This blog was written by Margo O’Sullivan, independent consultant and Co-Founder and Director Programmes at Power Teachers Africa.
Three years ago, in March 2022, UKFIET published a blog I wrote on what I considered the most critical issue for poor children’s learning outcomes: teacher absenteeism. This ‘elephant in the classroom’ is what eventually led me and two Ugandan colleagues to establish Power Teachers Africa in Uganda in June 2024.
Three years on from the blog’s publication, I still cannot understand the silence surrounding this crisis. In 19 countries across Eastern and Southern Africa, teacher absenteeism rates range from 15% to 45%. In Uganda, recent data reveal a staggering reality: while teachers may be on the payroll, 52.3% were not actually teaching in the classroom when surveyed.
This is not just a learning crisis; it is a massive fiscal one. Teacher absenteeism costs India and Uganda an estimated US$1.5 billion every year. In Uganda alone, this represents a 12% loss of total public education expenditure.
Tragically, ‘learning poverty’ persists, despite sustained research and significant financial investment. We now have a strong body of evidence, including rigorous studies and meta-analyses, demonstrating what improves learning outcomes, with structured pedagogy consistently emerging as a common denominator. Yet evidence alone is not enough. If teachers are not present in the classroom, even the most effective approaches cannot be implemented. Without teacher presence and engagement, learning will not improve for the nine out of ten children in Sub-Saharan Africa who currently cannot read and understand a simple text by age ten.
Why the teacher attendance crisis is ignored
So, why is teacher attendance, the most basic factor for learning, failing to receive significant attention? Governments, as well as donor and civil society education partners, all too easily fall into the ‘business-as-usual’ trap, focusing on teacher training, digital and AI, new curricula, and so on, while ignoring the human reality of the teacher, which includes:
- The teacher motivation crisis: Teachers are frequently demoralised by poor remuneration, difficult working and living conditions, and a lack of professional respect.
- The ‘moonlighting’ reality: Many teachers are forced to take on additional jobs just to supplement their inadequate income.
- The transport and poor remuneration challenge: I recently completed, with Dr Emmanuel Kamuli, a review of Uganda’s national Teacher Policy, where teachers are unable to afford to pay for bus or boda boda [motorbike] taxi fares for every school day from their meagre salaries. “I cannot afford to live near the school on my salary and sometimes I do not have the money left for transport to school” (interview with a primary teacher in Western Uganda, March 2025).
- Sidelining incentives: Strategies focusing on financial performance incentives have often been dismissed within the education aid architecture, despite evidence that they can effectively decrease absenteeism and improve learning in developing countries.
A proven solution: Power Teachers for Learning (PTL)
Power Teachers Africa was set up to address this head-on. In 2025, we piloted the Power Teachers for Learning (PTL) model in Uganda. This approach directly addresses absenteeism through practical financial and non-financial incentives that are easy to administer and built for government systems.
The PTL model includes:
- Digital continuing professional development (CPD): School internet provision combined with self-paced mobile learning (using Teach2030 and Enabel digital training).
- Motivational incentives: We offer small monetary transport token payments linked to daily attendance and bonuses for student learning gains. Non-monetary incentives include the CPD, improved learning, and recognition.
- System embedding: Deep collaboration with local districts and the Ministry of Education and Sports.
The results from our 31-teacher pilot in Eastern Uganda highlight that our model works. An independent evaluation by Uwezo Uganda, found:
- Statistically significant improvements in English, Lumasaba and Mathematics.
- A four times higher likelihood of students reaching higher Mathematics proficiency levels.
- P2 and P3 learners were eleven and a half times more likely to improve English literacy.
These results are even more significant in light of the teachers participating in a national strike over several weeks in September and October 2025, around poor teacher pay.
Crucially, our model drives these results at a cost lower than the average USD70 per child spent by many donor-funded initiatives, and the USD4.80 per child per annum benchmark that governments can afford.
We must stop ignoring the elephant in the classroom. If we want to solve the learning crisis, we must recognise the humanity of our teachers and put the power back into their hands.
