Keep a Fellow in the Classroom

1.  Project Summary

The Keep a Fellow in the Classroom campaign funds Teach For Uganda’s Fellowship Program, which recruits, trains, and places outstanding university graduates as full-time teachers in underserved government primary and secondary schools across Uganda. Each Fellow commits to a two-year placement in communities where quality teaching is scarce, delivering foundational literacy and numeracy instruction while developing as long-term leaders in education.

In 2025, Teach For Uganda marked its tenth year of operation. The organization now supports 97 active Fellows across 190 partner schools in 13 districts, has reached 86,578 learners since founding, and has grown an alumni network of 393 leaders who continue to advance education from within and beyond the classroom. This campaign directly sustains these frontline educators, covering stipends, training, coaching, and the ongoing support they need to remain effective and committed.

2. What we did

Teach For Uganda carried out the following core activities under the Keep a Fellow in the Classroom campaign:

Fellow Recruitment, Training & Placement

Teach For Uganda recruited, intensively trained, and placed exceptional university graduates into last-mile schools as full-time Fellows. Fellows received pre-service training in child-centred pedagogy, foundational literacy and numeracy instruction, classroom management, and leadership development before being deployed.

Ongoing Coaching & Leadership Development

Throughout the year, deployed Fellows received structured, continuous coaching from Teach For Uganda’s program team. This included in-school observations, coaching sessions, peer learning circles, and leadership retreats. Fellows were supported not just to teach effectively, but to grow as community leaders.

Foundational Literacy & Numeracy Instruction

Fellows implemented structured and learner-centred classroom instruction targeting foundational reading and mathematics skills. Teaching approaches included the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) methodology, storytelling, group work, and locally relevant examples to make learning accessible and engaging for every child.

Community & Family Engagement

Fellows conducted home visits in response to absenteeism, academic decline, or behavioural changes, treating families as partners in their children’s education. These interactions helped rebuild trust between schools and communities and increased parental engagement in learning. In 2025, Teach For Uganda reached 27,782 community members through these and related activities.

Beyond-the-Classroom Programmes

Fellows led or supported three major complementary initiatives during the reporting period:

• Climate Education & Leadership (CEL): Integrated climate awareness and action into daily lessons across 82+ schools, reaching 21,899 learners and training 231 teachers in climate pedagogy.
• Digital Learning Initiative: Equipped 61 schools with digital tools (tablets, projectors, Chromecasts), reaching 11,269 learners and training 240 teachers, parents, and school leaders.
• Financial Education Initiative (FEI): Delivered the Aflatoun financial literacy curriculum across 33 schools in Kayunga and Mayuge, reaching 7,975 learners and training 96 teachers. 70% of savings club leaders were girls.

Alumni Network Activation

Teach For Uganda continued to engage its growing alumni network of 393 leaders. Alumni contributed to the mission as educators, social entrepreneurs, policy advocates, and community organisers — multiplying the program’s reach and impact well beyond the two-year fellowship period.

3. Our Reach

The Keep a Fellow in the Classroom campaign directly and indirectly benefited the following groups in 2025:

86,578 > Total Learners Reached (2016–2025)

97> Active Fellows on Program

190> Partner Schools

13> Districts Covered

393> Alumni Leading Change

27,782> Community Members Engaged

Of the 86,578 learners reached to date, 43,987 are boys and 42,591 are girls, reflecting a near-equal gender balance. The programme operates across 13 districts spanning Uganda’s Western (38.5%), Eastern (30.8%), and Central (30.8%) regions, reaching some of the country’s most underserved communities. In addition to learners, 190 headteachers received leadership support and engagement during the reporting period.

4. Literacy Outcomes (2023–2025)

Between 2023 and 2025, learners in Teach For Uganda partner schools demonstrated significant progression across all reading levels:

• Beginners (non-readers) decreased from 21.23% to 13.38%, a reduction of nearly 8 percentage points.
• Word-level readers more than doubled, rising from 15.41% to 31.74%.
• Paragraph-level reading grew from 5.49% to 9.77%.
• Story-level reading strengthened from 2.30% to 5.76%.
• Letter-recognition-only learners declined steadily from 51.3% to 32.32%, indicating broad progress up the reading ladder.

These shifts demonstrate that more children are moving from passive recognition to active, meaningful reading — a foundational outcome for all subsequent learning.

Numeracy Outcomes (2023–2025)

Learners also made strong gains in mathematical competency across the reporting period:

• Division skills saw the largest improvement, jumping from 15.90% to 38.39% between 2023 and 2024, an increase of 22.49 percentage points.
• Subtraction remained a strength area, with 18.85% of learners performing at this level in 2025.
• More learners are moving beyond number recognition to develop operational mathematics skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).

This progress reflects the effectiveness of learner-centred, structured numeracy instruction delivered by Fellows, and demonstrates growing mathematical confidence in classrooms that previously recorded very low performance.

Fellow Performance & School Leadership

90% of headteachers in partner schools reported marked improvement in child-centred pedagogy among Fellows. This reflects the quality and consistency of Teach For Uganda’s coaching and professional development support, which ensures Fellows do not just teach but lead with excellence.

Climate & Environmental Impact

93% of headteachers observed positive changes in learner attitudes toward the environment following Teach For Uganda’s Climate Education & Leadership (CEL) programme. Climate School Clubs became hubs of innovation, with learners showcasing eco-bricks, vertical gardens, and tree nurseries. Fellows and alumni are now participating in national and global climate leadership conversations.

