Who Wants to Teach in Cambodia?

Abstract

In many countries, teaching is a challenging but rewarding occupation, desired for its flexibility and the ubiquity of schools and thus potential jobs, but avoided for its low pay and variable working conditions. Teaching in Cambodia is doubly challenged as a consequence of the policies of the Khmer Rouge regime, which targeted teachers. Estimates are that 80 percent or more of the teaching force was killed or left the country (Ayres 2000). Although considerable time has passed, development of a well-trained and motivated teacher corps has been difficult because of constrained budgets, lack of training capacity, and the relatively low priority given to teaching as a profession by high school graduates. Teacher salaries are low—as low as 60 percent of the employees in other sectors with comparable qualification, and so many teachers survive by offering tutoring for a fee after school hours (see Brehm, this volume). At the same time, many teachers are inspired by the importance of their work. In our anonymous survey discussed in this chapter, very high percentages of teachers in training gave service as their primary reason for joining the profession. Yet many of them did not see themselves staying in the profession for the duration of their working lives. Teaching has always provided a way into postsecond-ary education and white-collar work for young people from low-income families as well as a Plan B for those of more affluent families, in case more lucrative opportunities fail to materialize.

It should be noted that education statistics must be examined with great care since it is believed that in some cases of on-site data collection librarians and clerical employees are counted as teachers due to an unclear distinction between teachers and nonteaching school employees. Behind this phenomenon is the reality that it is difficult to hire and retain nonteaching school employees without treating them as teachers due to their low salaries and long working hours. Improvement is required in this regard (EC Technical Advisory Team, 2006).