Although its civil war ended more than 20 years ago, Cambodia still struggles with the legacy of that era, including poorly trained human resources, a fragile legal environment, weakened social structures, and an infrastructure that is far behind other countries in the region. More than 50% of the population is under age 18, and only about a third of youth make it to the end of the basic education cycle (Grade 9). A national teacher shortage of approximately 14,000 ensures that educational quality remains very low. In addition, a poorly trained and under-resourced education roster of education professionals, coupled with a largely unskilled, poorly prepared workforce and high rates of internal migration, point to the need for further development of its education sector to meet the needs of in-school youth, out-of-school youth, and rural adults in formal education and non-formal education, including life skills and livelihoods.
World Education initially began its work in Cambodia in 1991, and since then has implemented a number of projects to work with the Cambodian government and local organizations to face the country’s many challenges. Click here to read more about our current and past projects.