This paper analyses community participation in Cambodian schools, looking at the spaces for participation and the cluster school system strategy adopted by the royal government to decentralise education. While institutionalised spaces of participation are relatively new, Cambodian communities have traditionally supported schools despite 25 years of political turmoil. Today communities provide material contributions but their participation in internal decision-making processes is still limited. While some local NGOs have shown that more active participation is possible, the factors that limit the establishment of democratic spaces for participation are to be found in the institutional set-up and, more importantly, in the trauma caused by the conflict, and in Cambodian socio-cultural norms.