An Analysis of Teacher Quality and Primary School Students’ Learning Achievements in Cambodia

The relationship between teacher quality and student learning achievement remains complex and somewhat inconsistent across the literature. For example, Roorda et al. found that the association between teacher–student relationship quality and student achievement was positive in most studies, but negative in others. Similarly, Yang and Kaiser reported that teaching quality showed significantly positive, non-significant, and even significantly negative relationships with student learning outcomes. In the Cambodian context, Chhin and Tabata examined the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement and found that teacher economic status, job satisfaction, and teaching experience significantly influenced student learning outcomes; however, these variables explained only 20 percent of the variance in student achievement. These mixed findings highlight the importance of further investigating the factors underlying the relationship between teacher quality and student learning outcomes. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between teacher quality and students’ academic achievement in reading and mathematics among Grade 5 primary school students in Cambodia. Specifically, the study focuses on three teacher-related variables: teaching experience, educational background, and pre-service training. The analysis is guided by the education production function model to examine how these teacher characteristics influence students’ learning achievement. This study employs a quantitative research design using data from the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics conducted in 2019 across six Southeast Asian developing countries, which assessed Grade 5 students’ performance in mathematics, reading, and writing. The findings indicate that students’ socio-economic status (SES), non-repeater status, and attendance at urban schools are positively and significantly associated with both mathematics and reading achievement. In contrast, male students show lower performance than female students in both subjects. Parents’ educational attainment demonstrates a partial association with students’ academic performance. Regarding teacher characteristics, students taught by teachers with pre-service training perform significantly better than those taught by teachers without such training. Similarly, compared with teachers who completed only primary education, teachers with lower secondary, upper secondary, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral qualifications are more likely to positively influence students’ mathematics and reading achievement. However, teaching experience does not show a statistically significant relationship with student achievement in either subject, regardless of whether teachers have 1–5 years or more than 6 years of teaching experience. This suggests that teaching experience alone may not be sufficient to improve student learning outcomes. When comparing rural and urban contexts, the results show that teachers with pre-service training are positively associated with students’ mathematics achievement in rural schools only. Meanwhile, teachers with higher educational qualifications demonstrate positive associations with student achievement in both rural and urban schools. However, teaching experience remains statistically insignificant across both contexts. Future research should further explore how school and household environments interact to support children’s academic development. In addition, the use of richer longitudinal or panel data would allow the application of fixed-effects models, which may provide more robust and reliable estimates of the relationship between teacher quality and student learning achievement.