BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.0 Introduction

This chapter comprises of the following; background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, objective of the study, significance of the study, limitation and delimitation and operational definitions of terms.

Alcoholabuse has permeated’ all strata of society, with the youth and young adults being the category most affected. Most alcohol abusers fall between 13 and 30 years of age although experimentation begins much earlier at even 3 years.

When these young people engage in alcoholism at this render age, their future is doomed and so is the country.

The government of Kenya views the problem seriously and has therefore ratified the United Nations conventions of Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance abuse and formed a special anti-Narcotic unit with the’ police forces also enacted a law “the Narcotic unit with the police force 1 and also substances control Act (1994) to curb abuse and trafficking. Under the liquor and licensing acts it is an offence to sell alcohol to any one who is less than 18 years of age.Anyone doing this risk persecution if caught having committed the above offences you Researchers globally  have found associations between HED in students and decreased class attendance (Wechsler, Dowdall, Maenner, Gledhill – Hoyt, & Lee, 1998), falling behind on readings and assignments (Wechsler et al., 1998), decreased time spent studying (Wechsler, Dowdall, Davenport, & Castillo, 1995), and decreased interest in school (Bryant, Schulenberg, O’Malley, Bachman, & Johnston, 2003). These variables may also contribute as mediators in the drinking-achievement relationship because they may explain why drinking are associated with decreased achievement.

It is important for learners to understand that it is an offense to indulge in alcoholism as shown in the children young persons act.

However, alcoholism has caused a lot of danger to primary school children because they stay at home due to parents addiction forgetting that early primary school education is important for their children. Most parents have failed in their responsibilities like guiding and counseling their hence ** poor performance in primary education.

1.1 Statement of the Problem

Alcohol abuse has many negative side effects to the youth as it leads to increase in the rate of school dropout, early pregnancy, increased crime rate and above all increased spread of HIV/AIDS, (Johnston, 2003).

Performance of students in primary schools boys and girls in most primary schools in Uganda especially the universal primary education schools have been poor according to (UNEB RECORD, 2010)  Busia district located in eastern Uganda is one of the poorest performing districts in Uganda with less than 5% of its primary school pupils performing in division one its on this ground that the study intends to investigate in to the effects of alcohol on performance of boys and girls in primary school in Bunyala south location Busia Sub county.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study on the effects of alcohol on performance of young children in primary education are;

• To find out the effects of drug/alcohol on the performance of children in primary schools.
• To find out the effects of alcohol on the cognitive development of the children.
• To examine the challenges of performance on pupils in primary school?

1.2.1 Research Questions

• Does alcohol affect the performance of children in
  primary school?
• Is there any relationship between the performance of children and the drugs/alcoholic abuse?
• What are the challenges of performance on pupils in primary school?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study strictly is to find out the effects of alcoholism on the performance of children in Bunyala district, Bunyala south division in Busia County, Kenya.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The findings will help the society at large to mobilize its members and take responsibilities to implement the project that will assist them on how to deal with alcoholism.

The finding will help the teacher, counselor in his or her efforts of counseling the care givers on the effects of ) alcoholism on the performance of primary school children and ways of eliminating alcohol and alcoholism to enhance I high performance in primary school education. The policymakers will use the findings as a reference during their monitoring and supervision exercise.

The private sector, NGO’s faith based organization, community abased organization and individuals will use the findings to educate the community on the effects of alcohol and ways of eradicating alcoholism to improve the performance of children in primary education. The findings of the research will also be use of the curriculum.

Developers so that they may design a relevant curriculum on alcohol and alcoholism and in-service new teachers on the effects of alcoholism and usefulness of eliminating drugs for the benefits of the developing primary education.

1.5 Limitation and Delimitation

There is likely to be lack of co-operation on the respondent’s side for fear of being reported to the principles administration since the issue is alcohol abuse which according to the liquor and licensing act, one risk persecution.

