The workshop was attended by officials from UNICEF and Ministry of Education, enumerators from different selected districts in Uganda and researchers from the College of Education and External studies. The event took place on 9th October 2018, in the School of Distance and Lifelong Learning, video conference facility.
The workshop was officially opened by the Principal, College of Education and External Studies, Professor Fred Masagazi Masaazi who welcomed participants and stressed that CEES is happy to continue research engagements with UNICEF. He stressed that it is an important aspect to carry out research on teacher absenteeism in schools because it can affect the quality of education in Uganda. He thanked the Deans from the two schools, School of Education, school of Distance and Lifelong Learning, and finally the Director, Institute of Open, Distance and eLearning. He also noted that there is need for government to look into the issue of moving teachers from one school to another without their consent. He stressed that the findings of this research will not only be used by policy makers only but also by lecturers who are training teachers.
Ms Rosemary from UNICEF, pointed out that the research study is part of regional research since a number of countries are participating in this research including: Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, Comoros, Somalia (Puntland), Tanzania, South Sudan and Uganda. She thanked Makerere University, College of Education and External Studies for excepting to be part of this research. She was of no doubt that researchers from MAKCEES are going to make history to UNICEF in terms of findings that will come out of this research. She said that Ministry of Education and Sports for the Republic of Uganda is evolved in this research and UNICEF is hopeful that findings of this research will help in policy making for teachers in schools in the country. She said that there no education system that is better than the quality of its teachers.
Associate Professor Jessica Norah Aguti, Principal Investigator (PI) said that those participating in the research study should take it serious since findings will influence research in the country. She also said that enumerators were picked from selected districts where they can speak the local languages to easy communication between them and the local/indigenous people
Uganda is expected to carry out a country survey to explore and identify the causes of teacher absenteeism in the country and provide country-specific policy recommendations and implementation strategies for the improvement of teacher attendance. College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University has been invited to partner with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) and provide leadership for this Teacher Absenteeism study in Uganda .Dr. Jessica Norah Aguti and Dr. Alex Okot from School of Distance & Lifelong Learning and Dr. Betty Ezati from School of Education will be the investigators. Dr. Jessica Norah Aguti will be the Principal Investigator (PI).
In the Teacher Absenteeism study, the College will be expected to: Identify and train enumerators (preferably Masters students) that will participate in data collection, Participate in adaptation of the research instruments, Collect and analyse data, Write the Uganda country report, Present the country report to UNICEF and other key stakeholders as identified by UNICEF.
UNICEF and the Ministry of Education and Sports Teacher/Tutor, Instructor Education and Training Department (TIET) will ensure quality in the processes, data collection and country report writing. UNICEF will provide a grant for this study.
