Improving education service delivery in Cambodia

Cambodia's Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports (MoEYS) needed to invest in upgrading its capacities to deliver high-quality education services to its citizens who have high expectations and aspirations in relation to education. The overall objective of the assignment was to deliver a comprehensive functional review of sufficient depth and quality to guide the prioritisation of the public administration reform processes in the education sector aimed at improving education service delivery.

Challenge

The MoEYS is a very large and diverse organisation of over 100,000 staff. The central ministry has a staff of over 3,000, with approximately half of these officers located in the seven central directorates and 35 departments. Many of these departments having evolved through an iterative process over years, there was a need to identify whether core functions of the MoEYS are adequately serviced, and whether there is unanticipated overlap between departments.

Our approach

We reviewed the official mandates of each of the departments, the perceived mandates as understood by the staff, and perceptions of their efficacy in delivering on given mandates. This review provided a map of official and perceived functions and identified core competencies in which departmental staff identified needing further support.

Outcome and wider impacts

The review provided the basis for:

• recommendations for how the MoEYS may be reorganised to improve effectiveness and efficiency;
• identified professional development needs; and
• a database for prospective national, regional, and international providers that may meet these needs.

A core recommendation, adopted by the MoEYS, was the use of a coaching model of capacity development, in order to leverage expertise within the MoEYS.

This review was completed with support from Kosal Chea, Rottanak Theam, Russell Craig, and Ashley Irving.