The weather is likely to be poor making areas unreachable. Time is also another issue because enough time is needed for the researcher to collect, analyzes and presents information in the form required by KNEC.

1.6 Delimitation

The language spoken by the catchment area is well known to the researcher hence getting the first hand information orally will be fast. The/topography of the area I   is known to the researcher hence/movement to collect data ^K I s not a challenge like it was a” new place.

1.7 Conceptual Framework

The study will find out how the concentration, school dropout and absenteeism as the independent variables, academic performance as the dependent variable as illustrated below.

Independent variables

Dependent variables

1.7.1 Operational Definition of Terms

Concentration: It refers to the situation where pupils failto ay attention, the activities being carried out because of the hung over, fear of shame and the discipline measures that might be given to him or her.

School dropout: In this study it meant the situation whereby pupils live school intentionally due to the peer influence in Bunyala south.

Absenteeism: This is the inconsistent in school attendance due to alcoholism.

Academic Performance: This is the poor achievement in class        due to the fact that the drinks affect them and in most cases when the teachers are teaching.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

This chapter discusses what various scholars have written about the effects of alcohol on performance of boys and girls;

Drinking has devastating and traumatizing effects on the drinker ranging from health, economic and social effects. According to Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) 2001,diseases like hypertension, throat cancer, brain damage, comma, cold, liver cirrhosis are ultimate from excessive drinking. Due to this excessive drinking, family income is spent creating constraints for example inability to pay school fees, food, land, clothes purchase are hardly done. This leads to quarrels, fights family breakages and hopelessness which lead to children to indulge in unprotected sex which will result to low performance hence dropout.

Rhoda MC. Farland, (1997) states that coping up with substance abuse, alcoholism and addiction has led to mothers not taking care of their families and the people involved don’t seem to value what is/considered important to our society. To young people, emotional youth is stopped because alcoholism interferes with a young person’s perception of The world. A drugged brain cannot learn the judgment and decision making skills necessary for emotional growth. The negative consequences of drugs come in all areas of life. Socially it causes fight, bad grades at school, disrupt classroom behavior, physically it cause stomach aches, cough, running nose, legally it leads to arrest for assault while drunk, emotionally it causes depression and feelings angry.

2.2 Effects of Alcohol on Performance

According to Nsubuga (2008), the poor academic performance by some children from homes whose parents are alcoholics, this is mainly due to the fact that most of these children are not well supported by parents and therefore they tend to take academics for granted. Among the social causes there is a practice of heavy drinking by one or both parents. Many parents and guardians, who come home drunk, terrorize their children. Parents especially fathers regularly come home after midnight, wake children up make them sit and wait until they finish their supper and go back to bed. This deprives the children of sleep and thus fathers cannot provide for their children because of drinking. This practice by fathers of children affects their education and academic performance.

In a separate study, Peterson (2009), says that, success in learning a subject by pupils relates closely to the learners’ home background, he goes further to state that children of the white collar job and middle class parents have a greater chance of success while those of the blue collar jobs have the least. Children who exhibit a high level of motivation tend to come from higher socio-economic status families and perform better largely because of exposure to learning in daily practice. Several studies, including Freire (2001), point out that socio-economic status of parents is a significant independent variable that affects pupils’ academic performance. Local researchers in several subjects have supported these findings over different years.

Children who have been exposed to learning before going to school do not experience a lot of learning difficulties. However it is the literacy of parents more than anything else that influences the learning of the pupils thereafter. Thus children whose parents and the community with in which they live are rich    were forced to learn at a much earlier stage than their counter parts who must wait until they go to school, Mlama (2003).

Alcoholism always tends to lead to limited parental support for the children academic activities; According to Ezewu (1989), parental support and encouragement serve as a motivation to good performance for children in schools. This is supported by Otti (2005), who says that in order to better academic performance parents have a big role in education of children.

