NEW GENERATION SCHOOL (NGS)

The New Generation School (NGS) initiative is being implemented jointly by KAPE and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS). This is the first time a civil society partner has been funded directly by MoEYS for a major reform initiative. The Ministry has committed to total funding of almost $1 million for this initiative.

The New Generation School initiative is one of 15 national reforms being implemented by MoEYS. The NGS reform focuses on creating the conditions for successful investment by creating a special accreditation process that ensures high standards of internal governance. This particular reform seeks to create schools that will prepare Cambodian youth to compete in the 21st Century marketplace by strengthening learning in the STEM subjects.

New Generation Schools are like Charter Schools, which will enjoy a high degree of autonomy in exchange for outstanding performance and innovation. Investments will promote a major role for technology in teaching and learning, constructivist learning, professional learning communities among teachers, modernised learning environments. KAPE is working closely with Ministry to both facilitate actual implementation on the ground as well as create a policy guideline structure that will facilitate replication by other donors. 

The goals and outputs of the project are as follows:

Long Term Goal: To create educational development models with ‘maximal’ (as opposed to ‘minimum’) learning standards that lead to the emergence of a new generation of Cambodian public schools which exemplify good governance, high professional standards, and high quality learning standards.

Immediate Objective: To identify and introduce effective governance principles used in the private sector to the public school system by using a public-private partnership management model involving a high degree of local autonomy as the implementing vehicle that will in turn promote sustainable child friendly learning environments of exceptional quality to the rural and urban poor.

Outputs: The project envisions the completion of a number of discrete outputs during two phases of implementation that will help inform efforts to replicate an evolving model in other locations. Stage 1 will focus on planning, mapping potential NGS sites, consultations with stakeholders, and the development of implementation manuals and investment plans in selected schools. Stage 2 will focus on the implementation of the manuals and investment plans developed as part of Output 1. Proposed outputs include the following: