𝑡1−𝑡0 at the provincial level:

∆ 𝑙𝑛(�̂�𝑝,𝑡1−𝑡0𝑡0 ) = 𝛼 + 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑠𝑝 + 𝛼𝑐𝑐∆𝑆𝑝,𝑡1−𝑡0 + 𝑢𝑝 (4.3)

where the coefficient 𝛼𝑐𝑐 is the estimate of the strength of externalities arising from a one year increase in the average schooling per worker in province 𝑝 , 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑠𝑝 is a vector of provincial-level control

variables, and 𝑢𝑝 is the error term.

We follow Iranzo and Peri (2009) in constructing the change in the schooling attainment variables. Specifically, let 𝑆 denote the education level of a worker measured in years of schooling (the highest level being PhD which is obtained after 21 years of schooling and the lowest level being zero year of schooling). The distribution of workers’ education in a province is described by the cumulative distribution function (CDF) 𝐺𝑡(𝑆). Therefore, the average years of schooling of workers in a province at time 𝑡 is given by:

𝑆�̅� = ∫ 𝑆𝑑𝐺𝑡(𝑆)21

0 (4.4)

and the corresponding change in the average years of schooling per worker over the period from 𝑡 = 0 to 𝑡 = 1 is expressed as:

∆𝑆�̅�,𝑡1−𝑡0 = 𝑆�̅�,𝑡1 − 𝑆�̅�,𝑡0 (4.5)

However, we are also interested in estimating the contribution of changes in the supply of workers with different skill levels to TFP growth. As in Iranzo and Peri (2006), for each province we construct the aggregate skill for, say, secondary (SR) and post-secondary (PS) levels as:

𝑆�̅�,𝑡𝑆𝑅 = ∫ 𝑆𝑑𝐺𝑝,𝑡(𝑆)

12

7 and 𝑆�̅�,𝑡

𝑃𝑆 = ∫ 𝑆𝑑𝐺𝑝,𝑡(𝑆)21

13 (4.6)

and the changes in the average years of secondary and post-secondary schooling per worker in province 𝑝 over the period from 𝑡 = 0 to 𝑡 = 1 are respectively:

∆𝑆�̅�,𝑡1−𝑡0𝑆𝑅 = 𝑆�̅�,𝑡1

𝑆𝑅 − 𝑆�̅�,𝑡0𝑆𝑅 and ∆𝑆�̅�,𝑡1−𝑡0

𝑃𝑆 = 𝑆�̅�,𝑡1𝑃𝑆 − 𝑆�̅�,𝑡0

𝑃𝑆 (4.7)

The empirical counterparts to the human capital measures for each province given in equations (4.4) and (4.6) are:


𝑆�̅�,𝑡 =∑ 𝜔𝑖𝑆𝑖{𝑖|𝑖∈𝑝,𝑡,𝑆𝑖∈[0,21]}

∑ 𝜔𝑖{𝑖|𝑖∈𝑝,𝑡} (4.8)

for the average years of schooling per worker and

𝑆�̅�,𝑡𝑆𝑅 =

∑ 𝜔𝑖𝑆𝑖{𝑖|𝑖∈𝑝,𝑡,𝑆𝑖∈[7,12]}

∑ 𝜔𝑖{𝑖|𝑖∈𝑝,𝑡} and 𝑆�̅�,𝑡

𝑃𝑆 =∑ 𝜔𝑖𝑆𝑖{𝑖|𝑖∈𝑝,𝑡,𝑆𝑖∈[13,21]}

∑ 𝜔𝑖{𝑖|𝑖∈𝑝,𝑡} (4.9)

for the average years of secondary and post-secondary schooling per worker respectively. The variable 𝜔𝑖 is the survey sampling weight for individual 𝑖 in the dataset. The effect of one extra year of schooling at any education level of interest can simply be estimated by including the changes in the variables in (4.8) and (4.9) in the right hand side of the regression equation (4.3). Empirical Evidence of Human Capital Externalities from Cambodian Provinces, 2009-2014 Table A4 presents the constant composition approach ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates of externalities from average years of schooling (columns (1) and (2)), average years of secondary education (column (3)), and average years of secondary and post-secondary levels per worker estimated simultaneously (columns (4) and (5)). All of the reported standard errors are clustered at the regional level.

Table A4. OLS Estimates of Human Capital Externalities from Average Years of Schooling, Years of Secondary, and Years of Post-Secondary at the Provincial Level, 2009-2014

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

∆𝑆̅ 0.127* 0.142**

(0.059) (0.050) ∆𝑆̅𝑆𝑅 0.118 0.117 0.116

(0.070) (0.073) (0.071)

∆𝑆̅𝑃𝑆 0.033 0.032

(0.131) (0.138)

Δ Experience -0.005 -0.005 0.002 0.003

(0.053) (0.062) (0.065) (0.066) 2.region -0.174* -0.233 -0.216 -0.212

(0.081) (0.135) (0.188) (0.152)

3.region 0.175** 0.167** 0.172* 0.174***

(0.055) (0.061) (0.076) (0.037)

4.region 0.034 -0.062 -0.046 -0.043

(0.086) (0.088) (0.130) (0.072)

5.region 0.043*** 0.018 0.027 0.027

(0.006) (0.022) (0.051) (0.047)

6.region 0.096* 0.051 0.057 0.059


(0.041) (0.065) (0.084) (0.062)

Intercept 0.301*** 0.244*** 0.331*** 0.313** 0.313**

(0.027) (0.026) (0.014) (0.081) (0.079)

