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The consequences of teacher absenteeism are dramatic for the quality of teaching, and Uganda has taken drastic measures to combat the problem. The report brings together a researcher from UNESCO's Education for All Global Monitoring Report and a doctor in Sociology and Education Policy from the ENS in Abidjan.

In a rural district of Uganda, almost half of all teachers were absent on a typical school day. The African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) trained a few student leaders in each school to take attendance of everyone, including teachers. As a result, teacher absenteeism has dropped to ten percent in this district.

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) recently pointed out that teacher absenteeism was one of the reasons for high failure rates in the Primary Leaving Examinations. However further researches have confirmed that the least paid teacher are not the ones who absent themselves the most. In fact are the high paid teachers the ones that spend the school time in the market places.

According to the education minister, primary school head teachers will be required to sign performance agreements every year. Many pupils had not attained the desirable learning competency in literacy and numeracy partly because of the slackness, absenteeism and lack of commitment from the head teachers. The assessment guidelines and the tracking of the teachers' performance will help to create a more fair and verifiable system.