Kirugi (2005) said that, alcohol leads poor concentration of the pupils in schools this therefore accelerates poor performance among the school going children in schools and above all this also leads to poor performance among the girls and boys, while Makole (2009), further stated that stated that without parental guidance and counseling and realistic information to education both boys and girls tend to have poor and low concentration on academics

According to FAWE (Forum for African Women Educationists) January to April (2007), the Ministry of education and sports has developed a campaign to promote access.

Post-undergraduate success is becoming increasingly difficult for primary school pupils, students, as competition in the workforce is fierce (Miller & Slocombe, 2012). Now more than ever, academic achievement is important to a student’s success in many facets of post -undergraduate life: acceptance to graduate and professional programs, career opportunities, and future earning potential. Academic achievement can be influenced by a number of factors, and the effect of alcohol consumption on achievement has been of particular interest to researchers. Researchers have found an association between heavy episodic student drinking and decreased academic achievement (Pascarella et al., 2007; Singleton, 2007; DeBerard, Spielmans, & Julka, 2004; Porter & Pryor, 2007), with current research focused on empirically determining variables that mediate this relationship.

Ruther (1996), consumption during pregnancy affects the unborn baby. The child born may suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome which brings about defects like abnormal looking eyes, mal proportional faces, small head and organ defects, the child may also become mentally retarded or may be below average in intellectual function.

All those results to poor ‘performance in class work since they child may delay to start schooling. A child who is mentally retarded is hard to cope up with the school environment. The child’s mind has a very short attention span, which makes him or her miss most of the things in class.

Rhoda M.C Fordland, (1998) a study done in states of California, most children in primary schools do form dismally in their class work. This is because, parents are alcoholic and drink alcohol while with their children. Children tend to think that alcohol is something accepted in the society, hence engaging themselves in it. Using alcohol such an early age disrupts child’s cognitive development.

According to her, children who are involved in alcohol abuse tend to withdraw from responsibilities. In primary schools, play is believed to have a great positive influence on learning. Teachers, who deal with children who have been used to alcohol in one way or another, find it hard to maintain those children especially during play activities. Their minds are not active since they have not been stimulated through play.

2.3 Effects of Alcohol on Cognitive Development

According to Russell (2000) he said that if one or both parents are alcoholics children are likely to suffer from an unstable emotional environment. Families which contain active alcoholics within the are beset by large numbers of destabilizing problem is excessive drinking of parents impair their ability to perform necessary work and household roles hence causing children to set a drift in areas of emotional chaos and filth, alcohol affects their performance in schools and future life.

According to Kenya literature Bureau (KLB) primary CRE cook and page 5, alcohol is also a drug because it enters the blood stream minutes of consumption and its effects on the brain are then felt. Alcohol is whatever amounts is dangerous to human health hence performance.

Karamet.al. (2008) suggested a relationship existing between alcohol use and anxiety levels. However, “there are methodological concerns in this work, which was places these findings under question. Importantly there was little or no vulnerability to alcohol misuse.

Galaif,  (2007)  reported a 100% increase in suicide among 10-14 years old in the years 1980 -1999 and a 14% increase in 15-19 years old. He argued that major depression was the most common cormobility of completed Suicide that alcohol abuse increased the reciprocal relationship between depression and alcohol abuse.

