Mijn 'placement' zoals ze dat hier noemen, bestaat de eerste zeven weken uit introductie en taallessen Khmer (vier uur per dag). Vanaf 5 november ga ik echt met mijn baan hier beginnen. Ik ga samen met twee VSO collega's, Carol (Education Manager), Phillip (Accountant) uit Londen voor het ministerie van onderwijs, jeugd en sport werken, ikzelf in de rol van management adviser.

Het voornaamste doel van ons project is het decentraliseren van management-, planning- en organisatietaken van het ministerie naar de provinciale kantoren (Provincial Office of Education) door middel van capacity building van met name POE-directors. Dit project is een pilotproject met een looptijd van vijf jaar, wat dus 5 november van start zal gaan. Afhankelijk van deze pilot zal worden gekeken of decentralisatie landelijk haalbaar is. We zullen daarom zowel vaak bij het ministerie in Phnom Penh aanwezig zijn, als bij de provinciale kantoren van de (drie) provincies waar we de pilot gaan uitvoeren.

We hebben al van verschillende kanten gehoord dat de verwachtingen voor ons project hoog gespannen zijn. Tot nu toe is VSO heel actief geweest in het heropbouwen van het onderwijssysteem in Cambodja, maar deed ze dit met name op operationeel of tactisch niveau, zoals het trainen van docenten en het begeleiden van schoolhoofden in het besturen van hun school. Daarnaast werd er op provinciaal niveau het één en ander gedaan aan onderwijsinhoudelijke begeleiding. Dit project is echter het eerste project dat VSO Cambodia op strategisch niveau uit zal gaan voeren. 

Het is dus kort gezegd een pilotproject om management en planning te decentraliseren vanuit het ministerie naar POE's en later tevens naar districtskantoren. Het wordt gefinancierd door Unicef en de Asian Bank, dus we hebben er een behoorlijk budget voor gekregen. Ergens is dat heel positief, we zullen in ieder geval geen middelen tekort komen om ons doel te bereiken, maar anderszijds betekent dat natuurlijk ook dat we financierders in ons nek hebben hijgen, terwijl we in het begin juist aardig wat tijd kwijt zullen zijn om het onderwijssysteem en de cultuur waarin dat werkt te begrijpen. Dat zal dus nog zwaar onderhandelen worden over de termijn waarop we resulaten moeten leveren. Verder geeft het ministerie ook nogal wat gewicht aan dit project: de minister (tevens vice-premier) heeft in zijn laatste persconferentie nogmaals het belang van de decentralisatie van managementvaardigheden naar POE's benadrukt. Dus ook vanuit die hoek zal de nodige druk komen.

Daarnaast verwacht ik aardig wat weerstand vanuit het ministerie (de ambtenaren) tegen het decentralisatieplan; onderdelen waar zij voorheen verantwoordelijk voor waren, worden nu gedecentraliseerd naar de POE's, wat uiteraard vrij bedreigend kan zijn. POE directors daarentegen zullen ook niet echt staan te juichen om meer verantwoordelijkheden op zich te nemen; meestal zijn het parttime boeren die het vaste inkomen vanuit het ministerie zien als een gemakkelijk basisinkomen ($ 20 per maand) maar die hier niet al te veel tijd en/of energie in willen steken.

Al met al nogal wat strubbelingen te verwachten dus! Maar ook al zal ons project veel weerstand oproepen en heeft het misschien reeds onrealistische verwachtingen gecreeerd, ik geloof toch nog absoluut in de noodzaak ervan. Dus wat dat betreft zullen we er zeker het beste van gaan maken! 

Hieronder een samenvatting van mijn functie en de doelen die hieraan zijn gekoppeld voor de komende twee jaar.

Placement description

Job title:             POE Adviser
Employer:          Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS)
Address:            Department of Planning
                            MoEYS
                            Phnom Penh

Country:            CAMBODIA

This placement forms part of a new VSO pilot programme in Cambodia that is attempting to support the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) to implement part of its Education Strategic Plan (ESP).

The main thrust of the ESP is to decentralise much of MoEYS work and move it from the central level out to the provinces, and then through to the districts. This process will therefore require a substantial amount of training and planning support to these provincial offices as they take on these new activities.

VSO is assisting the government through the placement of three volunteers as Provincial Education Advisers (PEAs). As a group these PEAs will be expected to offer managerial, accountancy, planning and administration training support to the POEs. 

These three placements are all identical in the first stage of this new project and are all based in Phnom Penh. As they are centrally based though, they will entail considerable amounts of traveling out to provincial towns (using MoEYS vehicles).

However we are not expecting each volunteer to have all the skills outlined above. Ideally we would like an experienced accountant, and education planner/manager, and management adviser. Together these volunteers could then undertake the activities listed below as a team. 