Observations 24 24 24 24 24

R-squared 0.220 0.361 0.280 0.282 0.282

Robust clustered standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

The basic specification from equation (4.3) is used in columns (1) and (2), with column (1) including the change in average potential experience over the five-year period and an intercept as controls, while column (2) further controls for regional dummies.31 The estimates of the strength of average schooling externalities (or the effect on TFP) range from 0.127 in specification (1) to 0.142 in specification (2), with both statistically significant at conventional levels. Employing the same control variables as in column (2), column (3) shows that the estimated effect on TFP from an additional year of secondary education per worker is in the order of 0.118. However, the estimate is not significantly different from 0 at conventional statistical levels (P-value of 0.151), although it is significant at the 10 percent level under a one-tail test. Column (4) reports estimates of the strength of externalities for both secondary and post-secondary levels, estimated simultaneously. The TFP effect from an extra year of secondary education per worker is 0.117 (P-value of 0.169), which is very similar to the estimate obtained from the preceding model. Interestingly, the TFP effect from an additional year of post-secondary schooling per worker is 0.033 and very statistically insignificant (P-value of 0.814). This finding is consistent with the general view that lower levels of education produce more externalities than higher levels for less-developed economies (Jimenez and Patrinos, 2008). Column (5) eliminates the always-insignificant change in average potential experience variable. Nevertheless, the estimates of externalities from secondary and post-secondary education levels remain very similar to those shown in column (4). The lowest OLS estimate of the strength of externalities from an additional year of secondary education per worker is 12.3 percent (= 𝑒𝑥𝑝(0.116) − 1), which is more than three times the estimated private return of 4 percent obtained earlier. However, the drawback to the OLS estimates shown in Table 2 is the possible endogeneity of the change in average schooling per worker variables which could arise from non-random assignment of workers with different skills to provinces (or selection bias) and omitted variable bias. The non-random assignment could plausibly be caused by highly educated workers selecting to work in provinces with highly productive sectors. If this is the case, then OLS overestimates the strength of externalities from an additional year of schooling per worker. In order to address the issue of endogeneity, this report follows Ciccone and Peri (2006) and Iranzo and Peri (2006) and adopt the two-stage least squares instrumental variable (2SLS) strategy to exogenously identify the effects on TFP of an additional year of secondary and post-secondary education respectively.

31 Region 1: Headquarters are in Stung Treng and the region covers the provinces of Stung Treng, Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri. Region 2: Headquarters are in Kampong Cham and the region covers the provinces of Kampong Cham, Prey Veng, and Svay Rieng. Region 3: Headquarters are in Kampong Speu and the region covers the provinces of Kampong Speu, Takéo, Kampot, Preah Sihanouk, Koh Kong and Kep. Region 4: Headquarters are in Siem Reap and the region covers the provinces of Siem Reap, Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, and Kampong Thom. Region 5: Headquarters are in Battambang and the region covers the provinces of Battambang, Pursat, Banteay Meanchey and Pailin. Region 6: Headquarters are in the capital, Phnom Penh and the region covers the provinces of Kampong Chhnang, Kandal and the greater municipality of Phnom Penh.


Similar to Ciccone and Peri (2006), the chosen instruments in this study are the provincial share of population 55 years of age or more in 2009 (55plus_2009) and the number of young people between 9 and 14 years old per adult in 2009 (9plus14_2009). The 2SLS regression results, estimated using the same set of controls as the model in column (5) of Table A4, are reported below in Table A5. The first two columns present the first-stage regression estimates of the two endogenous schooling variables on regional dummies and the two instruments. It can be seen that the system of equations satisfy both the order and rank conditions, as the instrument 9plus14_2009 is statistically significant in the first stage regression of ∆𝑆̅𝑆𝑅, while the instrument 55plus_2009 is statistically significant in the first stage regression of ∆𝑆̅𝑃𝑆 on the set of controls and the instruments. The positive signs on the instruments indicate that provinces with greater number of young people relative to adults in 2009, as well as those with larger shares of old population in 2009 experienced greater increases in workforce educational attainment between 2009 and 2014. This is expected, however, since young people entering the workforce during this period had more education than the average labor force, while older workers retiring from the workforce had less education than the average worker.

Table A5. 2SLS Estimates of Human Capital Externalities from Average Years of Secondary and Years of Post-Secondary Education per Worker at the Provincial Level, 2009-2014

Dependent variable

First stage Second stage

∆𝑆̅𝑆𝑅 ∆𝑆̅𝑃𝑆 ∆ 𝑙𝑛(�̂�𝑝,𝑡1−𝑡0𝑡0 ) ∆ 𝑙𝑛(�̂�𝑝,𝑡1−𝑡0

𝑡0 )

∆𝑆̅𝑆𝑅 0.101 0.086

(0.202) (0.222)

∆𝑆̅𝑃𝑆 -0.023

(0.366) 2.region 1.608*** -0.551*** -0.216 -0.179

(0.025) (0.012) (0.457) (0.360)

3.region 0.438*** -0.176** 0.17 0.179**

(0.076) (0.047) (0.110) (0.072)

4.region -0.085 -0.652*** -0.073 -0.062***

(0.112) (0.050) (0.186) (0.013)

5.region 0.269 -0.437*** 0.018 0.028

(0.154) (0.069) (0.139) (0.068)

6.region 0.555 -0.565** 0.060 0.075

(0.302) (0.144) (0.186) (0.156)

9plus14_2009 4.602** 1.353

(1.461) (1.557) 55plus_2009 9.903 12.823**

(7.660) (4.756) Intercept -1.998*** -0.779 0.341 0.327***

(0.479) (0.646) (0.214) (0.022)

Observations 24 24 24 24

R-squared 0.300 0.469 0.273 0.270


Robust clustered standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1 The third column of Table A5 reports the second-stage regression results. We can immediately see that the 2SLS estimates of externalities from years of secondary school per worker (∆𝑆̅𝑆𝑅) and years of post-secondary education per worker (∆𝑆̅𝑃𝑆) are indeed smaller than comparable estimates obtained using OLS shown in column (5) of Table A4. Specifically, the TFP effect from an extra year of secondary education per worker is 0.101, though insignificantly different from 0 (P-value of 0.616), while the TFP effect from an additional year of post-secondary schooling per worker is -0.023, again very statistically insignificant (P-value of 0.814). The fourth column of Table 3 reports the second-stage regression results after

eliminating the change in years of post-secondary education per worker (∆𝑆̅𝑃𝑆) from the system. The TFP effect from an extra year of secondary education per worker is now 0.086, again insignificantly different from 0 (P-value of 0.697). The fact that the strength of externalities are very imprecisely estimated when 2SLS identification strategy is used is due to the very small number of observations we have at our disposal. Nonetheless, from the various models estimated in this study, we can conclude with some confidence that the magnitudes of externalities from an additional year of secondary education per worker range from 0.086 to 0.118 (or between 8.98 to 12.5 percent).


