1. Introduction

The use of Community Teachers in the state school system is an intervention that tries to address the problem of chronic teacher shortages in state schools, especially those incomplete schools in remote areas. Such shortages lead to overcrowded classrooms, overworked teachers, and ultimately poor student learning and dropout. This intervention also tries to provide the preconditions necessary to address educational quality in the classroom by lowering Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTR) to levels of 50:1 or less. Community Teachers work along side state teachers in the same schools. Although they must work under a state school director, they are paid salaries of $20/month by local community teacher boards. These funds are provided to communities by the project. In order to address sustainability concerns, ESCUP uses Community Teachers as an interim measure to address teacher shortages in the short-term. A parallel measure that recruits candidates from local communities to sit for the PTTC Entrance Examination and provides scholarships for selected PTTC students from underserved areas occurs simultaneously with the recruitment and training of Community Teachers. After two years when these candidates have completed their studies at PTTCs, they will gradually replace the Community Teachers in target schools.

2. Primary Objectives

• To provide the necessary pre-conditions in classrooms to make effective other interventions that seek to enhance educational quality.
• To reduce Pupil Teacher Ratios in remote schools.
• To enhance community participation in educational provision in state schools.

3. Target group

• Children studying in remote schools that are generally incomplete.

4. Information on implementation

1. Orientation meeting in the schools who planned for this activity.
   Communities join an orientation meeting with program staff to review the goals of the intervention and how the intervention will be implemented. The program does not create special community bodies for oversight of Community Teachers but rather builds on existing structures such as Commune EFA Commissions and School Support Committees.



2. Selection of Community Teachers
   Community Teacher recruitment is undertaken by local communities through local advertising and transparent interviews. Important criteria for selection include (i) at least 9 years of basic education; (ii) interest in working with children, (iii) commitment to work up to 4 hours a day during regular school hours, (iv) no specific age requirements but with a preference for female and minority candidates.



3. Training of Community Teachers
   Following their selection, Community Teachers are intensively trained by project staff for a period of 10 days. A training manual that borrows heavily from the MoEYS TGL manual has been developed for this purpose and is available to any other interested projects.



4. Implementation
   Community Teachers are assigned to schools through a review process by local cluster school committees. The teachers receive a materials kit to facilitate their teaching, follow-up technical support once every two months, and periodic visits at their schools from program trainers. Community bodies check attendance and release salaries each month.

5. Resources Needed

Resources and funding for this activity are provided through ESCUP's central budget (as opposed to the school/cluster grant).

• Teacher volunteers
• Funds for salary
• Teacher trainers
• Materials for classes