Cambodia's Prime Minister Said 'Teachers Are the Catalysts of AI Transformation.' The Research Backs Him Up.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Said 'Teachers Are the Catalysts of AI Transformation.' The Research Backs Him Up.

I want to tell you about something that happened in Cambodia on World Teachers' Day that has stuck with me for months.

On 5 October 2025, Cambodia observed World Teachers' Day under the national theme of 'Teacher is the catalyst of AI transformation.' Let me be clear about what this means: Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet declared that teachers are the catalysts of Artificial Intelligence transformation in the country — not technology leaders, not software engineers, not policy makers, but classroom teachers.

Hun Manet explained that 'this theme underscores the central role of educators in preparing students to navigate and benefit from a future shaped by AI.' More significantly, he connected this directly to Cambodia's Pentagonal Strategy — Phase I, which identifies human development and digital transformation as two core pillars for the country's sustainable growth.

What struck me was not the political rhetoric — governments make bold statements about education regularly. What struck me was that Cambodia's head of government had articulated, almost word for word, what three major research studies published in 2024 and 2025 have concluded about AI in education.

The Research That Validates Cambodia's Position

Let me walk through the evidence, because it is more compelling than I expected.

A 2025 RAND Corporation study found that 25 percent of surveyed teachers used AI tools for their instructional planning or teaching. But here is what the study actually discovered: district leaders focused more on increasing teachers' AI use and less on crafting student use policy, primarily because they saw the potential for AI to make teachers' jobs easier.

The RAND research identified something crucial. Low-poverty districts consistently lead in AI adoption, with 67% providing teacher training by fall 2024, compared to only 39% of high-poverty districts. District leaders reported that initial teacher trainings primarily focused on addressing fear and confusion about AI rather than jumping straight to instructional applications.

That finding aligns exactly with what Cambodia's Education Minister stated: the integration of AI in education will augment teachers' capability to transform education. Teachers can use AI to prepare lesson plans and provide personalised learning to students, the Minister added.

But the most striking validation comes from Carnegie Learning's research. Using year-long log data and standardised state tests, researchers compared more than 350 U.S. seventh-grade students who received human-AI tutoring in 2023–2024 with nearly 320 students who received AI-only tutoring the previous year. Students tutored in the program outperformed students tutored by AI alone.

The Carnegie Mellon study found something that should reshape how we think about AI in education: 'We found that relatively small doses of human support can meaningfully improve learning outcomes over time,' says researcher Ashish Gurung. 'Our findings lay a strong foundation for rethinking how human-AI collaboration can enhance both the learning experience for students and the overall effectiveness of AI tutors.'

The combined approach resulted in students advancing 0.36 grade levels over a school year, highlighting the value of human-AI collaboration in educational settings.

The Harvard Study That Changes Everything

Then there is the Harvard study, which produced results so significant they demand careful attention.

Researchers conducted a randomised, controlled trial comparing college students' learning when content was presented through an AI-powered tutor versus an active learning class. They found that students learn significantly more in less time when using the AI tutor, compared with in-class active learning. Students also felt more engaged and more motivated.

The effect size is extraordinary: a quantile regression analysis provides an effect size in the range of 0.73 to 1.3 standard deviations. To put that in educational terms: this represents moving a student from the middle of the class to the top quartile.

But here is what the Harvard study emphasised: the novel design of the custom AI tutor was informed by the same pedagogical best practices as employed in the in-class lessons. The AI was not replacing teaching expertise — it was scaling it.

UNESCO's Framework Confirms the Pattern

UNESCO's AI Competency Framework for Teachers addresses the gap by defining the knowledge, skills, and values teachers must master in the age of AI. The framework emphasises that AI tools should complement, not replace, the vital roles and responsibilities of teachers in education.

This is precisely what Cambodia's approach recognises. UNESCO's Esther McFarlane, chief of education at UNESCO to Phnom Penh, said teachers are not only adapting to new technologies, but also shaping how these tools are applied to inspire and empower learners. 'With AI reshaping education, we must ensure new technologies support and empower teachers, not replace them,' she stated.

By 2022, only seven countries had developed AI frameworks or programmes for teachers. The AI competency framework for teachers addresses this gap by defining the knowledge, skills, and values teachers must master in the age of AI.

What This Means for Educational Strategy

Cambodia's declaration is not just policy rhetoric. It represents a sophisticated understanding of what the research actually shows about AI in education.

The evidence consistently points to the same conclusion: AI's educational value emerges through teacher expertise, not despite it. A two-day exhibition on 'Utilising AI Technology in Education' was held at the National Institute of Education in Phnom Penh, showcasing about 50 works related to AI, which had been innovated by 14 institutions. This demonstrates practical implementation rather than theoretical discussion.

The timing matters. By Fall 2024, about half (48%) of surveyed districts reported providing AI training to teachers, double the amount (23%) from Fall 2023. An additional 26% of districts plan to implement AI training during the 2024-2025 school year, potentially bringing the total to 74% of districts by fall 2025.

Cambodia is positioning itself ahead of this curve by making teacher development central to national AI strategy.

The SAIL Connection

At SAIL Education, we have built our methodology on this exact principle: AI amplifies good teaching rather than replacing it. The research from RAND, Carnegie Learning, and Harvard validates what we have observed in practice — that the most effective AI integration happens when teachers remain at the centre of the learning process.

Cambodia's Education Minister noted that by 'equipping teachers with the skills to harness digital technology and AI responsibly, they are empowered to unlock new learning opportunities and nurture the next generation of innovators and leaders in a rapidly evolving world'.

This is not about teachers becoming technology specialists. It is about technology becoming more responsive to pedagogical expertise.

Looking Forward

Cambodia's approach offers a model for other countries grappling with AI integration in education. Rather than viewing AI as a disruptive force that changes everything about teaching, they are treating it as a powerful tool that makes good teaching more effective and more scalable.

The research backs this approach completely. When teachers are positioned as 'catalysts of AI transformation' — as Cambodia has done — the technology becomes genuinely transformative for student learning outcomes.

That is a lesson worth learning from.

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References

Gurung, A., Lin, J., Gutterman, J., Thomas, D. R., Houk, A., Gupta, S., ... & Koedinger, K. (2025). Human tutoring improves the impact of AI tutor use on learning outcomes. Artificial Intelligence in Education: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education.

Kaufman, J. H., Woo, A., Eagan, J., Lee, S., & Kassan, E. B. (2025). Uneven adoption of artificial intelligence tools among U.S. teachers and principals in the 2023–2024 school year. RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA134-25.html

Kestin, G., Miller, K., Klales, A., Milbourne, T., & Ponti, G. (2025). AI tutoring outperforms in-class active learning: an RCT introducing a novel research-based design in an authentic educational setting. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 17458. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-97652-6

Miao, F., & Cukurova, M. (2024). AI competency framework for teachers. UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/ai-competency-framework-teachers

UNESCO. (2025, February 20). What you need to know about UNESCO's new AI competency frameworks for students and teachers. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/what-you-need-know-about-unescos-new-ai-competency-frameworks-students-and-teachers

Woo, A., Kaufman, J. H., Diliberti, M. K., & Parham, A. (2025). More districts are training teachers on artificial intelligence: Findings from the American School District Panel. RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-31.html

Xinhua News Agency. (2025, October 5). Teachers catalysts of Cambodia's AI transformation: PM. Xinhua. https://english.news.cn/asiapacific/20251005/1b8706e992da458587946f07f1d395aa/c.html