ANNEX 5. BORROWER, CO-FINANCIER AND OTHER PARTNER/STAKEHOLDER COMMENTS

Second Education Sector Support Project (Grant Number 017490-KH) Borrower Portion of the Implementation Completion Report

Main Outputs by component 2014 – 2017 The project had four components in line with the key priorities from the Education Strategic Plan. Each component comprised a number of sub-components. The final outputs of each sub component are shown below. Component 1: Improving the access and educational experience of vulnerable and disadvantaged students Sub-Components:1.1 ECE Expansion; 1.2 Access to Basic Education

Overall Objective: This component was designed to increase access to early childhood education and care for disadvantaged 3-5 year olds throughout the country by improving current services to meet service standards and expanding new services with standards 1.1.1 Construction:

Objective: To oversee construction including community pre-schools, formal pre-schools, primary schools and District Education Offices in selected rural/remote areas Key Outputs Achieved: The Construction Department was responsible for management, monitoring and oversight of construction required for achievement of project targets in component 1 and component 4. Outputs were as follows: Construction of 500 Community Pre-schools; 20 District Education Offices; 76 Formal Pre-schools; 33 Primary schools. Of these 6 District Education Offices, 55 new and 2 repaired Formal Pre-schools as well as 15 primary schools were constructed by contractors. The remaining 500 Community pre-schools, 18 Formal pre-schools + 1 repaired) 14 District Education Offices and 18 Primary schools were constructed by the community. Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: The PAD states that: "SESSP will finance the construction of formal pre-school and primary school classrooms on the premises of 100 existing primary schools in selected rural/remote areas. During project negotiations, it was agreed at policy level that only 70 formal pre-schools. However, before construction started it was agreed that since the average size of each formal school class was 25, the planned size of the classrooms could be reduced from 8x8m to 7x7m as an 8x8m classroom would be too big and possibly intimidating. This enabled the project to increase the number of formal pre-schools to 73 plus carry out repairs on three more bringing the total to 76 formal pre-schools. Sustainability after the SESSP has finished: The buildings are constructed to a high quality and the community has been trained in basic maintenance. The school recurrent budgets allow for funding small repairs. The buildings will last a great many years and are therefore fully sustainable. Key Lessons Learned: Community Construction is cheaper than construction using contractors. Ownership by the community means that the quality of construction is also higher than construction using


contractors. Key Enabling Factors: The key enabling factors in ensuring timely completion of project funded buildings are as follows: Good team work and communications with the project management, procurement and finance teams at central level as well as strong support from the World Bank construction specialists and task team leader; willingness on the part of the community to establish effective committees to support and implement construction at the local level. Conclusion: Component 1.1.1 has been successfully concluded. Valuable lessons have been learned on how to work effectively at all levels to achieve the construction targets on time and with good quality. 1.2-Early Childhood Education Objective: initiate training of national and sub-national trainers, core mothers and lead mothers serving HBCPs, preschool teachers, primary school teachers and contract teachers who teach preschool classes. Key Outputs Achieved: 1,000 new community pre-schools, 73 new formal pre-schools and 500 new home based programs established; New pre-school teacher standards developed; New parental education program developed; 3,861 community ECE teachers and core parents trained and received materials against a project target of 1,850; 125,337 children aged 3 – 5 reached by project supported activities against a project target of 28,500; 34 TV slots on parental education screened & burned to DVD with English sub-titles;2 DVDs on community pre-schools and parental education produced Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: Targets for 30 Community and 30 Formal pre-schools to meet approved national service standards to level 5 were achieved after restructuring the indicator to make it more relevant to the Cambodian situation; enrolment ratios of children aged 5 in the new urban & rural districts where community and formal pre-schools have been built reached 67.98 percent (girls 69.36 percent) against a project target of 71 percent. This indicator was not reached due to ambitious targets in the results framework. Sustainability after the SESSP has Finished :Adoption of the pre-school teacher standards, national pre-school service standards and new parental education program will provide sustainable support for improving access and quality to early childhood education; an inter-ministerial prakas to institutionalize CPS operations will be approved with effect from school year 2017/18; home based programs will be offered as an additional service attached to community and formal pre-schools and as such will be able to share the materials and funding as well as creating an operational base and encouraging parents to become more familiar with the schools. This will make the home –based programs more sustainable. Key Lessons Learned: Parental education is crucial to improve child nutrition and reduce infant mortality; improved health leads to improved learning outcomes; improved learning outcomes lead to sustainable development and economic growth; working in synergy with other ministries ensures that clear, unified messages are sent to the community . Key Enabling Factors: Establishment of strong inter-ministerial working relations. The Early Childhood Education Department works actively with 14 different ministries to ensure a synergistic approach. This has increased the impact of project interventions; good team work and communications with the project management, procurement and finance teams at central level; strong support from the World Bank construction specialists and task team leader; strong support from the project manager, project director


