Outline of the Project

In Cambodia, the Pol Pot regime destroyed the human resource development system between 1975 and 1979 by abolishing schooling and carrying out a purge of competent personnel including teachers and intellectuals. After the collapse of Pol Pot, the government tried to rehabilitate its education administration in order to strengthen human resource development. However, it still faces challenges, such as, high dropout rates, and few capable teachers, which directly affects the quality of education. One serious problem is the lack of experienced personnel in science and mathematics education and a lack of donor support to rectify this situation. Because these personnel are important for advancing Cambodian industry in the future, urgent interventions are necessary to ensure the quality of education in these fields.

From August 2000 to March 2005, JICA implemented the Secondary School Teacher Training Project in Science and Mathematics in Cambodia (STEPSAM) for the National Institute of Education (NIE), which is a secondary teacher training organization and one of the counterparts for this project. The objective of STEPSAM was improvement of NIE's function and ability in science and mathematics education. The STEPSAM team achieved its objective by providing training for NIE science and mathematics teachers, INSET, and development and distribution of a science experiment manual that refers to the use of local materials. On the other hand, several problems in the science and mathematics curriculum at upper secondary level were recognized through the implementation of STEPSAM. Those were the following: (1) the science and mathematics curriculum includes overly difficult and advanced content for upper secondary grade level students, and (2) there is insufficient linkage between each unit. As for textbooks, (1) they lack important concept, (2) terminologies and signs are not unified in each grade, and (3) there is not concrete explanation with figures and tables but only abstract guidance. Moreover, referring to the teacher's manuals, there is a lack of explanation or consistency and there are insufficient science experiment examples and exercises that could help teachers design interesting and understandable lectures. Therefore, revision of textbooks and teacher's manuals are necessary matters in Cambodia.

Due to a high appreciation of the activities carried out by STEPSAM, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS), Cambodia requested the Japanese government for a new technical cooperation in curriculum and textbook revision of science and mathematics at upper secondary level.

The objective of the Project is "establishment of the system in MoEYS for science and mathematics curriculum and textbook development at upper secondary level". The ultimate goal is "formulation of the mechanism for regular re-evaluation and revision of curriculum and textbook at upper secondary level".