Eyeing at the drastic fall in the enrollment of girls in secondary school level, Asian Development Bank grant US$800,000 to help increase access to upper secondary education for poor girls in Cambodia through the provision of residential facilities with media learning centres. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Barbara Lochmann, an ADB Social Development Specialist said that the evidence shows that the expansion of such residential facilities to learning centres, which provide life skills training through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), has the potential to broaden the knowledge of girls, thus improving their chances of career development. The enrollment rates for secondary education have dropped drastically over the last six years to 17percent for boys and 8 percent for girls in upper secondary grades. Poor families cannot afford to keep their daughters in school. In addition, for reasons of personal security, girls are generally not permitted to travel long distances and live away from families to attend upper secondary schools because there are no secure residential facilities away from home.