ESSENTIAL

a) ACCOUNTANT or FINANCIAL MANAGER with at least 3 years experience, preferably with some management experience

OR

b) EDUCATION MANAGER /PLANNING EXPERT with a minimum of three years work experience in either education management and planning or international/education development

OR

c) MANAGEMENT ADVISER with a strong management background including of an organisation or business. Experience in planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of programmes/projects, or facilities management would be useful.

MANAGEMENT ADVISER:

Personal qualities required (including examples and any key selection dimensions)
Although co-ordination and support for these posts will come from the central Department of Planning in Phnom Penh, the volunteer may need, at certain times, to able to organise a lot of their work with little outside technical support. Patience, perseverance and dedication are definite assets and a sense of humour a must.

Corruption is also a huge problem in the Provincial departments and this may impact on the work of the volunteers. Teachers or staff selected for training are not always the ones who are the most suitable to be trained, usually they are selected because they are owed a favour or it is their turn. 

Positive and realistic commitment – the volunteer should not under-estimate the consequences of the fact that the government pays a very low salary ($20 - $25per month) to POE and DOE staff at all levels. In order to survive on this salary in a country where $150 per month is a more realistic cost of living, second jobs are the norm. In order for staff to make a living, their work in government offices usually takes second place to more lucrative activities (e.g. teaching private classes, market stall holders and farming in the districts) in terms of the amount of energy they are willing to put into government activities and any training programmes. The volunteer should be sympathetic to these staff for their need to earn extra money to live on.

Sensitivity to the Needs of Others - For this position, the volunteer will need good communication skills. S/he will need to be sensitive to the working and living conditions of Cambodian colleagues and must be able to empathise with their personal situations. This might at times seem at odds with having to encourage their colleagues to put time and effort into learning new skills. 

There will probably be many demands made on the volunteer to teach extra English classes to a variety of people. This is not part of the mainstream job and training should be avoided. In this respect, the volunteer will need to be someone who is able to identify his/her own limitations and to have the confidence to say ‘no’, when necessary, with tact and diplomacy. 

Self Assurance - The government system in Cambodia is very vague and the volunteer should be prepared for a working environment where it is never really obvious who takes decisions and how they come about. For example, dates for the beginning and end of term, public holidays and exams may be known, but you may need to ask the right person to get this information as they may forget to let you know. 

The line management of the volunteer is relaxed and s/he is often working quite autonomously. The day-to-day management of the volunteer will be the responsibility of the Deputy Director of Planning (Planning Office) and directors of provincial education departments. Co-ordination and planning of volunteer input will also be from the Department of Planning with assistance from another volunteer working in that department. The presence of minimum resources and often poor communication will require a certain personal application, resilience and unflagging patience. 

Flexibility and Adaptability – The volunteer will be required to work with several different groups of people – staff at the central level Ministry in the Department of Planning, the Directors and staff of the POEs, senior staff at the schools, local colleagues, as well as possibly teachers. In order to approach all of these people at the appropriate level, the volunteer will need to be self-assured and tactful.

Language requirement - The language of the offices is Khmer, although French is spoken by some of the older staff. A knowledge of, and a willingness to, learn Khmer is important both for professional and social use. A comprehensive 6-week Khmer language and cultural orientation course will be given to all volunteers on arrival in country.

Objectives of the placement (to be reviewed by the volunteer, employer and programme office once the volunteer is in their placement)

OBJECTIVE 1:
undertake a needs analysis of MoEYS staff at POE level with respect to current and proposed new functions of these offices. Decentralisation will mean many staff will have to do jobs in which they have never had any experience or formal training. Volunteers will help in the design this analysis and then may carry it out themselves or enlist assistance from POE staff or elsewhere.

OBJECTIVE 2:
devise and implement a training programme for MoEYS staff across the provinces of this pilot project. This programme will probably involve a mixture of volunteer, as well as locally recruited, trainers. It may also be possible for the Provincial Education Advisers to contract volunteers from other placements to run skills specific courses.

OBJECTIVE 3:
review the management and administration activities and structures within the POEs and make recommendations for change, based on information gleaned from the needs analysis and MoEYS decentralisation plans.

OBJECTIVE 4: (this objective may be subsumed into the previous ones as appropriate)
develop a financial training package for use in POEs (in Khmer) that allows them to cope with the increased demands of decentralised fund management and enables them to produce more effective resource allocations.

OBJECTIVE 5:
evaluate the current planning cycle and identify problem areas and suggest solutions to enable the management, administration and financial activities of the POEs to be as pro-active as possible.

OBJECTIVE 6:
design a progress monitoring system for the whole POE support programme, including a reporting system, to enable measurement of impact and improvement over the course of the programme.