and senior MoEYS leaders. Conclusion: Community pre-schools will be integrated into the MoEYS mainstream system in the coming year. To further improve parental education and learning outcomes Public Preschool and Community Preschool teachers have been trained to meet regularly with parents/guardians who have children in their class. Meetings cover topics in new parental education program. Also, ECED trained core parents hold meetings with pregnant mothers and parents who have children under 2 years old. Early Childhood care and development is a priority for the MoEYS and there is a national increase in demand side. The SESSP interventions have helped to meet this demand and this has led the MoEYS to institutionalize key provision. 1.2.1 Expansion of the national upper primary and lower secondary scholarships programs. Objective: This sub-component built on the successes of its lower secondary national scholarship program and a primary scholarship pilot program to expand a nationwide national scholarship program for Grades 4 to 9. Key Outputs Achieved: Building on lessons learned from previous scholarships programs Primary and Lower Secondary Scholarships operations manuals were approved and will form the basis of national scholarships manual. The project funds were used to award scholarships to a total of 142,655 students from Grades 4 to 9. In school year 2015 / 16 the scholarships were successfully transferred to government funding. Education Management Information System figures show that the scholarships program has resulted in reducing drop out. Sustainability After the SESSP has Finished: The scholarships programs have become mainstreamed, no longer dependent on project funding. Therefore, they are fully sustainable. Key Lessons Learned: Scholarships based on poverty and merit are more likely to result in reduction of drop – out than scholarships based solely on poverty; the system of beneficiary selection based on analysis of responses to questionnaires by the local scholarships support committee has proved to be a reliable and cost effective method of selecting scholarship beneficiaries. Key Enabling Factors: Results of the World Bank Impact Evaluation on conditional cash transfers showed that scholarships were effective in reducing drop out; support from MoEYS senior leaders and the MEF for making government funds available to expand the number of scholarships nation-wide. Conclusion: The expansion of the national upper primary and lower secondary scholarships programs has been very successful in terms of increased retention and is fully sustainable. 1.2.2 Low Hearing and Vision Program:

Objective: expand the on-going school health program, including support to vision and hearing programs. Key Outputs Achieved: Vision Screening: 5,640 teachers from a project target of 2000 able to identify children with hearing or vision problems and refer them for further treatment; 961 teachers and school directors able to conduct vision screening and referral; 32,226 children and 812 teachers, school directors and district education staff screened for visual impairment or disability. Of these, 2,866 children and 79 school staff were identified as needing further treatment; in –service teacher training manual on vision screening prepared in line with the MoEYS approved Visual Acuity Guidelines; recommendations on


development of Braille text books produced; recommendations for the improvement of a national system for identification, referral, treatment, and follow-up of children with visual disability or at high risk produced. Hearing Screening: 50 teachers, school directors and community representatives able to conduct basic hearing screening of Grade 1 children; approximately 2,070 Grade 1 children screened for hearing impairment or disability of these, 32 children were referred for further treatment; Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: Hearing screening activities were limited due to a scarcity of partners able to provide professional services especially in the provinces. During its final year, the project worked with Catholic Relief Services. Sustainability after the SESSP has finished: Follow up of teachers trained in vision screening during GPE 1 shows clear evidence that vision screening was sustainable even two years after the project finished. Therefore, there is no doubt that the vision screening activity will be sustainable. Sustainability is further strengthened by the adoption of the Visual Acuity guidelines and teacher training manual. Hearing screening, referral and treatment will continue using existing support services. Key Lessons Learned: Training teachers to conduct basic vision screening is a cost effective and sustainable way of providing the service to children of all ages, especially where it’s most needed in Grade 6. It is important for the school/ community to follow up referrals for further treatment. According to their teachers, children who received glasses improved their learning outcomes. It would be useful to conduct a study to evaluate the longer term impact of vision and hearing screening on student performance. Key Enabling Factors: Support from the Fred Hollows Foundation to train teachers in vision screening and prepare the teacher training manual; support from Catholic Relief Services to train teachers in hearing screening. Conclusion: The project was successful in that it achieved the PAD requirement to conduct hearing and vision screening. The vision screening intervention was extremely successful and will be sustainable. It also highlighted the need to act on results when children and individual adults are referred for further treatment.

1.2.3 Expansion of the school health program Objective: expansion of school health programs including printing and distribution of school health check-up booklets for all Grade 1 students, implementation of annual health check-up for all Grade 1 students, and provision of first aid kits for 3,000 schools.

Key Outputs achieved: Physical Health Check-Ups for a target of 138,815 (66,511 girls) Grade 1 students in 5 provinces was conducted. Of these 86% (87% girls) were reached by the screening; 3000 first aid kits distributed to primary schools together with training on how to use them. Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: Some health centers did not have enough professional staff and instruments to conduct the physical health check-ups effectively; some parents did not have enough resources to send their children to hospital and most schools could not provide such assistance.


Sustainability after the SESSP has Finished: Once the Inter-Ministerial Prakas on Health Check Up between the Ministry of Health and MoEYS is signed Grade 1 health screening will become fully sustainable as it will be mainstreamed into the MoEYS and health centre resources will gradually be increased. Key Lessons Learned: A high proportion of children screened presented with poor health conditions. 70% to 90% of children had dental caries and poor oral hygiene. Around 30 % of children were under weight, overall average BMI was 11 against a BMI target of 13–17. Nearly 3 % of children were found to need eye glasses. Approx. 10% of children had skin diseases. In all cases, the health check team advised the parents to refer their children to the Provincial hospital for further check-up and treatment. However more advocacy is needed at school, district and provincial level for parents, community and education staff to fully understand the impact of malnutrition, poor vision and hearing on children’s learning and school performance. Key Enabling Factors: Willingness of the Provincial and District Education offices as well as the target schools to participate in the pilot health screening of Grade 1 children without any additional payment; willingness of the operational district health center staff to travel to schools and conduct the screening; good team work and communications with the project management, procurement, finance and school health teams at central level; Conclusion: The project was successful in that it achieved the requirement to conduct Grade 1 health screening. It was noted that a development partner had supported the children with heart defects to gain the treatment they needed. In this case the project intervention had identified in the problem and a support had been found. Cooperation between the MoEYS and the MoH has increased during the project and this will strengthen support for school health interventions in the future. Component 2. Benchmarking Student Competencies Overall Objective: Support nationalizing Early Grade Reading and Mathematics Assessments (EGRA and EGMA) as well as training to school administrators and teachers in preparation for the nationwide administration of the assessment tests. Sub-components: 2.1. Implementing Nationwide Early Grade Mathematics Assessments (EGMA) and Reading (EGRA). 2.2 Support to National Assessment 2.1. Implementing Nationwide Early Grade Mathematics Assessments (EGMA) EGMA Objective: Introduce the teaching of conceptual mathematics in order to strengthen later skills development in science, technology, engineering and mathematics which are national skills shortages. Key Outputs Achieved: A Baseline survey of 8400 students at Grades 1, 2, 3 and 6, in 280 target schools in 14 districts of 8 provinces in April / May 2016 found that students in the early grades lack conceptual understanding of mathematics, but are good at procedural questions. An early grade mathematics implementation manual and guidelines were produced. By the end of the project 76% of Grade 1- 3 teachers who had attended the in-service training program, with strong follow- up support at school level, demonstrated an increased understanding of how to teach conceptual mathematics and manipulate numbers using estimation skills; fractions; place value; problem solving. Increased understanding of the teachers and use of new teaching methods resulted in increased performance of students when compared


