Household factors that determine pupil’s age at first primary school enrollment in Uganda

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to identify the household factors that determine the pupil’s age at first primary school enrollment in Uganda. The data used was secondary cross-sectional data from descriptive statistical survey from Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (Uganda Bureau of Statistics and Macro International Inc, 2006). The researcher determined the effect of socio-demographic and socio-economic factors on the pupil’s age at first primary school enrollment in Uganda. The researcher assessed the risks and likelihoods of socio-demographic and socio-economic factors on the pupil’s age at first primary school enrollment. The relationship between pupil’s ages at first primary school enrollment and the independent variables was analyzed using a parametric log-normal model where pupils not at school were considered as censored observations, time variable was age at first primary school enrollment and the failure variable was ever attended school. The study revealed that the highest education level attained by the household head, relationship of the pupil with the household head, wealth index, age of the household head, sex of the head of the household and the pupil’s type of place of residence were significant in determining the pupil’s age at first primary school enrollment, with 95% confidence. The researcher recommended that the government should sensitize the parents and guardians about the importance of enrolling children to primary school at the recommended age of 6 years and also the likely dangers of enrolling children to school above 6 years. There is need for legal provisions to be put in place to impose sanctions against parents and guardians who don’t enroll their children to school at the recommended age. A national study should be carried out to find out exactly the number of children enrolled to primary school at a specified age.