Household factors influencing child dropout in government-aided primary schools; case study: Wakiso district
Abstract
The study examined the household factors influencing child dropout in government aided
primary schools in Wakiso district. Universal primary education has registered
tremendous enrolment figures in the past years but there is still evidence showing that
not all children are able to complete the seven-year primary education cycle as there
significant dropouts. Therefore, the study sought to investigate child dropout in primary
schools in the context of household factors such as parental education, child gender,
number of school going age children, the household head health status and employment
status.
The major objective of the study was to examine the factors influencing child drop out in
government aided primary schools with specific reference to house-related factors. The
specific objectives include; to establish the relationship between parents’ level of
education and child dropout from school, to examine the relationship between child’s
gender and child dropout from school, to establish the relationship between number of
primary school going age children in the household and child dropout in school, to assess
whether health status of household members has an influence on child dropout from the
school and to establish the relationship between household head employment status and
child dropout from the school.
This study used primary data primary collected from the field survey and secondary data
was also gathered through literature review from various publications, journals and
internet. The study used a cross-sectional design that involved collecting data on various
issues related to household factors influencing child drop out in government aided
schools at a single period in time. Univariate Analysis capturing descriptive statistics
such as frequencies, percentages and cumulative frequencies were used to describe
participants’ responses on the variables under consideration. Bivariate analysis using the
chi square statistic was used to investigate whether distributions of categorical variables
differ from one another.
A multivariate analysis using a binary logistic regression model was run to establish the
relationships between the independent variables and dependent variable.
Findings from the study showed that the child gender preferred, with a base of female
was statistically significant given that the p-value of 0.002 and the odds ratio 0.432 .This
meant that male children had less chances of dropping out of school than their female
counterparts. A positive significant relationship between the number of school going age
children in the house hold and child drop was established with a p value 0.003 with the
odds ratio of 0.614. This implied that an increase in the number of children in the
household from 3 to 4 would significantly lead to child drop out form school.
The study recommended government to promote girl- child education, encourage
manageable family sizes, improve health services, focus on creating employment
opportunities and enhance household incomes to reduce poverty levels.