Alumni Impact

Teach For Uganda’s 393 alumni continue to multiply programme impact across multiple sectors. Alumni are now serving as headteachers, school directors, programme officers, policy consultants, engineers, talent development specialists, and social entrepreneurs — all with a foundation shaped by their Fellowship experience and commitment to equitable education.

5. Persistent Foundational Learning Gaps

Despite significant progress in literacy and numeracy, foundational learning challenges persist, particularly in the most remote and under-resourced communities. Reading comprehension remains low, with fewer learners confidently interpreting stories and texts independently. In numeracy, many learners continue to struggle to transition from number recognition to operational mathematics, with multiplication and division remaining difficult for a large proportion.

Overcrowded Classrooms & Resource Shortages

Overcrowded classrooms in rural schools continue to limit individualised learner support. Rural partner schools face persistent shortages of age-appropriate reading materials and instructional resources, affecting both the pace of learning and the consistency of foundational literacy outcomes.

Continuous Coaching Demand

As the number of Fellows and partner schools grows, maintaining the quality and frequency of in-person coaching and support requires significant investment of time and personnel. Ensuring every Fellow receives the level of ongoing support needed to sustain high performance remains an operational challenge as Teach For Uganda scales.

Teacher Retention Beyond the Fellowship

While the fellowship model produces exceptional short-term classroom leadership, sustaining this impact beyond the two-year period requires deliberate alumni engagement strategies and systemic support from the broader education ecosystem. Teach For Uganda continues to invest in alumni pathways, but institutional capacity to retain and deploy this talent within the education sector remains a work in progress.

6. What we have learnt

A decade of implementation has sharpened Teach For Uganda’s understanding of what works, what doesn’t, and where the model must evolve:

• Community relationships are non-negotiable. Fellow home visits and community engagement have proven to be among the most powerful tools for reducing absenteeism and increasing parental involvement. Schools are most effective when families see themselves as partners, not bystanders.
• Technology requires human infrastructure. The Digital Learning Initiative demonstrated that equipment alone does not create learning outcomes. Training Digital Learning Management Committees (DLMCs) and embedding community ownership protocols was what made the difference between tools gathering dust and tools transforming lessons.
• Girls’ education requires intentional design. The Financial Education Initiative confirmed that when programmes are designed with girls at the centre,  giving them leadership roles and practical agency, both girls and their communities change. 70% of savings club leaders being girls was not accidental; it was the result of deliberate programme architecture.
• The Fellowship is a leadership incubator, not just a teaching placement. Alumni data confirms that the two-year fellowship fundamentally shapes how graduates approach leadership, equity, and community for the rest of their careers. This multiplier effect justifies sustained investment in the Fellowship model itself.
• Scale without depth is fragile. Teach For Uganda has learned to balance geographic expansion with deepening quality in existing districts. Adding new schools too quickly without equivalent coaching capacity dilutes impact.

7. Next Steps?

As Teach For Uganda enters its second decade, the organisation has identified the following priorities for the period ahead:

Strengthen the Core Fellowship

Teach For Uganda will deepen investment in Fellow training, coaching infrastructure, and support systems to ensure that the quality of classroom leadership keeps pace with programme growth. This includes enhancing instructional quality through structured, learner-centred approaches and improving teacher coaching to address persistent foundational learning gaps.

Launch the STEM Fellowship for Women

Teach For Uganda is developing a STEM Fellowship that places young women at the centre of innovation, leadership, and climate action. This programme will recruit and develop graduates to serve as STEM leaders in secondary schools, increasing girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and redefining who leads in those fields.

Expand the Leaders in Teaching (LiT) Programme

As part of a five-year flagship initiative (2025–2030), Teach For Uganda will pilot a STEM Fellowship recruiting 160 recent graduates to strengthen STEM teaching in secondary schools. This initiative is implemented through a consortium led by the Luigi Giussani Foundation and supported by the Mastercard Foundation, and is designed to expand opportunities for young people — particularly girls — while contributing to a stronger, more responsive education system.

Grow the Alumni Network’s Systemic Influence

With 393 alumni now active across education, entrepreneurship, and policy, Teach For Uganda will invest in structured alumni pathways and advocacy platforms to ensure alumni voices shape education policy and practice at local, national, and global levels.

Deepen Geographic Reach & Community Partnerships

Teach For Uganda will continue expanding into underserved districts while strengthening community partnerships in existing locations. The goal is for every child in a partner school to graduate with strong literacy, numeracy, and 21st-century skills — regardless of where in Uganda they were born.

8.  Voices from the Field

The most compelling evidence of this programme’s impact is heard directly from the people it serves:

“My teacher believes in me, and I want to succeed and be like her when I grow up.” — Mellisa, Age 10, Teach For Uganda partner school learner

“When these teachers come to our homes, our children feel cared for. It demonstrates that teachers are integral to our family, not just figures within the classroom.” — Parent, Teach For Uganda partner school

“The projector has turned my Numeracy lessons into a game — children now race to the board to solve problems. They’re learning faster, and they love it.” — Teacher, Kaluuba Primary School, Mayuge District

“The fellowship revealed deeper challenges in education, transforming me into an advocate for equity and inspiring change beyond my classroom.” — Britah Atusimiire, Cohort 3 Alumni

“In 2024, only one in twenty girls in my classroom demonstrated reading proficiency; now, that number has risen to over fifty percent.” — Nanfuka Vidah, Fellow, Cohort 7

Thank you for your partnership in keeping Fellows in the classroom.

Together, we are ensuring every child in Uganda has access to quality education and the opportunity to thrive.

www.teachforuganda.org

info@teachforuganda.org  |  Block 244, Plot 5151 Majid Musisi Close, Kampala, Uganda