The study explored the effects of students' absenteeism on student academic and school performance in Uganda. The study also assessed the effectiveness of class attendance monitoring tool; the challenges faced by the school administration in dealing with absentee student(s); and established the relationship between students' absenteeism and academic performance of students. The relevant literature was reviewed to anchor the methodology and the findings. The study adopted descriptive cross-sectional survey design. A combination of stratified and purposive sampling was applied to accommodate the variety of respondents from Serere, Soroti, Kumi and Ngora districts in Teso sub-region; North Eastern Uganda. The study used questionnaires and interview schedules to collect primary data from 349 respondents who participated in the study out of the expected 384 obtained from a target population of 100,000 giving a response rate of 90.89%. The findings shows that the monitoring tools used for students' attendance are effective (good) and there is a very positive relationship between student attendance and academic performance. The researcher also found that school attendance affects both the students and the school performance. To the students; it leads to poor academic performance, students drop out, graduating half-baked students, poor curriculum coverage and loss of interest in learning whist to the school; it affects the school image, lower the students' enrollment, transfer of students by parents, wastage of teachers' and administrators' time and affects the university/tertiary enrolment. However, the school administration faces challenges of; interruption of lessons, students being hostile/belligerent to teachers, and parents defending their children whilst dealing with absenteeism students. The study also provides the practical and most effective strategies to improve students' attendance. These staregies include; promoting Zero Tolerance to Students Absenteeism, parental involvement and participation, developing students' mentoring programmes, improving "rich" student's programmes, promoting guidance and counseling, promote good communication, reward students with regular attendance, and need to monitor and supervise school attendance. The researcher concludes that, to support students academically in and out of school; administrators, teachers, and families need to have a shared understanding of their children's learning and work as partners to meet their academic and social-emotional needs.

The paper confronts the most controversial debate regarding the “Critical and Creative Thinking” divide, often termed as ‘strange bedfellows’ in academia. The divide is manifested in the way academics often bristle at the suggestion that exists between ‘critical and creative thinking perceptions.  We argue that creativity without critical judgment would be fanciful, impractical and ridiculous, with the potential to run other people’s ideas ‘amok’, while critical thinkers would get short shrift if only they were reduced to just critiquing.  Hence, it is necessary to have both on the team, those who can create novel ideas and others to critique others’ creations.   While we acknowledge the distinction of the concepts, their roles are complementary and necessary to create a balance that must co-exist and shine in the scholarly arena.  We conclude that the phrases often used in academia, such as; ‘devil’s advocates’, ‘opponents’ or ‘critical reviewers’ of doctoral candidates or in peer reviews has apparently been taken literally.  We recommend that the superficial misconception of ‘greater’ or ‘superior’, is an unnecessary cognitive dissonance that must be resolved to promote co-existence for greater results.

The paper focused on both the positive as well as negative factors that influenced academics' enthusiasm to engage in research and scholarly endeavors. A qualitative strategy was chosen, and review summaries were used to support it in three higher education institutions (HEIs). In-depth interviews, observation, and document analysis were done. Factors responsible for academics' research enthusiasm, included; international, national, institutional and personal factors. Majorly, national and institutional factors such as; distorted benchmarking, the "triad and multi-faceted" academics roles and workload rationalization. Personal factors that negatively influenced academic enthusiasm included; procrastination, perfectionism and self-pity, while, positive influencers included; intellectual curiosity, drive for career growth, inquiry acumen and self-fulfillment, which inevitably attracts a dual reward arrangement, leading to two sides of the coin. While those who had published were recognized and/or promoted, the ones who had not go demoralized, a feeling of humiliation, emotional resignation, and sometimes, complete refusal to even try, as they considered themselves losers. Hence, aside from the institutional factors that affected every academic, self-determination and intellectual curiosity were majorly responsible for academics' research enthusiasm. Therefore, in order to enhance every academic' research enthusiasm, institutions should establish mentorship programs in research and scholarly writing, set up rotational leadership rules in research clusters to give each member a chance to be the "first author," and launch more series of journals as viable avenues for academics to publish.

The paper examined institutional research practices that promote academics’ motivation to engage in writing and publication. The idea was prompted by enormous effort and financial support UMI has committed on various research and publication-related programs and activities, including; annual research cluster grants, conference funding, graduate supervision, and guest scholars that are periodically engaged to facilitate in the areas of; research, supervision, scholarly writing, publication, grant proposal writing, etc. Every year (save for the pandemic period), the institute disburses funds to academics that respond to research grant calls in a timely fashion. Similarly, there were newly graduate doctoral candidates, still with fresh and novel publishable research ideas. It was revealed that academics are recognized for graduate supervision to completion, instead of co-publication efforts. The paper concludes that the lack of “price-tags” for research uptake, and the current accounting system that focuses on the usage of funds, instead of the outcomes has continued to diminish academics motivation to publish. Similarly, the practice to settle for the “raw research reports” instead of publications as a way of accountability had affected academics’ desire to publish. Further, collegial cooperation had affected implementation of personnel decisions related to research. Lastly, the delayed performance feedback on individual publication statuses affected their publication acumen. The paper recommends that institutions need to devise accountability systems for funded research activities as a way of sustaining academics’ research passion and motivation. Similarly, the institution should use the detailed “quarterly performance output reports” to regularly update members on their research uptake situation, other than waiting for the expiry of the five-year employment contract.

This paper reviewed Benon C. Basheka book's chapter on the Science of Public Procurement and