Influence of fishing and fishing-related activities on schooling among secondary school students

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of fishing and fishing-related activities on schooling amongst secondary school students in Amolatar district, Uganda. The study objectives were: (i) To establish the level of secondary school students’ involvement in fishing and fishing-related activities (ii) To find out the role of fishing and fishing related activities on schooling of secondary school students in Amolatar District. (iii) To generate recommendations that can inform the practices, policies and programs to support secondary school students engaged in fishing and fishing-related activities to remain in school and complete the education cycle in Amolatar District. The study sample size was 360 respondents including 300 students in five selected schools using simple random sampling technique, 30 teachers in the 5 selected schools purposely selected and 30 parents of students in the 5 selected schools were also purposely selected. The research 33 students out 300 were involved in fishing while 87 were involved is some kind of fishing-related activities including setting and mending of net, sorting out fish, fish cutting and sun-drying amongst others. The research also found out the fishing and fishing related activities had a lot of influence on schooling as it affects attendance, retention/persistence in school, completion and concentration in school which also affects academic performance. The research generated recommendations that included involvement of parents and Beach Management Units (BMU) in enforcing attendances, regulating the time for fishing and fishing related activities, putting strict by-laws on school attendance, working with school boards to support those most at risk of dropping out.