Early Childhood Education in Cambodia

Since the early 1990s, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has been developing national policies and plans to address many of the country’s development needs. Under the national development framework, the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS), in collaboration with development partners, has produced a range of targeted initiatives to support comprehensive educational reform, including in the early childhood education (ECE) sector. Despite the government’s strong commitment, the ECE sector continues to face significant challenges. The sector has rapidly expanded over the past 20 years, and a system of public preschools is now firmly established. However, there remains a considerable gap between aspirations and achievements due to insufficient inputs (human, financial, physical, and teaching and learning materials). This gap is especially evident in the community-based preschools established to support families in poorer and more remote parts of the country. The way forward to realizing goals identified in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals agenda requires more investment in the sector and better management support.