2.3 Challenges in performance of pupils

2.3.1 School Infrastructure

School infrastructures include classrooms, latrines/toilets, water facilities as well   as the school location. Although the Government of Uganda owns the largest number of primary schools (about 80%), due to declining budgetary resources allocated to the education sector, the infrastructures have remained inadequate making it difficult to guarantee equality of education access to all, as well as ensuring completion rate to those who enroll (Juuko and  Kabonesa 2007). Shortage of infrastructures and competencies to cope with large numbers of pupils is a challenge in the implementation of Universal Primary Education (MoES 2007). The Uganda Bureau of Statistics, UBOS,  (Tomasevski 1999) reported 60% schools to be classified as “ non-permanent” and schooling still takes place underneath trees or outside in the field. Building and refurbishing schools to meet the requirements of the large number of learners with limited funds available remains a huge challenge. Such learning environment negatively affects children as they get overcrowded in small rooms and those who attend from outside get scorched by the sun during the dry season while in the rainy season they get wet (Ibid). Generally, children under circumstances and especially those in the rural who get a chance to access education hardly survive till the end of the whole system. To those who survive in the system, both their output and outcomes are greatly compromised in way that most of them can never join primary education due to poor performance in primary leaving exams since UPE has lowered the performance of children as well as lack of school dues at primary level.

Clean environment leads to a sound mind, with budgetary constraints and inadequate infrastructures such as toilets and clean water in UPE schools; one wonders whether with limited budget, schools can have adequate facilities to make conducive learning environment for the pupils. Although UPE on paper promises to provide adequate school facilities through the facility grant, the reality on the ground shows that rapid enrolment was not matched with increase in infrastructure thus putting high pressure on the existing ones.

In 2000 only 8% of all primary schools under UPE program, had sufficient latrines for the pupils, and only one third of these schools had separate latrines for girls. This implies that 92% of all schools suffered from lack of latrines and two thirds had not separate toilets for boys and girls. This has a negative effect on the children’s survival in schools as many of the drop out of schools due to sanitation related sickness. This is evidenced in the report from the Ministry of health (2000) that about 2.7% of all pupils’ time is lost to sickness from sanitation related illnesses and most of them never return in schools. This phenomenon is common in rural schools than in urban which show some discrepancies in the implementation of UPE program that contributes to school dropout (MOFPED 2007). Besides latrines/toilets, water is necessary for maintaining equality of access, survival, output and outcome of education for all children. However, access to clean water for many schools has remained a problem in the reality of UPE, an issue that pushes children out of schools (Juuko and Kabonesa 2007). According to the MoES 2004 abstract, most primary schools use well/spring water (33.24%), followed by the borehole water of 28.63% which is not safe for drinking while very few urban schools use piped water. The fact that the Government had not taken the responsibility of providing water to these schools, fetching water for school and teachers have become another burden for the pupils and especially those in the rural where water is scarce making children from rural areas to be more disadvantaged than those in urban areas who have piped water. This double burden of making children miss classes while struggling for communal water with the villagers as well as child labouring is a serious problem that is affecting UPE in practice which consequently leads to school dropout.

2.3.2 Costs of Universal Primary Education

Despite the fact that the implementation of UPE came with the abolition of school fees and PTA charges, many children still fail to access school while others dropout because of the hidden costs borne by parents. The 2005/2006 Uganda National Household Survey found that 8% of households hardly had a meal a day due to poverty. At this rate, it is obvious that such family would rather spend little income they have on food rather than meeting hidden costs of education and especially the uniform which is compulsory. In cases where parents have a problem in meeting these costs, children are sent away from school until they get such money contrary to the Education Act (2008) provisions. To some extent, this causes some children to drop out of school while those who manage to go through to primary seven are likely to perform poorly due to time wasted and humiliation faced as they are always depicted as poor and unable to meet these costs.

In Uganda like in many African countries patriarchal characteristics are still strong, some parents and teachers favour boys more than girls. The reason is that many parents especially those in the rural think that girls get educated in order to know how to read, write and then be better daughters, wives and mothers, rather than equipping then with skills and knowledge that can enable them to handle their lives well as human beings and progressing their career of choice. A study by Atekyereza 2001 showed that married daughters are less likely than married sons to remit cash income to their parents. For such reason,

In cases where parents cannot afford to meet educational costs for all children, boys are favoured over the girls (Juuko and Kabonesa 2007). This among others remains a big concern in the practice of UPE which causes disparities in access and survival in education system for both girls and boys.

