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From the CSCN survey results it appears that one of the biggest challenges regarding
education of street children/youth is to actually keep them in the system once enrolled.
Despite the average age of the street children/youth participating in the questionnaire
survey being 14.3 years, the average education completion rate of the children/
youth above the age of 6 is only 2.9 years - indicating high drop-out rates within the
Cambodian street children/youth population. Consequently, this tendency impacts on
the generally low enrolment rates in both lower and higher secondary education. Even
with the extensive efforts offered by the CSCN partners in terms of remedial education,
thus teaching skills aiming to reintegrate street children/youth into public school, the
progress in combating the low completion rates still remains a challenge. In this regard
it might be relevant to discuss: What are the main obstacles keeping the education
completion rate of the Cambodian street children/youth population at a relatively low
level? And, how can these obstacles be addressed so as to improve the average
completion rate and level of education of the street children/youth?
Theme IV: Scavenging and Begging as Main Income Generating Activities
Once on the streets, the Cambodian children/youth engage in a wide array of activities
in order to make a livelihood for themselves or their families. Across all the CSCN
locations, one activity in particular stood out as income generator – scavenging. On
average 65.9 percent of the street children/youth participating in the questionnaire
survey make a living as scavengers, with the highest percentage in Poipet and Neak
Loeung, at 83.8 and 81.7 percent respectively, and the lowest in Kampong Cham
at 40.3 percent. Generally there has been an increase in the number of scavengers
when comparing the results to the 2008 questionnaire survey. Several factors serve to
explain this tendency, though central to these is the growing demand for recyclables in
Cambodia (bottles, cans, cardboard etc.). Additionally, the economic boom in Phnom
Penh and its fast growing number of inhabitants have also fuelled the trash trade and
the demand for waste scavengers.
According to Mith Samlanh in Phnom Penh, some 70 percent of the scavengers in the
capital are children and they make one to two dollars per day for 14-16 hours of work.
Moreover, waste scavenging is associated with great health risks and child scavengers
CSCN
114 CSCN Street Children Profile 2009