The determinants of learning outcomes of primary education in Uganda: Evidence from UWESO Household Survey 2012

Abstract

The government of Uganda started implementing education for all programs in 1997 by introducing Universal Primary Education (UPE). Since then, many similar policy interventions have been undertaken such as the introduction of Universal Secondary Education (USE) in 2007, Universal Post Primary Education and Training (UPPET) in 2011. However, the pupil performance especially at primary level, is still low as evidenced from the various progress evaluation reports such as National Assessment of Progress in Education (NAPE) and Primary Leaving Education (PLE) results released by Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB). All these reports including the UWESO annual reports show that about 52 percent of the primary pupils cannot pass the literacy and numeracy tests (UWESO, 2013). Therefore, the major aim of this study is to establish mainly the household factors that influence the learning outcomes for primary pupils in Uganda. The conceptual model adopted in this study is based on the production function framework where pupil’s performance is as a result of the combination of various educational inputs more specifically the household background characteristics. We use the UWESO cross section data and estimate a binary logit model to establish factors that influence learning outcomes of primary pupils. The findings of the study indicate that the proficiency in English is lower than that of Mathematics and this need to be addressed. The results also show that the gender of the pupil does not matter for his or her learning outcomes. Age of the pupil, the parents’ education level, age of the household head and talking to a teacher have a positive impact on the achievement of the learning outcomes. The type of the school and the household size had a negative effect on the pupils’ performance. In consideration of the findings, we recommend that parents should take children who are at least above 6 years to primary one and that they should always visit the schools and talk to the teachers who teach their children. It is very important to talk to teachers to ascertain how the pupils are copying up with the studies in class. In case of any problem or challenge as observed by the teacher, both the teacher and the parent collectively address the problem. There is need for efforts to ensure that pupils in government schools perform as those in private schools. Keywords: Learning outcomes, primary education, Uganda