2.3.3 HIV infected and affected children

UPE in practice seems unfair to orphans and HIV/AIDS infected and affected children as it does not cover them enough. Due to lack of incentives, these children are excluded from the whole system. The extent, to which they access schools and survive in them once they come to know their HIV status, is not known very well. Their participation in school might imply some additional costs and at the same time, their families might be in need of some subsidies that would encourage school attendance on the part of the infected children as well as enable them cover some of their medical costs and other healthy needs.

But because UPE programme has not put into consideration their needs, these children among others from a sizeable number of those who drop out of school due to factors beyond their control. Besides their ill health problems and stigmatization from their fellow children and the teachers; many of them belong to poor families, in rural areas and urban shanty towns. This factor becomes a big challenge to UPE in ensuring equality of survival for them.

2.3.4 Instructional materials

Instructional materials include textbooks, teachers’ guides, blackboards, chalk and other class facilities that are necessary to ensure good quality education. Although the Government seems to have purchased a large number of textbooks as part of UPE programme implementation strategy, accessing them is limited to few schools which are well equipped. Worse still, due to high enrollment rates, these books are never enough; for example in (2004), it was reported at national level that textbook copies for primary four were on average 238,475 to 1,045,514 enrolled pupils, which is equivalent to 1:23 pupils, followed by primary three with an average of 214,217 to 1,150,525 pupils and then primary five with an average of 187,725 to 923,709 pupils enrolled (Juuko and Kabonesa 2007). In some cases, due to lack of space, books are often kept in stores under lock which makes it impossible for pupils to access them (Bategeka and Okurut 2006). The most affected schools are known to be those in the rural and urban slums. Since lack of instructional materials affects both children and teachers, many teachers get discouraged by this situation and de-motivated to teach which lead to poor quality education and in turn, children drop out as a result of poor quality of education.

2.3.5 Children with Disabilities

One of the paramount motives in implementing UPE programme in Uganda was to make primary school education accessible to all and children with disabilities were encouraged to join the mainstream schools. Though this looks a good entry point to the disabled in accessing education and especially to those who had been stigmatized before UPE program, it appears that special arrangements for these children are missing (Ssekamwa, 1999). For example in UPE schools, children who are visually impaired lack white canes and Braille machine paper, children who are physically handicapped lack wheelchairs, crutches and other facilities that they may need depending on their level of disability. Children who are deaf have little or no access to skilled teachers in sign language and interpreters. Further impacting problem is lack of transport due to the costly maintenance of vehicles and daily transportation of children to school (ibid). In addition, lack of adequate knowledge and skilled teachers to handle children with traditional disabilities is a factor worthy considering as a strong case against the success of UPE in ensuring equality survival in school for these children.

2.3.6 Children in war zones

Implementation of UPE programme has had a lot of challenges in the Northern Uganda. For over two decades; this area has experienced a devastating civil war waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) against the Government. This war did not only result into massive displacement of the entire population to camps, but seems to have been child-targeting and depriving their right of education. For example, the recent report of the abducted children amounts to about 26,662 (MoES 2007). UPE programme in practice has not taken into consideration the needs of children from this part of the country as there are few schools/classes within camps. The equality of survival in this situation has been extremely low to those who enroll and those who attempt to persist to continue the equality of output and outcome may not match their counterparts in safe areas due to moving up and down from one camp to another while saving their lives and looking for food (Tomasevki, 1999). In Bundibugyo the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) insurgency affected time for children to go to school and some of them dropped out of school because of this war in late 1990s.

