Pupils’ competency in english language in public and private primary schools with thematic curriculum in Bundibugyo district, Uganda

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Date
2017-05
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Publisher
Kampala International University, College of Education, Open and Distance Learning
Abstract
Motivated by claims that thematic curriculum has challenges related to the learners’ competency as well as UWEZO’s shocking findings on pupils’ competency in Uganda in different subjects (as Appendix 6 shows), as well as the researcher’s casual observations on the learners in Bundibugyo, his place of work since 2012, the current study was carried out in Bundibugyo district of Uganda with three objectives namely: to establish the level of pupils’ competency in Reading in English in primary schools with thematic curriculum; to find out the level of pupils’ competency in Writing and Comprehension in English Language in primary schools with thematic curriculum; and to assess whether or not there is a significant difference in the pupils’ overall competency between public and private primary schools with thematic curriculum. Given the relatively large number of the respondents involved in the study, the study employed a cross-sectional survey design, using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study targeted 1486 pupils of p.4-p.6 from 12 primary schools in Bundibugyo district where thematic curriculum was offered. The pupils of P.4- P.6 were targeted with a hope that since they had studied what was in the research instrument which was based on the syllabus of P.1, P.2 and P.3, they would be competent in all the aspects. A sample of 306 pupils selected using the Kreijcie& Morgan (1970) method of determining the sample participated in the study. Public schools were six and the private ones were also six. Nine pupils were selected from each class in six schools, and eight pupils were selected from each class in the remaining six schools. In addition, ten head teachers were subjected to oral interviews. These were selected using universal sampling method. Thus, a total of 316 respondents participated in the study (306 pupils and 10 head teachers). Coping an example of the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) which administers oral and written examinations in French for the S.4 candidates to test their competency in French, even the researcher adopted this method. A researcher designed oral test and a written test were administered to the pupils to assess their competency in English language. Each was marked out of 100% after which the Arithmetic Means were calculated. The findings were that the level of pupils’ competence in Reading in English Language in Bundibugyo district was, on average high, given the mean of 3.13; the primary school pupils in Bundibugyo district are, on average incompetent in writing and comprehending words, sentences and stories of simple English like that of P.3 level (given the grand mean of 2.16; and there is no significant difference in pupils’ overall competence in English language between public and Private Primary Schools in Bundibugyo district (Sig-value, 0.07). The recommendations were that parents in Bundibugyo should put in more effort to work hand in hand with the teachers to ensure that their children do better in English; there is need for parents to regularly visit schools where their children are studying from to discuss with teachers their children’s progress and to forge the way forward; and, public school administrators should learn a lesson and be more serious on teachers and pupils for them to produce better results.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the college of education, open, distance and e-learning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a Degree of Master of Education in Educational Management and Administration, Kampala International University, Uganda
Keywords
Pupils’ competency, English language, thematic curriculum, Bundibugyo
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