A new partnership has been launched between the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) and The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), to extend the reach of the Higher Education Improvement Project. The project aims to address the growing demand for high quality early childhood education specialists in Cambodia and advance research and development in the field. The partnership agreement and amendment were signed in December 2021 between Dr Chet Chealy, Rector of RUPP, and Professor Stephen Cheung Yan-leung, President of EdUHK.

The Department of Higher Education of RUPP has been selected by the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) to partner with the Department of Early Childhood Education of EdUHK, to implement the ‘Cambodia Early Childhood Education Project’. The two universities will collaborate to organise activities related to early childhood education learning and teaching, research, and knowledge transfer. 

The project involves two phases. Phase I will adopt a train-the-trainer model while Phase II will emphasise curriculum development, research, knowledge transfer and dissemination.

The University will offer nine courses to RUPP educators and MoEYS senior staff. Three of the Cambodian educators will be given the opportunity to enrol in an MEd programme at EdUHK. These participants will be the trainers in Phase II of the project, contributing to building a critical mass of early childhood education specialists in Cambodia.

The University will also support RUPP to design and develop the curriculum of courses for an MEd and a top-up Bachelor of Education programme. Research will be focused on two thematic areas: (1) documenting the customisation process of the various courses and programmes; and (2) examining the effectiveness and impact of programmes on the practice of Cambodian early childhood education practitioners.

With the quality input from EdUHK, RUPP can establish an early childhood education curriculum at a high standard with consideration to Cambodia’s social and ethnic diversity, which makes dissemination of early childhood education knowledge consistent and systematic. It is a cost-effective way for Cambodia to build up a significant number of highly qualified practitioners in a short period of time. In the foreseeable future, it fosters knowledge exchange between the practitioners and trainers across the two countries.