2.3.7 Quality of Education

Under UPE, good quality of education is reflected on pupils’ ability to read, write and speak English (MOFPED) 2002: In order to improve the quality of primary education, the government has devoted some resources to procure some textbooks and construct some classrooms. The increase in education inputs explains the gradual improvement of some education quality indicators from the time UPE was introduced. Nevertheless, these improvements have not always translated into better outputs and outcomes of UPE programme education as evident in the results of a National Assessment of primary education Performance taken between 1996 and 2000, that education performance in terms of pupils’ numeric, reading, science, social studies knowledge and skills have deteriorated following the introduction of UPE programme (Bategeka and Okurut 2006). Some parents look at UPE with poor quality which makes it a sound reason for some of them to take their children to private schools. Some of the reasons behind poor quality education are for example automatic promotion policy that came with introduction of UPE as a way of minimizing Government expenditure. This has greatly undermined the quality and skills acquired by children as well as encouraging both pupils and parents to wrongly assume that what matters in order to gain promotion is to do exam and not necessary to pass (MOFPED 2002). This problem affects mostly poor children whose parents cannot afford coaching fees after common classes. During one of the interviews under automatic promotion process policy; this problem was emphasized as follows; UPE programme emphasizes promotion rather than efficiency. It is so bad that children in schools can neither read nor write their names yet they keep being promoted to higher classes. UPE programme promotes failures, for example a child who scores 80 marks out of the 400 can take the 12^th position out of 600 pupils. These are all failures and yet they are promoted to the next class” (ibid). In this regard, UPE in practice ignores the factor concerning quality education, an issue that makes the rate of survival in school for poor children very low as they avoid wasting their time and money in school without gaining appropriate skills.

Through UPE programme, it is the responsibility of the Government to provide adequate and well trained teachers. It should also monitor their work as well as cater for their well being so as to motivate them for providing quality education (Bategeka and Okurut, 2006). However the analysis on teacher’s quality reveals that a large proportion of primary school teachers lack appropriate training. For example, in 2003, there were 145,703 primary school teachers, of whom 54,069 (37%) had no formal teacher training and only 7,960 had just a teaching certificate, obtained after training on completion of primary education. The majority of unqualified teachers are deployed in UPE rural schools (ibid: 5). With this, one can easily see the extent to which UPE in practice does not guarantee equality of output to children in rural and other disadvantaged areas as untrained  teachers are less likely to give low quality teaching, an issue that contributes to school dropout.

According to 2007 primary education assessment report made by the Dutch Operations evaluation Department, between 20% and 30% of teachers are absent from school at any given time with the main reasons for being delayed and low salaries, long distances from their homes to schools and inadequate supervision (MoES, 2007). In the same report, Joseph Eilor, found that absenteeism of teachers was highest in rural and northern parts of Uganda. As teachers dodge their work at school, pupils also dodge in response to their teacher, a factor that compromises the rate of their survival in school as most of them never come back as the proverb says that; “when the cat is away, the mice play all ever”, whenever teachers are absent, the pupils also skip schooling.

2.3.8 Punishments and harassment

Corporal punishments and harassment destabilize children and prevent them from completing their school. They do not lead to school dropout alone but also expose them to physical and psychological dangers. It is however sad to note that even after introduction of UPE programme, corporal punishments like heavy beating, digging ant-hills and slashing bushes still exist which compromise equality of survival for children in schools.

Although sexual abuse and harassment is a crime and discouraged by law in Uganda, several reports in the press still show sexual abuse by male teachers on female students. This makes many young girls to get unwanted pregnancies and others get intimidated by their teachers, a reason that explain girls’ dropout more than boys (Kakuru, 2003).

Bandura (1973) studied and discovered that there is significant relationship between parents’ characteristics (both educational and occupational status) and the child’s attitude, values, feelings and guidance towards learning. This was indeed true because some parents particularly village parents were responsible for spoiling their children against regular attendances of school days, later on dropout of schools.

According to Durojaiye (1972), we must recognize the factors that are usually conditions of many African homes and everyday-living conditions as probably inadequate for our children to acquire large parts of their potentialities. The quotation implies that in our African setting, we had numerous problems that contribute to the poor performance of our children. For example lack of enough funds to manage our home problems like children’s education, health matters, feeding methods dressing and sleeping habits. Also these and many others caused a lot of imbalance in a child’s attitudes towards school life, hence making him/her for school life nothing but an academic prison. Finances might therefore be directed to boys at the expense of girls.

