Take Up the Torch

Most schools don't fail because of money. They fail because no one ever wrote down what the school was actually for.

Take Up the Torch is a practical field guide for school directors, owners, and administrators who are tired of watching beautiful buildings hide struggling institutions. Drawn directly from years of teacher-training workshops filmed and recorded across East Africa, this is not theory pulled from a textbook — it's what actually works in real schools, and what quietly destroys them from the inside.

Inside, you'll learn how to:

📍 Build a school on a clear, specific vision — before you spend another shilling on buildings or brochures

📍 Define what "quality education" actually means for your school, in terms you can check and measure

📍 Hire and vet staff so one bad recruitment decision doesn't undo years of work

📍 Choose leaders who won't quietly lower your standard the moment you're not watching

📍 Keep good teachers from leaving — and understand what's really driving them away

📍 Build the financial, structural, and communication systems that let your school run without you holding every piece together

📍 Protect your own financial and emotional discipline as a director, so the school doesn't end up running you

What's inside the book:

✔️ 12 chapters across 4 parts — The Foundation, The People, The Systems, and The Director's Discipline

✔️ Real workshop dialogue, case studies, and director interviews from East African schools

✔️ A "Key Takeaways" summary at the end of every chapter

✔️ A glossary of terms for new and experienced school leaders alike

✔️ Formatted for easy reading on your phone, tablet, or PC, with a clickable table of contents

Who this book is for:

School directors, owners, proprietors, headteachers, and anyone building or turning around a school — especially across Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the wider East African region.

About the Author

Allan Richie has spent years supervising and filming teacher-training workshops in villages, towns, and cities across East Africa. This book is drawn from what he personally witnessed and recorded in that work — facilitator quotes, learner anecdotes, and director interviews taken straight from the footage.

If you own, run, or dream of building a school that actually works — take up the torch.

More from Allan Richie: The Modern Teacher • Policies That Transform • The Weight of the School • The Boardroom and the Blackboard • Take Money Romm • Enrollment Engine • Eye Service — and more.

📞 +256 753 949 555 | ✉️ [email protected] | 🌐 richiekey.com