CORE in Uganda: Supporting teacher's wellbeing to inspire young minds
July 17, 2025
The pressure on teachers in conflict areas can be enormous. Their sense of responsibility, combined with stress and lack of resources, can put serious strain on their wellbeing, patience and judgement. This can create a negative classroom environment which can directly impact the children they teach. For teachers to empower and inspire children to change their lives for the better, they need support themselves.
The CORE (coaching, observing, reflecting, and engaging) methodology provides teachers with a space for reflection. Working with trained coaches in small groups and in one-to-one sessions, they are given the opportunity to explore stress reduction and self-care strategies to help them thrive as educational professionals.
In 2018, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) established a consortium of 'education in emergencies' partners in Uganda, of which War Child became a member. One of the goals of the project was to improve the delivery of quality education and the competency of teachers in refugee settlements.
With grant funding from ECW, War Child began implementing CORE in 2023 to help teachers in the West Nile region thrive and inspire their students, even in such challenging conditions.
In the first two years, the project reached 99 teachers, and our work is not done yet. In 2025 we plan to reach 212 teachers with CORE.
Keep reading to hear from teachers, head teachers and a CORE coach about how the project has helped educators to manage their emotions and improve their relationships with learners, fellow teachers, friends and family.
Lukuya, a primary school teacher in Uganda, says CORE helped him build better relationships with his students
Lukuya, Primary School Teacher
“As a teacher, I faced a lot of stress and used to shout at children and was very aggressive because I did not know how to handle my stress and emotions when dealing with learners in the classroom. CORE helped me learn how to manage my stress through conducting self-checks to assess my mood before I teach my learners.
"The strategies I learnt from CORE have also helped me to build friendly relationships with my learners who are now comfortable with me and listen to me when I give them instructions, resulting in less stress when doing my work.”
CORE helps teachers to manage stress and emotions
Kiranda, Primary School Headteacher
"We had many challenges in school, one being stress faced by my teachers who had many children to handle and lots of conflict came in due to the situation.
"CORE has helped improve the general mood and teamwork of my teachers towards their work. They have also learnt how to address the stress needs of children and how to manage them. I have also experienced a very peaceful work environment amongst my teaching staff who support and relate well with each other.
There is need to have CORE in more schools that are facing similar challenges with their teacher’s wellbeing."
Primary school teacher Aliru is able to connect better with her teacher colleagues because of what she's learnt through CORE
Aliru, Primary School Teacher
“Before joining CORE, I was not doing well in socialising with fellow teachers who were of a different tribe and always found it hard to control my emotions, especially when dealing with learners who were very stubborn in class.
"CORE has helped me learn how to talk and relate with fellow teachers by talking & listening to how they are dealing with challenges similar to mine. I also learnt a strategy called STOP-THINK & ACT that taught me to always assess a situation or problem before solving it and enabled me to handle conflicts amongst my learners by talking to them instead of punishing them which was less stressful.”
Head teacher Matuga says that CORE has given his teachers a better way to live
Matuga, Primary School Head Teacher
"Teachers in my school were always stressed because they have to deal with so many children across the classes and found it hard to finish lessons in time. They were also very reluctant to teach, isolating themselves by tribe and their mood to teach was very low.
"CORE has helped the teachers in my school become better at handling how they manage their stress and emotions as they do their work. This has given them a better way to live and do their work which has improved the learning environment of our school."
CORE can also help teachers with issues like isolation
Chandiga, Primary School Teacher
"I was very isolated and always preferred to work alone. During my time alone I would have some bad thoughts of my life being useless and meaningless and was always in conflict with the headteacher and other fellow teachers.
"CORE has helped me learn to control my emotions and behaviour when relating with fellow teachers. I have also learnt how to deal with learners in the classes I teach by listening and supporting them well in class and this also helped me improve my wellbeing."
Orio, Primary School Teacher
"Before CORE I was not planning well for my self and managing conflicts and relationships with people around was a problem. When CORE started in our school, I learnt self care strategies like mindfulness practices that helped me learn to focus positive emotions that helped me reduce my stress.
"I also engaged in self-care activities like listening to music, exercising that keep me fit and help me feel good about myself."
John is a CORE coach working to support teacher's wellbeing.
John, CORE Coach
"The Headteachers of the schools where I work faced challenges when it came to dealing with teachers who were resistant, less supportive of one another and had a lot of bias towards learners by inflicting a lot punishments that even caused children to drop out.
"Teachers were facing a lot of stress due to being few and teaching many classes resulting in lots of internal conflicts with fellow teachers causing them to work in silos.
"CORE consisted of modules that provided them with strategies on how to manage stress that have impacted their wellbeing by making them understand and adopt self-care strategies and techniques that have improved their work life balance and relationships with learners, fellow teachers, friends and family."
