Client: Research Triangle Institute

Description: Teacher absenteeism is endemic in Ugandan primary schools. Teachers are, on average, absent from school 1 in every 4 days, rising to just under 1 in every 3 days in rural schools (roughly equivalent to between 70 and 100 days a year), according to the World Bank’s Service Delivery Indicator 2013. Teacher absenteeism is complex and comes in many forms: teachers fail to show up; arrive late; arrive at school on time but do not go to class when they should. When they go to class, they do not teach all the lessons of the day. In a 2-day workshop, the RTI team applied the U Model for social change to engage education actors in meaningful conversations on teacher absenteeism; deepen understanding and an empathetic mindset about the seriousness of and reasons for teacher absenteeism; and to ignite collective action to find novel solutions and shift the status quo to get teachers back in school and in the classroom, every day. RTI hired Ichuli to apply a visual note-taking method using graphic recording and facilitation during the workshop to record participants’ ideas and actions to improve teacher absenteeism.