End of project performance evaluation of the improved basic education in Cambodia project : promoting better educated youth in Cambodia with increased access to a quality and relevant basic education

More specifically, the IBEC project is to increase lower secondary school enrollments, retention, and completion rates, providing Cambodia"s adolescent youth population with an opportunity to be better educated and lead productive lives. The IBEC project targets selected schools in three provinces, Kampong Cham, Kratie and Siem Reap. There are four inter-related, mutually reinforcing, and complementary components to achieving this overarching goal. These four main components include: (1) local NGO and government capacity building & advocacy for sustainability; (2) more equitable school access; (3) improved school management and community involvement; and (4) improved educational relevance. The development hypothesis underlying the IBEC project is that a more relevant curriculum, combined with better trained teachers and school managers would encourage more students to attend lower secondary school and to stay long enough to complete the lower secondary cycle. Improved physical facilities (wells for drinking water, sanitary latrines, life skills laboratories, etc.) were also believed to play a positive role in inducing students to attend and remain in school. In addition, a limited number of scholarships would directly help vulnerable youth obtain a quality education. In total, these improvements were to create a better educated youth population who will have a knowledge base more relevant to the economic needs of Cambodia, with skills more compatible with the demands of the local job market. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the project"s accountability and extent to which it was able to meet its intended objectives at all result levels. The evaluation also documents lessons learned and best practices, as well as providing recommendations to inform evidence-based future programming. The evaluation questions guiding this performance evaluation were: (1) to what extent did the project achieve its objectives; (2) among all the interventions implemented by the partner, identify the interventions that have been the most effective in achieving the project objectives; (3) what are key lessons learned? The end-of-project performance evaluation provides evidence to confirm that IBEC largely achieved its objectives to improve access, quality and relevance of basic education in Cambodia. Specific evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations are provided with detailed analysis for each evaluation question. (Excerpt, modified)