Analysis of Demand-Side and Supply-Side Factors on Learning Outcomes in Cambodia (original) (raw)

Determinants of student achievement at lower secondary schools in rural Cambodia

Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 2020

This study examines the effects of student-, family-, and school-related factors on student achievement at lower secondary schools in rural Cambodia. To investigate the determinants of student achievement, a survey study was conducted in four rural districts, including 20 lower secondary schools for investigation. A total of 517 seventh graders were randomly selected for the study. Questionnaires and achievement tests were utilized as tools for data collection. Due to the nested and hierarchical structure of data, a two-level hierarchical linear model was employed to assess what factors may have affected student achievement. The results indicated that absenteeism and private-tutoring attendance significantly affected student achievement. The negative effect of absenteeism has highlighted the critical roles of parents, teachers, and related educational stakeholders to ensure that students come to school on a regular basis. Despite the positive effect on achievement, private tutoring has greatly disadvantaged Cambodian students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. In contrast to some existing findings, significant effects were not found among family and school factors. The findings make up the empirical evidence needed for the development of improved education policy and practice in Cambodia.

Student Achievement and Education Policy in a Period of Rapid Expansion: Assessment Data Evidence From Cambodia

International Review of Education, 2009

This article analyses student achievement and school quality in large samples of schools in Cambodia. Descriptive summaries of student proficiency levels in language and mathematics reveal large gaps between average performance in grades three and six. Given the near universal completion rates for grade three-and lower access to grade six-these differences highlight the inherent challenges of maintaining quality while expanding participation. We also model student achievement variation using hierarchical linear models (HLM), and identify significant predictors that are infrequently available to researchers. These include content taught by teachers, their specialised knowledge of teaching mathematics, and indicators of pedagogical processes. The results reinforce the importance of teachers' impact on student learning outcomes.

Identifying causes of lower secondary school dropout in Cambodia: a two-level hierarchical linear model

International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2020

In recent years, the Royal Government of Cambodia has strongly emphasised the issue of school dropout. To date, many Cambodian workers have still not completed at least nine years of basic education due to the high dropout rate. Additionally, a great number of students at the secondary level continue to leave school early. To deal with the high dropout rate, addressing factors influencing dropout is crucial for Cambodia's educational policy. This correlational study examined what factors might influence dropout from lower secondary schools in rural Cambodia. Twenty lower secondary schools from four rural districts were randomly selected, and 517 seventh graders were followed for an academic year. Due to the nested and hierarchical structure of the data, the current study employed a two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) for the analyses. Student-, family-, and school-related factors were estimated using the two-level HLM models. The results indicate that grade retention, absenteeism, academic expectations, and private tutoring significantly influenced dropout, whereas family-and schoolrelated factors had no effect on dropout. Practical implications are discussed with the call for solid evidence-based strategies to decrease the dropout rate.

Influences on Academic Achievement of Primary School Pupils in Cambodia

Excellence in Higher Education, 2012

Employing education production function approach, this article investigates the influences of school and pupil background factors on academic achievement of primary school pupils in Cambodia. Based on achievement data of 1,080 Grade 6 pupils from one rural and one semi-urban area, the study reveals that school and teacher quality exerts a considerable effect on pupils’ performance. Teachers’ experience and teacher guides are positively correlated with academic achievement, while instructional time loss is significantly associated with poor performance. In light of these results, policies to boost academic achievement of primary school pupils in Cambodia are discussed.

Uncovered Truths of Pupils' Academic Achievement in Rural Cambodian Primary Schools

Journal of Elementary Education (JEE), 2020

With attempts to understand the effect of school level and family level on academic achievement as well as to discover factors affecting pupils' academic achievement, this study employed a 2-level Hierarchy Linear Model (HLM) for its analysis using the data from 1,131 Cambodian fourth graders and their families from 30 rural primary schools. Mathematics test scores was used as an outcome variable. Interview-guided questionnaire was used to collect data from these group of pupils due to limited knowledge to read and understand some concepts of questions. This study revealed that the effect of school was larger than that of the family like previous findings in other developing countries. Firs ever, using home-school book were claimed to have positive relation with the academic achievement. Child labor was found to be one of the determinants decreased the pupils' test scores. However, if children helped parents with in-home housework showed modestly positive association with improving test scores with a threshold of three hours. However, socioeconomic status had no statistically significant contribution towards predicting the academic achievement in this study. Absenteeism of teachers and school principals had negative association with the test scores. This current study, additionally, recalled for more attention from any educational stakeholders to the rural schools in order to ensure the realization of national curriculum goals and national goals by 2030.

Educational Inputs in Cambodian Primary Schools : An Analysis of Factors Influencing Sixth-Grade Student Achievement

2012

Student achievement can be influenced by different types of educational inputs with results varying across time and context. Studies of educational inputs and student achievement in a variety of contexts can provide valuable insights into how the relationships between educational inputs and student achievement depend upon local context and specific circumstance of education. Cambodian education is distinctive with its high prevalence of community financing of education which results not by the government’s deliberate policy but rather by the government’s inability to meet the needs of all school-aged children. Cambodian households find that if they want schooling of a reasonable quality especially in primary school level, then they must provide much of the necessary resource. This study attempts to identify the educational inputs which make the greatest impact on student achievement using survey data from school principals, teachers, students and their parents. The study employs mul...

Factors Influencing Student Achievement in Rural Cambodian Primary Schools

There were several studies on academic achievement in Cambodian primary schools. Most of them were conducted in urban schools and on the schools that were benefitted from the pilot projects by the organizations working to improve educational conditions. Unlikely, this paper attempted to figure out what influenced achievement of the fourth-graders in Cambodian rural primary schools by investigating the three main factors, namely family, individual and community. The results from multiple linear regression showed that, on individual level, student self-esteem, student motivation, frequency of homework completion and teacher-student interactions were positively related to the achievement whereas student absenteeism negatively affected math achievement. On family level, the amount of time the students had spent helping their families lowered their math test scores. However, some forms of child labor increased their achievement on both math and Khmer tests. As expected, high levels of maternal education and parental motivation improved children's achievement. Surprisingly, children living without parents or with mothers

Factors influencing college students’ academic achievement in Cambodia: a case study

2013

The purpose of this study is to address achievement gaps among Cambodian students attending an English higher education institution in Cambodia by exploring factors that contribute to their academic achievement. Using a hierarchical multiple regression on second-year students (N=215) and teachers (N=23), this study examined the relative influence of student engagement behaviors, students’ background characteristics, and teacher quality on students’ academic achievement. Both general and interaction effects by students’ geographical origins were examined. The results suggested a variety of factors that positively predicted student achievement: the importance of students investing more efforts in homework or given tasks and whole-class participation, students’ pre-college academic experience, teachers’ teaching experience and course workload and difficulty. Interaction effect existed between students’ pre-college academic experience and geographical origins. With these findings, some ...

Determinants of Household Expenditure on Education in Cambodia: Focusing on Children of Disadvantaged Backgrounds

Journal of economics and sustainable development, 2018

This paper provides empirical evidence on the spending behaviors of households with children with disabilities and households from ethnic minority backgrounds on investment in their children's education in Cambodia. These groups are found to be even more vulnerable than girls in terms of access to educational services. Employing the nationally-representative Cambodian SocioEconomic Survey 2012, the study uses the tobit model. Results showed that urban location, income and parental education have a positive and significant effect on family's expenditure on education. These effects increased with an increase in grade levels. Education spending on education for children with disabilities and for children among ethnic minority groups was far lower.