Grade 2 children and their new textbooks at Wath Tmet Primary School, Kandal Province.
Cambodian children are hungry for education.
But textbooks have been a scarce commodity, with four to five students often having to share the same book if they were lucky. About 28 million textbooks and 500,000 teacher guides will be developed and provided to primary and lower secondary school students and teachers when the Project is completed in October 2001. The goal is to enable each student to have his or her own book instead of having to share. International research indicates that textbook availability is key to improving students achievements and the quality of education. As a result of this Project, about 22 million textbooks and 500,000 teachers man- uals have already been distributed.