Management of private secondary schools in selected districts of Uganda and its effect of human rights practices

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the general management of private secondary schools in the selected districts of Uganda and how human rights practices were being affected in the process of implementing management decisions. The study was based on five objectives namely to examine the effect on human rights practices of: 1. Planning for various activities in private secondary Schools in the selected districts of Uganda. 2. Coordination of various activities in private secondary schools in the selected districts of Uganda. 3. Staffing in private secondary schools in the selected districts of Uganda. 4. Reporting on various activities in private secondary schools in the selected districts of Uganda. 5. Institutional budgeting for various activities in private Secondary Schools in the selected districts of Uganda. The study, which used a cross sectional survey design, was conducted in 357 purposively sampled private secondary schools in the eight selected districts of Uganda employing over 1700 respondents. The instruments used to tap data included; questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussion as well as documentary analysis.

The major findings showed that both administrators and students did not believe that management in their schools consider human rights practices such as provision of health services, security, food, and employment of workers on merit and quality education as important in the management of various school activities.

The general conclusion from the findings is that management of a good number of private secondary schools in the selected districts of Uganda has greatly fallen short of developing a culture to practice Human rights in the process of implementing managerial functions. All respondents contended that there were major weaknesses in the promotion and protection of Human rights practices in private secondary schools in the selected districts of Uganda. To ensure the promotion and protection of Human rights practices, the government of Uganda, through the ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) has to regularly inspect the construction and management of private secondary schools.

As a result of the findings, the researcher made the following recommendations: 1. The Ministry of Education and Sports and District Education Officers, to ensure through regular supervisions, that managers include in their school plans the practice of the rights to security, health, employment, food and education. 2. The Ministry of Education and Sports and the District Education Officers, to regularly sensitize administrators on the importance of coordinating human rights practices in schools. This should be done through activities such as seminars, workshops, writing of official circular letters and inspection. 3. The Ministry of Education and Sports together with the District Education Officials, to set minimum standards and qualifications for teachers employed by private secondary schools and through the Inspectors of schools make habitually supervisions to check on the academic transcripts of the members of staff. 4. Inspectors of schools to give annual reports on the state of human rights provisions in schools that are found in their area of jurisdiction to the Ministry of Education and Sports for action. 5. The District Education Officers to ensure that managers in their budgets give adequate consideration to human rights issues like security and catering through regular supervisions.