1. Introduction

Community Teacher Boards are local committees that are set up to supervise the management of what are known as Community Teachers. Many countries such as Cambodia face serious teacher shortages in the state schools. One way of addressing this problem is for communities to recruit teachers locally who meet basic educational requirements to teach young children. The identification and supervision of these teachers is done by a Community Teacher Board. The individuals who sit on these boards may be selected from existing bodies (e.g., School Support Committees, Commune EFA Commissions) or if such bodies do not exist, they may simply be elders and respected individuals from the local village. The most important functions of a Community Teacher Board include recruitment, payment, and supervision of the teachers.

2. Primary Objectives

• To encourage community school partnerships.
• To ensure community members (through CEFAC) are involved in selecting CTs who will be best able to meet the needs of the children.

3. Target group

• Community Members
• Community Teachers
• Children in classrooms taught by Community Teachers

4. Information on implementation

The establishment of Community Teacher Boards should build on existing local bodies if these exist. For example, board members may be members of existing School Support Committees, Commune EFA Commissions, or other local committees. If these bodies do not exist, communities may simply opt to choose respected members of the local village or commune. The board members should receive training from a sponsorship group (such as a project) in order to help them understand the function of the boards and what expectations they must fulfill. Training workshops for Community Teacher Boards also generally cover topics relating to (i) educational policy (e.g., Child Friendly Schools, EFA, etc.), (ii) Community Teacher Recruitment methods, and (iii) overall oversight of the teachers. When recruiting Community Teachers, the boards should ensure that selections of individuals are made transparently and in accordance with agreed criteria (e.g., a minimum number of years of basic education, previous teaching experience, good health, knowledge of local languages, etc.). Announcements for Community Teacher recruitment should also be public and not conveyed only through family or personal networks. When teachers are selected, the Boards must provide oversight to the teachers and take responsibility for regular payment. Payments may be provided by a project or if the community is providing payment in kind (e.g., rice). Payments to teachers should occur regularly by board members and properly recorded for reporting purposes, especially if the funds come from an external project. A board may need to negotiate with a project a small support grant to cover transportation costs to go to schools to make payments to teachers. Although Board members cannot be expected to provide technical oversight of teachers since they do not have the necessary skills to observe and evaluate teachers, they should monitor regular attendance and behavior of the community teachers who have been assigned to a school.

5. Resources Needed

• Training resource persons
• Stationery for training
• Travel money
• Monitoring survey - $1 per day per person x 3 days per month x 9 months