STUDENTS' ABSENTEEISM: A SILENT KILLER OF UNIVERSAL SECONDARY EDUCATION (USE) IN UGANDA

Abstract

Education has a huge impact on any human society and it can safely be assumed that no society is optimally functional 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 qualitative and quantitative approaches/methods. Data was collected using secondary and primary sources. Secondary sources consisted of publications, reports and literature related to students’ absenteeism whist 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 of which 226 returned their fully completed questionnaires giving a response rate at 81.3%; obtained from 17 out of 36 USE schools in the four (4) districts of Serere, Ngora, Soroti and Kumi comprised of 07, 04, 03, and 03 USE schools respectively. The four districts were considered because they have all categories of secondary schools in Uganda. 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 disease, loss of parent or close relative, peer influence, and harsh punishment at school were the top ten (10) causes of students’ absenteeism in USE schools respectively. These causes were both un excused (64.5%) and excused (35.5%). Furthermore, the empirical study also shows that; the average rate of students’ absenteeism is 23.18% 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 scholastics 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 relationship 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.