with the base line. Grade 1 had a 5% improvement between base line and endline. Grade 2 had a 4% improvement between base line and endline. Grade 3 had a 4% improvement between base line and endline. Sustainability after the SESSP has Finished: The MoEYS is committed to improving and expanding the teaching of conceptual mathematics in early grades to strengthen Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics skills at higher grades in order to meet the national skills shortage identified by the 2015 Industrial Policy, the Higher Education Strategy and the Reform Agenda. The program has become mainstreamed and government funding has been earmarked to expand it gradually in the coming years. Therefore, the program has become sustainable. Key Lessons Learned: Working together with relevant stakeholders and development partners provided opportunities to discuss recommendations, failures and success and allow team members to reflect on their performance. Use of reflection as part of the teaching and learning process was a good lesson learned for the MoEYS EGMA team. On-the job support to follow up the training was a highly effective way of using monitoring funds and resulted in concrete recommendations for improvement. Key Enabling Factors: Professional support from an International TA to introduce the EGMA concepts and analyze the base line as well as the endline test results. Excellent collaboration between the MoEYS and development partners to prepare the operations manual and guidelines as well as to conduct the training Northbridge International School in particular provided invaluable technical support. Two staff from Northbridge trained the national trainers and then attended the teacher training workshop to support the trainers. Conclusion: Results of the endline tests indicate that interventions in Grades 1- 4 are the most effective as students develop the foundational skills needed for higher level mathematics. 2.1.1 Early Grade Reading Assistance (EGRA). EGRA Objective: Build on lessons learned in GPE 1 by working with a small group of schools providing on-the job-support to follow up on training and create example of good practice. Key Outputs Achieved: Training provided for 21,736 (7,847 females) Grade 2 teachers and stakeholders, 24,094 (7,594 females) Grade 3 teachers and stakeholders and 1,347 (207 females) DTMT trainers on use of the Khmer language textbook at Grade 2 and 3; awareness raised of the need for additional reading materials by introducing the Early Grade Reading technical support team to the BLOOM computer software program which can be used to produce low cost supplementary reading material at local level; 358 schools in 17 districts of 7 provinces targeted for monitoring support, testing and assessment. The final year test result showed that 68% children in target schools in Grade 3 could read with understanding at 45-60 words per minute against a project results indicator of 66.5. Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: The target for percentage of Grade 3 children reading at 45 – 60 words per minute was adjusted in the first year as the base line was computed on a limited sample. Schools need more funds to provide stimulating teaching and learning materials to encourage reading especially supplementary reading material. Textbooks are in short supply especially in more remote areas. This has cause slower progress in Preah Vihear and Mondulkiri.


Sustainability after the SESSP has Finished: Early grade reading assistance is already mainstreamed within the MoEYS and as such the project interventions are sustainable. However, since the project interventions have increased results against reading speed and teacher competency to teach reading the government has increased funding by 75,000 USD for 2017. Key Lessons Learned: On-the-job support from central offices accompanied by PoE and DoE staff to follow up training has shown to be effective and is appreciated by teachers and school directors; Disseminating results of the assessment test to teachers and stakeholders leads to a focused approach to improving teaching; a coordinated approach with a single set of messages for guiding, orienting and sharing teaching technique and tactics is the most effective way of helping teachers to improve the teaching of reading. Key Enabling Factors: A teamwork approach by PED, DCD, TTD and EQAD to assessing and supporting early grade reading has improved efficiency and effectiveness and is much appreciated at local level. Conclusion: The Early Grade Reading interventions funded by the project began with a series of in-service training for grade 2 and 3 teachers who missed out on the training in GPE 1. The interventions continued to build on the achievements of GPE 1. The next phase of development will include a focus on preparing and implementing a technical support project with RTI funded by USAID on preparation of a national Early Grade Literacy package as well as production of supplementary reading materials to encourage reading for pleasure. 2.2 Education Quality Assurance Department/ National Assessment Objective: Create a transparent, effective national assessment system Key Outputs Achieved: Finalization and roll out of national assessments at Grade 3, 6 and 8; dissemination of the test results to stakeholders to help them understand the strong points of their teaching as well as areas which need more attention; introduction of the Program for International Student Assessment (for developing countries) PISA – D. Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: Introduction of PISA –D is a new activity which was not in the original budget plan but savings from other budget lines enabled the project to fund initial key activities. Sustainability after the SESSP has Finished: The national assessments are already mainstreamed and as such they are sustainable. The MoEYS is committed to PISA –D and therefore development of the test will also be sustainable. Key Lessons Learned: Sharing the results of assessments with stakeholders is a highly effective way of encouraging improvements in performance. Narrative explanation of the assessment results is a crucial factor in helping stakeholders to understand the reality of the results and how to improve them. Key Enabling Factors: Consistent on the job and on-line support from the International TA has significantly helped to strengthen the team’s technical skills and knowledge. Strong support from the Ministry senior leaders has enabled the team to share assessment results transparently nation-wide. Conclusion: The overall continuity of approach and support from ministry leaders has enabled development of a very strong team which, at the end of the SESSP is able to manage the national assessment process, analysis and report writing as well as taking on the additional work for PISA-D in an


