Absenteeism as a silent factor to the declining Universal Secondary Education policy in Uganda: a case study of Nabigasa Sub-county Rakai District
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Date
2016-09
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Kampala International University, College of Education
Abstract
Education has a huge impact on any human society and it can safely be assumed that no society is optimally functioning until it is properly educated. In the global perspective, it is an undeniable fact that the progress of a nation is very much dependent on the education of its citizens. Similarly, in Uganda education is a fundamental human right and it is the duty of the state to promote free and compulsory education to the citizens. This constitutional mandate gave birth to free education from primary to secondary under Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) since 1997 and 2007 respectively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the major causes of students’ absenteeism; and the possible solutions to the vices in Universal Secondary Education Schools in Uganda. The study applied a descriptive cross sectional research design. The study also employed both quantitative approaches/methods. Data was collected using secondary and primary source. Secondary sources consisted of publications, reports and literature related to students’ absenteeism which primary data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics from the study population of one thousand (1000) constituting a sample of 278 respondents which 226 returned their fully completed questionnaires giving a response rate at 8l.3%, obtained from 04 out of 03 USE schools in district USE schools respectively.
The study findings showed that; lack of scholastic requirements, household work, lack of interest in education, hunger at school/lack of mid-day meals, sexual harassment at school, long distance to school, illness or diseases, loss of parent or close relative, peer influence, and harsh punishment at school were the top ten (10) causes of students’ absenteeism is 23.l8% in day schools as compared to 3.25% in boarding schools. The mainly affected categories were; children from poor families, children living far from school, female students, orphans, disabled, male students and children living with single parent as reported by the respondents during the study. The study recommends that; parents understand their responsibility, government reduces taxes on scholastic materials/provides them free, improve the household income, the government and development partners to support school feeding programme, need to introduce open schooling system, and schools be held accountable for improving attendance, and finally, future researchers should examine the relation between the district education officers and secondary schools administration; teacher qualification and students’ academic performance and effects of students absenteeism on students’ academic/school performance.
Description
A research report submitted to the College of Education, Open, Distance and E-learning in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of a Bachelor’s degree in Awith Education of Kampala International University
Keywords
Absenteeism, Universal Secondary Education, Policy, Uganda