Durojaiye (1972) recommended that plans might exist for home-school contacts where parents get to know their children’s teachers for the effectiveness of their children. And this helped teachers to know more about the learner’s backgrounds and then discuss some learning problems where parents were able to help. The school’s major responsibility was to transmit knowledge to pupils; parents also must concern themselves with the work of the school and what are being taught to their children.

According to Fantana, (1981) poor living conditions and the un stimulating environment experienced by many lower socio-economic families may hinder the educational progress of children. Also such children said that they had no where at home to sit and read quietly or do their home work. And this led some children not to complete primary education.

Watson (2002) pointed out that children did not complete primary education due to some family reasons. Because of poor economic status of families, parents did not have much to support their children’s education. And the priority was given to boys and girls were made to leave school and began to do home activities all the time.

Fantana (1981) says that, success in learning a subject by pupils relates closely to the learner’s home background. He goes further to state that children of the white collar job and middle class parents have a greater chance of success while those of the blue collar jobs have the least. Children who exhibit a high level of motivation tend to come from higher socio-economic status families and perform better. Several studies, point out that socio-economic status is a significant independent variable that affects completion of primary level.

Mullar (1982), found out that, home background affects pupil’s completion of primary level in Uganda. He revealed that males from poor homes perform better than those from rich ones. The reason given was that the poor boy’s rough home life becomes a source of encouragement and inspiration to perform better for a bright future. Meanwhile, girls from good homes were found to perform better than those from poor ones. The reason here was that rich girls have less economic worries and therefore stabilize on books while poor girls waste time looking for money from men and consequently some end up dropping out of school.

In times of diminished food resources, girls and their mothers are often last to be fed, resulting in a diet low in calories and protein. An estimated 450 million adult women in developing countries are stunted as a result of lack of childhood protein for energy.  Iodine and iron deficiencies have significant consequences for pregnant women and their off springs. The alarming increase is the number of girl’s infected with the HIV virus. Adolescent girls are at high risk of contracting HIV because their low social status often pressures them into situations where they are forced to have unprotected sexual intercourse with men. Girls are often treated as inferior to boys, both within the home and by society at large. They are socialized to put themselves last, which in turn undermines their self-esteem and their ability to reach their full potential as human beings. When a girl is prevented from going to school or is too exhausted to pay attention in class because of her work load at home, she is being denied her right to education. Girls carry the bulk of responsibility for the house work while boys study play or attend to their interests and hobbies, so girls are discriminated (Njeuma,:1993)

According to Odaet and Buye, (1997), domestic affairs effected girl’s completion of primary education because girls did a lot of work than boys in many societies because of culture. They get involved in food preparation, child care, grinding millet and so on. And this situation worsens as the girls grow older, and denied rights of getting enough time to rest and read their books for a better performance and later on does not complete primary education. They compared groups of successful and unsuccessful learners and found out that parental re-enforcement positively correlates with academic performance and achievement. Socially girls were believed to do much work like helping their mothers in home activities and this led them to have less time to concentrate on their studies compared to boys. And this affected their concentration and later on dislike of schooling.Mullar (1982).

The National Action Plan on women, (1999) shows that the low priority given to the girls education, their heavy domestic work load, demand for girl child labour have significant effect on the girl’s education. Since they bear the burden of additional household work and may be withdrawn from school altogether.

Njeuma, (1993) shows that sending girls to schools has high opportunity costs especially for rural parents who depend on girl’s domestic work. Education costs for girls (fees and uniforms tend to be higher than that of boys thus limiting their education). This is because most parents can afford sending a daughter to school in torn or ill fittings clothes. Bawn, (1985) found out that the curricular and most educational materials in schools were designed with interests of boys.

