Teachers' Actions for Girls (TAG)

The overall purpose of the TAG program is to contribute toward the education of the girl-child by empowering teachers with knowledge, skills, and values to become lead actors in creating gender responsive school environments. When the program was designed in 2003, it went far beyond discussing relations between boys and girls, which was the norm at that time. It introduced a girl-focused approach designed specifically to advance girls’ education and to challenge the impediments to girls’ success at school. Because Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU) represents teachers, the perspective inherent in TAG is a teacher’s perspective. It asserts that teachers have agency and as such are potential agents of change at the very centre of the learning process, which occurs in the pedagogical relationship between the child and the teacher. The TAG project reflects this assumption in its name: “Teachers’ Action for Girls.” The project focuses on teachers inspiring and empowering other teachers to take action on behalf of the girl-child. Through the TAG approach, girls’ safety and equal opportunity at school is treated as a teacher’s professional responsibility and the TAG workshop provides teachers with important understanding, skills, and resources that not only improve girls’ experiences at school, but also teachers’ efficacy and success in the classroom.