international environment without further assistance. Component 3: Improving Cambodia’s teaching Force Sub-Components: 3.1 School Director Training: 3.2 Inclusive Education Training: Overall Objective: Raising teacher quality in Cambodia by supporting the country to improve the performance of teachers and school directors in service 3.1 School Director Training Objective: Support improvement of school principal’s academic leadership to help improve effective management and academic direction at school level. Key Outputs Achieved: A National School Director Training Manual was adopted by the MoEYS covering: Management and leadership; Professional skills and Professional Teacher standards. 2474 School Directors were trained against a project target of 1,600. Results of the training were measured by a base line and endline evaluation against the 9 standards of the new M&E system. The results showed that all schools participating in the base –line and endline survey made progress. The majority of improved scores are against the following standards; 3: Parent support for student learning 4: Student support: eg: scholarships, first aid kits, student councils; 7: Teaching and learning materials; 8: School facilities and environment; 9: Financial management. The areas which made most progress coincide with other project interventions. These include the Early Childhood and Primary Education Departments focus on encouraging parental support, scholarships provided in the first year on the project which continue into subsequent years, first aid kits provided by the school health department, teaching and learning materials and financial management increased through better understanding of budget control from the finance department and school facilities / environment improved through construction of new buildings by the construction department. Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: The program has met its objectives mainly as a result of working collaboratively with other stakeholders and partners who were offering school director training. It took time to build a consensus and since the project duration was very short this limited the time available for implementation and review. However, the program has been very well received and feedback from participants shows that it’s much appreciated by school directors. Sustainability After the SESSP has Finished: The school director program has been officially adopted by the MoEYS. Government budget has been set aside for it to be institutionalized. Therefore, it is fully sustainable. Key Lessons Learned: Synergy with other providers has resulted in development of a holistic program of training with no conflicting messages. Working in partnership with others led to increases in the number of school directors trained by using Project, CDPF and PB funds. Key Enabling Factors: ADB, UNICEF and other stakeholders were willing to work together with MoEYS to create a holistic program by taking the best practice from a range of previous programs to create a nationally accepted MoEYS foundation program. This could then be enriched through provision of training by other key stakeholders. UNICEF /EU also agreed to use CDPF funding to support expansion of the training. Of the 13 school director training courses delivered during the project 6 were funded through SESSP, three by PB (Government funds) and four by CDPF. UNICEF has also agreed to fund expansion of


the program in 2017/18 through use of CDPF funds. Conclusion: The collaborative approach used to develop the program can be used as a good model and firm basis for further development in the coming years. 3.1.1 School Director Standards Objective: Establish a set of national standards as a basis for school director professional development Key Outputs Achieved: A set of 6 measurable performance standards for School Directors was adopted by the MoEYS in February 2017 Sustainability After the SESSP has Finished: The standards are officially adopted by the MoEYS and will be included in the school director training. They are therefore fully sustainable. The Standards will be used to assess capacity and management for appointment of school directors in the years to come. Key Lessons Learned: Building on previous examples such as the South – East Asia School Director Standards, and consultation at all levels, including with Development Partners was the key to successfully producing a set of standards which are acceptable to all stakeholders. Key enabling factors: Availability of funding from the SESSP to hold the final consultation workshops and prepare the standards for approval. Conclusion: The School Director Standards are complimentary to the Teacher Standards developed and adopted by the MoEYS as part of the GPE 1 project. The two sets of standards are a strong foundation for quality improvement at school level, as the focus for reform from 2017 onwards will be on strengthening school –based management. 3.2 Inclusive Education Training Objective: Build on the results of the GPE 1 survey to contribute to the on-going focus on improving school health as a key factor contributing to improved learning outcomes. Key Outputs achieved: This sub-component built on the work during GPE 1 where three modules were prepared for in – service training of teachers to identify children with hearing, vision and cognitive impairment or disability and refer them for further treatment. Using these modules 5,640 teachers were trained during the SESSP to identify and refer children with physical and/ or cognitive impairment against a project target of 2000. Sustainability After the SESSP has Finished: The in-service training modules have been adopted by the MoEYS and are ready for use. Conclusion: Establishing a mechanism to support children’s health care is a key factor in improving learning outcomes. This will be addressed as a priority when the inter-ministerial parkas on school health is signed Component 4. System Strengthening and Monitoring and Evaluation Overall expenditure for this Component 98.2% Sub-components:4.1.1 Construction of District Education Offices (see section 1.1 above); 4.1.2 Develop a unified Early Childhood and Primary Education sub-sector monitoring system. 4.1.3: Development of a new student tracking system; 4.2. Project Management, Monitoring and


Evaluation

4.1.2. Develop a unified Early Childhood and Primary Education sub-sector monitoring system. Key Outputs achieved: A new, easy to use, measurable monitoring and evaluation system has been developed and adopted by the MoEYS. The system has been launched nation -wide and forms the basis for results based planning. Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: The new monitoring and evaluation system is based on a consensus of performance standards for each sub-sector. Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary sub-sectors were initially included. Non-Formal education joined later. During the final months of the project, the School Health sub-sector prepared their service standards. Obtaining consensus from all key stakeholders in participating sub-sectors, including NGOs and development partners took time. This lead to delays in finalizing the system but it was officially launched in May 2017. Sustainability After the SESSP has Finished: The new Monitoring and Evaluation system developed as part of the SESSP has been adopted by the MoEYS. Therefore, it is fully sustainable. Key Lessons Learned: The new M&E system has created achievable but challenging service standards which will help to support the MoEYS new school –based management system. Key Enabling Factors: Willingness and enthusiasm of the MoEYS sub-sector representatives, NGOs and DPs to take a new approach to Monitoring and Evaluation; active support from the World Bank task team leader and senior MoEYS leaders. Conclusion: This intervention has produced an efficient, effective mechanism for schools, district and provincial offices to measure their own performance and prepare annual plans with realistic targets based on actual performance in line with the school –based management approach. It also enables central level MoEYS, to identify trends and focus scarce training resources in target areas where it is most needed. 4.1.3: Development of a new student tracking system to replace the existing paper-based student record keeping practice Key Outputs Achieved: A total of 10,000 students from Grades 3 – 12 in fifty schools in 7 provinces participated in the feasibility study on electronic student tracking. The schools were equipped with card readers and the target students scanned their cards every day when they entered the school and again when they left. Key Factors Affecting Successful Achievement of Objectives: Developing the software took time and caused a delay in conducting the study. The first data was entered at the start of school year 2016 / 17 which has left no time to follow up the results into a second year. Sustainability after the SESSP has Finished: The intervention itself is simple to use and has potential to provide real- time data. It was also very popular at school level. Funding from other projects is being sought for scale-up leading to longer term sustainability. Key Lessons Learned: One reason for the delay in starting the study was that the central level team