Attitudes parents show towards their children’s school can off set or reinforce in, saying, that if parents attitudes are negative, then the levels to reach will be lowered and vise versa.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction

This chapter presents the methodology which consists of the research design, area of study, study population, sample population and selection, sampling technique, data collection method, data quality control, data collection procedures and limitations of the study.

3.1 Research design

The study will use descriptive research design. The researcher will employ descriptive research design since it provides the opinion of people about the subject knowledge on the effects of alcohol on performance of boys and girls in primary school. The design will avail the researcher with comprehensive information about the research study as a way of getting solutions. Descriptive approach, in this case will be used because the study seeks descriptive analysis of information.

3.2       Area of the study

The study will be carried out at Buyala sub-county

3.2.1 Study population and sample size

The study will target 10 schools and 15 teachers in the location, the respondents are the head teachers and the teachers with the total number of 300 respondents.

3.3 Sampling techniques

According to (Amin, 2005) sampling involves selecting a sample of the population in such a way that samples of the same size have equal chances of being selected.

While carrying out research, purposive sampling will be applied to the above different categories of respondents.

The researcher will choose the respondents from information technology department using convenience sampling technique; according to Amin, (2003) convenience sampling is A statistical method of drawing representative data by selecting people because of the ease of their volunteering or selecting units because of their availability or easy access, The advantage of this type of sampling are the availability and the quickness with which data can be gathered.

3.4 Data collection methods

Source of data will be from both primary and secondary sources.

• Primary data

Primary data will be obtained from the questionnaires administered on the target respondents to gain opinions and practices on effects of alcohol on performance of boys and girls in primary schools in Buyala sub-county Busia district.

• Secondary sources

Secondary data is data which has been collected by individuals or agencies for purposes other than those of a particular research study. It is data developed for some purpose other than for helping to solve the research problem at hand (Bell, 1997). This will comprise of literature related to effects of alcohol on performance of boys and girls. Secondary data will be sourced because it yields more accurate information than obtained through primary data, and it is also cheaper

3.5 Data Collection Instruments

The major instruments for data collection will be questionnaires and interview guide. Surveys will be just one part of a complete data collection and evaluation strategy. The major method of data collection for the study will be the survey, which will be done using selected instruments like questionnaires. The questionnaire will provide respondents with ample time to comprehend the questions raised and hence, they will be able to answer factually.

3.5.1 Questionnaires

The questionnaire will be used to collect quantitative data. The researcher will administer the questionnaires to different respondents including; teachers and head teachers, which will be designed basing on study objectives and questions. Respondents will read and write the questionnaires themselves. The questionnaires will be close ended and will be considered convenient because they will be administered to the literate and its anonymous nature will fetch unhindered responses.

3.5.2 Interviews

Qualitative data will be collected from the informants using interviews. The interview guide will be structured. The interviews will be held with head teachers, and will take approximately thirty to sixty minutes. This will be used since it’s the best tool for getting first-hand information /views, perceptions, feelings and attitudes of respondents. Both formal and informal interviews will be used to get maximum information from the different respondents to participate in the research.

3.6 Data collection procedures

Upon receiving the University permission to carry out research, the area of study will be visited for purposes of familiarization.  The researcher will seek permission from head teachers and once allowed to proceed with research, questionnaires will be issued and interviews will be carried out with the selected respondents.

3.7 Quality control of data instruments

The instrument will be taken to the supervisor to check its correctness there after pilot study will be carried out to find out if it measures what it is meant to for.

3.8 Data processing and analysis

The raw data will be coded, edited, and arranged ready for analyzing only completed raw data will be analyzed using statistical tables and graphs.

3.9 Limitations of the study

Financial constraint, cash flow may not flow as   expected but this will not affect the study. Respondents may delay in filling the questionnaire and fear to give information, but they will be persuaded that the information will be kept secret