The Girl-Child and Government Service Provision.pdf - Tanzania ...

Literacy and educationAdult literacy in Cambodia (the percentage of the populationover 15 years of age who can read and write) is estimatedat 67.3 per cent. However, there are significant differencesin rates for males and females and for people living inrural and urban areas. In urban areas 88.3 per cent of malesare literate; the corresponding level for females is 70.8per cent. In rural areas, where there is less access toschools, 77.6 per cent of males are literate, and the gap betweenthe male and female rates grows to 23.3 per cent.The teenage and young adult literacy rate of 81.6 per centis significantly higher, as a result of increased access to educationover the past 10 years. Literacy rates decline withage, and for females they decline at a significantly more rapidrate than for males. For the age group 55–64 years, male literacyis more than three times that of females. The averageyears of schooling of adults in Cambodia is low, with femaleshaving an average of three years and males an average of 4.7years.The quality of primary schooling is very low, and governmentfunding for education is equivalent to only 1 per centof the GDP. Donors/NGO financing and parental/communitycontributions finance approximately 75 per cent of thereal costs for primary-school education. Only 46 per centof the villages have a primary school in the village, and theaverage distance for rural children to travel to a school is4.9 kilometres. Rural schools often have poor facilities, withonly 25 per cent having toilet and water facilities. Manyteachers are poorly trained and school classes are overcrowded,with the average student-teacher ratio for primaryschools between 48:1 and 55:1.The country has a high gross enrolment rate, and large numbersof children begin school, although many start a fewyears later than the official starting age of six years. However,the net enrolment rate is low due to large repetitionand drop-out rates. The Cambodian Socio-Economic Survey(1997) showed that 66 per cent of primary-school-age children(6–11 years) were enroled; however, this rapidly declinedas ages increased, with only 14 per cent of 12–14 yearolds remaining enroled in lower secondary and 7 per centof 15–17 year olds enroled in upper secondary, whilst postsecondaryenrolments were only 1 per cent. The secondaryschoolenrolment rate is amongst the lowest in the world.High drop-out rates, particularly in rural areas, are linked to anumber of factors, including: the ongoing inability of parentsto incur costs associated with schooling, children withdrawingto support family income-generating activities, parentalattitudes to the value of education and lack of accessto schools.School enrolment data also reveal significant differencesin rates of enrolment for girls and boys. In primaryschool the differences are less pronounced, with a 3.5per cent difference in the net enrolment rates for boysand girls. However, by the time children reach upper secondarythe disparity is 69 per cent in favor of boys. Atthe post-secondary level the ratio of boys to girls is430:1. Lower rates of enrolment by girl children relate toa number of factors, including traditional views on genderroles, the need for girl children to assist their mothers athome, the need to care for young siblings, and the largedistances that must be traveled to school, particularly inthe case of secondary schools, which in rural areas average40 minutes away. Security during travel is a major concernfor parents of girl children, and girls are unable toaccess accommodation at pagodas or monasteries closerto schools as boys often can.Because education is a primary catalyst for both social andeconomic development, the government needs to face thechallenges of redirecting funding to social sectors, includingeducation; increasing the accessibility and quality ofschool facilities; increasing the quality and salaries ofteachers and improving coordination of the education departmentswithin the Ministry of Education, Youth andSports. 9AccessInformation from the survey shows that families in the urbanarea mostly recorded having two school-age children.Larger families were noted in the province, where threeschool-age children was the most common response.Twenty per cent of families surveyed had five or moreschool-age children.The oldest girl in the family was more likely to go to schoolthan boys (46 per cent compared to 38 per cent). However,more boys in the family were likely to go to school thangirls. Differences emerged in the spacing between the firstof two boys attending school and the first of two girls. Boysindicate 38 and 23 percent, girls 46 and 16 per cent with aspace of 20 per cent. This is one indication of the higherpriority and access boys have to education.14 The Girl-Child and Government Service Provision