themselves had little experience of the type of software and IT support needed. The lesson to be learned is that to make the most effective use of short term funding such as GPE, interventions should be well planned and tightly managed. Key Enabling Factors: Availability of electricity and basic IT skills in the schools selected; willingness of the schools to participate in the pilot. Conclusion: It was envisaged that the card readers would eventually give clear information on student attendance, drop out and transition from one grade level to another. However, establishing the basic infrastructure and software necessary to begin the study took up the majority of the time available and few conclusions could be drawn on how effective the system might be. The majority of schools and parents included in the study were very supportive of it. Therefore, since the foundation work has been done it would be worth continuing the study in the original 50 schools for at least another 2 years to see the final results before contemplating an extension in coverage.

4.2. Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation Objective: To provide timely, effective overall direction and management to the SESSP implementation teams to achieve project targets and objectives. Key Outputs Achieved: Results framework restructured; budgets monitored and expenditure managed to ensure maximum efficient use of project funds in line with project priorities and project time lines; procurement of Goods, Works and Services planned and completed in line with project needs; semi- annual progress reports submitted to the Bank in a timely manner; field visits and meetings with the Bank and other interested parties organized as required; project management team meetings held as required to monitor construction and general project progress; positive and productive relations with the World Bank, GPE specialists and other development partners maintained; capacity of MoEYS central staff developed to manage and implement project activities in a timely manner in accordance with the project development objectives within the time frame allocated to the project; synergy between different areas of the project encouraged and facilitated. Lessons learned: The projects attention to strengthening structures and capacity at POE, DOE and school level has created a strong sustainable model for school based management at local level and created examples of good practice for others to follow. The shift from construction by contractors to construction by communities increased the quality of construction and saved money which was then used to add value to other project interventions. Retaining the project management, technical and administrative teams from GPE 1 meant that GPE 2 could quickly build on existing strengths to enhance the quality of project management and implementation. A key lesson learned is always to address problems as they arise in an open and transparent manner and always discuss problems with the Task Team Leader in the spirit of solving problems together. Sustainability: Ensuring sustainable outcomes has been a priority for all project activities. Key sustainable outcomes are described in all component activities above. Enabling factors: At the project level the main enabling factors to achieve success have been as follows: the dedication of the Project Director. He has the personal strength of character to be an excellent leader and manager, able to deal with staff issues and fully in control of what needs to be done, at the implementation, policy and highest levels in the ministry; an active, committed project manager and


project management team; support from the World Bank, particularly the Task Team Leader, the Procurement and Construction Specialists; well organized administrative and technical teams who understood their roles and responsibilities and had the skills and experience to ensure timely, effective, high quality implementation of their assigned duties; support from NGO partners including participation in the technical working groups on early grade reading and early grade mathematics. This support ensured that the interventions were rigorous enough for the results to be used in future planning. The Key Factors which Contributed to the Success of the SESSP included: Excellent leadership and management from MoEYS senior leaders, Project Director and Project Manager; strong support from the World Bank Task Team Leader; technical teams which had already built capacity during GPE were pro-active in implementing the project activities right from the start; an environment where communities support and embrace the development of education provision. Of these factors the first is the most important. A good leader makes sure that everyone understands the issues, works towards achievement of common goals, is not afraid to admit to problems and motivates staff to find positive ways to solve them. The SESSP was very fortunate to have these in the Project Director, Project Manager and the World Bank Task Team Leader.

Another key factor was a country context. As shown in the semi-annual reports from the technical departments and the results against performance indicators, the project exceeded target in reaching vulnerable populations. This is in part due to the current country context. The Royal Government of Cambodia has a comprehensive sector strategy to address challenges in education provision. There were significant improvements in education during years prior to the start of the project particularly in terms of early childhood care and development, net enrollment gains, the introduction of program based budgeting and development of the pro-poor policy framework. In addition to this the National Poverty Reduction Strategy and successive Education Strategic Plans have placed an emphasis on equitable access for all children to receive nine years of basic education.

There is also an environment which encourages productive relations between the development partners and the MoEYS. Regular meetings are held at the Joint Technical Working Group to discuss strategic issues and monitor achievement against objectives. The annual Joint Education Sector Review adds an analytical dimension to the annual Education Congress. This leads to clear comprehensive approaches to education provision and quality improvement, as well as realistic strategic plans, challenging but achievable goals and a policy framework against which to monitor achievement. Conclusion: The results against performance indicators and project outputs show that the project exceeded or met the majority of the targets. The section on sustainability evidences that the majority of project interventions are being mainstreamed by the MoEYS. Therefore, based on project performance, it can be said that the SESSP overall has successfully met the project development objectives.


ANNEX 6. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS (IF ANY)

1. World Bank (2017). Bank Guidance: Implementation Completion and Results Report (ICR) for

Investment Project Financing (IPF) Operations. Catalogue no. OPS5.03-GUID.140

2. World Bank (2014). Project Appraisal Document. Report no. PAD519.

3. Kingdom of Cambodia, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (2017). Implementation

Completion Report on the Second Education Sector Support Project.

