• Up to 60% of teachers across Africa are absent on any given day (UNICEF, 2022).
• If teachers are not in class teaching, interventions to improve learning cannot succeed.

This led to the setting up of Power Teachers Africa, an African organisation dedicated to addressing teacher absenteeism, through putting the power into teachers hands to show up for class and use proven best practices to improve children’s learning.

Teacher Motivation

Research tells us that a key reason for teacher absenteeism and teacher failure to implement proven best teaching practices is poor teacher motivation

Power Teachers Africa has developed a motivation focused model to address this. The Power Teachers for Learning link model was informed by two overarching foundational questions:

How can we effectively and efficiently support teachers within government systems to improve learning within their “classroots” realities, which in too many schools in Africa still include overcrowded classrooms, schools without electricity, shortage of learning materials, and poor infrastructure?

How can we motivate teachers to turn up for work every day, and to use effective teaching practices that work in their resource poor classrooms?

The Power Teachers model for learning puts the power in teachers hands to help themselves to be the best teachers they can be through motivating teachers to take responsibility for their professional development and being great teachers, and to ultimately ensure that:

• the quality of teaching is enhanced;
• they are in class teaching every day;
• learning outcomes improve.

our story

Power Teachers Africa also places headteachers at the centre.

The research is unequivocal that the best schools and teachers are managed by effective headteachers.

Agnes’ Story

Meet Agnes [not real name], a primary teacher in rural Eastern Uganda. Agnes has been teaching for 17 years. She works in very difficult conditions - dilapidated classrooms with no electricity, inadequate teaching materials and textbooks, large classes, mixed-age learners, and can only afford poor living conditions 2km from the school. She is a qualified teacher and attends in-service teacher training a few times a year. “The government expects us to use new methods, but they don’t support us or appreciate us, just look at our poor salary, I can barely feed my children on the salary”. She explained that she and many of her colleagues feel demoralised, with some of them regularly absent from school.

The Humanity of Teachers:

Underlying all Power Teachers Africa’s work is the human focus – the realities of teachers. We place the humanity of teachers, their ‘grassroots’ and ‘classroots’ realities, at the heart of our work. Many teachers live and work in similar conditions to Agnes. Any intervention to develop teachers’ capacities that fails to take their realities into account time and again fails to lead to improving the quality of teaching and learning.

Who is a Power Teacher?

The teachers we work with become Power Teachers.

• A Power Teacher uses teaching and learning practices that are proven to work in their “classroots” realities, which can include overcrowded classrooms, basic infrastructure, few teaching resources, no electricity
• A Power Teacher is in class teaching every day and feels supported to teach all his/her classes in a way that enables students to learn.
• A Power Teacher’s students learn and achieve at least the minimum competencies required for their grade.
• A Power Teacher takes responsibility for their own professional development, using the Power Teachers Africa’s mobile phone App
• A Power Teacher is learning outcome focused – PowER means Powerful Educators for Results.
• A Power Teacher focuses on the 4Ps - Presence, Preparation, Pedagogy, and Performance.