4. Semi-Annual Reports on the Second Education Sector Support Project

5. Implementation Status and Results Reports

6. Aide-Memoires


ANNEX 7. Alternative Scenario of Using a Split Rating

In the main text of the ICR it is argued that the changes that took place in the restructuring were minor and a split rating was not required for the project. Specifically, (i) There were no changes to the wording of the PDO, (ii) The changes made to the PDO 2 indicator (revised baseline and end target values) did not lead to lowering the level of ambition, difficulty, or scope of the project; and (iii) These changes were specifically concerned with the project’s outputs targets, which should not trigger a split rating and which resulted from the project team’s effort to adopt better indicators by improving the representativeness of the data at the baseline, thereby allowing them to take a different and better path for achieving the project’s goals. A full explanation can be found in the section B. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES DURING IMPLEMENTATION. While the determination was made that a split rating is not required, a potential argument is that the change of baseline and target for PDO 2 - The Percentage of students in Grades 3 reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early Grade Reading Assessment - was large enough to warrant a split rating. The baseline was changed from 83.9 to 51.5 and the end target was reduced from 90 to 66.5. The reason for this big reduction is that the original values were based on EGRA results from a sample of students in the capital of Phnom Penh, whereas the new values were based on a national sample. The rating of High relevance and Substantial efficiency would not change based on the restructuring, but the efficacy of the project needs to be re-assessed. (1) Re-Assessment of Efficacy by Objective The objectives are considered primarily in relation to the PDOs, but also take into consideration the intermediate indicators and additional impact factors.

Objective 1: To expand access to ECE for 3-5 year olds. The key outcome indicators are:

PDO Indicators

• PDO 1: Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where 100 new formal

and 1,000 new community-based pre-school facilities are provided (all, girls)

Intermediate Indicators

• Number of children aged 3-5 reached by project supported ECE services

• Enrollment ratio of children aged 5 in the urban and rural districts where 100 new formal and

1,000 new community based preschool facilities are provided (all, girls)

• Number of Community ECE teachers and core parents reached by training and materials

supported by the project

Assessment: The PDO indicators were met. The Intermediate indicators on number of children reached

by project supported ECE services was met and the number of Community ECE teachers and core parents

reached was greatly exceeded, but enrollment ratio of children aged 3-5 was not met (because of

incorrect initial baseline and targets). The enrollment rates increased 20 percent more in project districts

than in non-project districts and, in particular, female enrollment rates increased at double the rate of

the non-project districts. The objective is given a Substantial rating.


Objective 2: To contribute to improved access to basic education, particularly for those from

disadvantaged backgrounds. The key outcome indicators are:

PDO Indicators

• PDO 4: Lower Secondary enrollment rate (all, girls)

Intermediate Indicators

• Number of students receiving project financed scholarships

• Number of teachers completing training on disability screening

• Average age of students entering grade 1

• Number of District Offices of Education constructed

Assessment: The PDO indicators were met and had substantially exceeded the targets. All of the

intermediate indicators were also met, with the number of recipients having often substantially exceeded

the targets. In addition, the scholarship program played an important role in helping children from

disadvantaged backgrounds stay in school, with impressive reductions in dropout to being well below the

national average (9.2 national vs only 2.0 for scholarship recipients). In addition, the scholarship students

had better learning outcomes compared to the national average, which is particularly impressive given

their disadvantaged status. Another important aspect is that the government fully took over the

scholarship program after the first year, contributing to true sustainability and capacity. Considering both

the achievement of targets and the wider impacts, Objective 2 is given a High rating.

Objective 3: To contribute to improved quality of basic education, particularly for those from

disadvantaged backgrounds. The key outcome indicators are:

PDO Indicators

• PDO 2: Percentage of students in Grade 3 reaching 45-60 words per minute on the Early Grade

Reading Assessment

• PDO 3: Percentage of primary teachers applying effective EGRA teaching methods as defined by

classroom observation criteria

Intermediate indicators

• EGMA rolled out in 5 provinces

• Percentage of ECE formal services rated as level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood

education environment indicators through classroom-observation evaluation (50 FPS)

• Percentage of ECE formal services rated as level 5 overall on the adjusted early childhood

education environment indicators through classroom-observation evaluation (100 CBPS

selected)

• System for learning assessment at the primary level

• Number of principals completing leadership training

• Utility of the learning assessment system

• Roll out of Grades 3, 6, and 8 National Assessments (each assessment once during the project

lifecycle) and publication of their results

• Teachers recruited or trained


Assessment: PDO 2 was the indicator restructured with lower baseline and end targets. The original target

would have been missed, but the revised target was achieved. PDO 3 would have still been greatly

achieved. All of the intermediate indicators were achieved. Considering the original targets and how only

one of the two PDO indicators was achieved (but that all the intermediate indicators were achieved) the

pre-restructuring objective 3 was given a Substantial rating. For the revised targets, both PDO indicators

were met, along with the intermediate indicators and the post-restructuring objective 3 was again given

a Substantial rating.

(2) Determination of Overall Outcome Ratings In considering the ratings both pre-restructuring and post-restructuring, an overall Efficacy rating of Substantial is given in both cases. While the objective 3 rating is reduced to Modest using the original targets, when combined with the Substantial and High ratings of objectives 1 and 2, the result is Substantial. For the post-restructuring, the objective 3 rating is increased to Substantial. When combined with the other objective ratings, the result is still Substantial. The project had disbursed 81.9% by the time of restructuring. (There were substantial bureaucratic delays in the restructuring process, as explained in section B. KEY FACTORS DURING IMPLEMENTATION, and when the restructuring was proposed, only 46% had been disbursed.)

Table 4. Calculations for Outcome Rating under a Split Rating

Rating Dimension Before Restructuring After Restructuring

Relevance of Objectives High

Efficacy

Objective 1: To expand access to ECE for 3-5 year olds

Substantial Substantial

Objective 2: To contribute to improved access to basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds

High High

Objective 3: To contribute to improved quality of basic education, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Substantial Substantial

Overall Efficacy Substantial Substantial

Efficiency Substantial

Outcome Rating Satisfactory Satisfactory

Outcome Rating Value 5 5

Amount Disbursed (US$ million) 31.5 38.5

Disbursement (%) 81.9% 18.1%

Weight Value (Outcome rating value x Share of disbursement)

4.1 . 0.9

Final Outcome Rating Satisfactory (4.1 + 0.9 = 5.0)

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