Research consultancy

2.0. Introduction

The aim of the study was to investigate the factors that influence retention of pupils’ primary schools under universal primary education schools in Bundibugyo district. Related literature is reviewed and will be focused on policy gaps and factors for drop out, effect of parents support in enhancing retention and policies in place to avert drop out in primary schools.

2.1. Theoretical review

Scholars have long held an interest in pupil departure, partly because it is acomplex human behavior; partly because it is related to other factors like status attainment, self-development, and the development of human capital; and partly because it is a place where theory can have an impact on practice. Retention studies are important to institutions because if institutions can maintain or increase their retention rates, they can survive, and possibly prosper.

Since pupil retention is by definition a process that occurs over time, theoretical models tend to be longitudinal, complex, and contain several categories of variables that reflect both pupil and institutional characteristics. Theories of departure provide an explanation of why pupils leave school. Theoretical models of departure are models based on theories, while models of departure identify factors assumed to be related to retention without providing an explanation of why the factors act the way they do. Theories, theoretical models, and models are used somewhat interchangeably in the literature.

Pupil retention models are complex because they contain a large number of variables, often set in a casual pattern. A variable could either affect retention directly, or it could affect some other variable that has a direct effect on retention. For example, high school grades could directly affect rates of retention (e.g. the higher the high school grades, the higher the rate of retention). High school grades could also be thought to affect retention indirectly; that is, the higher the high school grades, the higher the school grades-and the higher the school grades, the higher the rate of retention.

Since 1970, the main theoretical tradition in the study of pupil retention has been sociological, involving a search for commonalities of behaviors that distinguish groups of pupils who stay from groups of pupils who leave. Psychological and socio-psychological approaches, concerned with how individuals assess themselves in an educational context, began to develop after 1980. In the decade of the 1990s there was an increasing interest in how economic factors affect retention and in how the cultural factors typical of subgroups of pupils affect retention decisions, particularly in terms of minority pupil retention. Other theoretical approaches have been taken, but have had little empirical study. Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) offered a summary on pupil retention and other associated outcomes.

Vincent Tinto’s model of pupil departure has had the greatest influence on our understanding of pupil retention. His theory helped guide a large number of dissertations and empirical studies of pupil retention. The model posits that pupils enter school with family and individual attributes as well as preschool schooling. They enter with certain commitments, both to finishing school and to staying at their school. They enter an academic system that is characterized by grade performance and intellectual development, which together lead to academic integration, and they enter a social system where peer group interactions and faculty interactions lead to social integration. Academic and social integration work together to influence ongoing goal and institutional commitments, which, in turn, lead to the decision to remain in, or to leave school. This model was later revised through the addition of commitments outside the institution and intentions to remain enrolled, Terenzini (1999).

The explanatory theory underlying Tinto’s model came most immediately from the research of William Spady (1971), who saw an analogy between committing suicide and dropping out of school. In both instances, according to Spady, a person leaves a social system. The French philosopher and sociologist Emile Durkheim had found that some people committed suicide because they lacked the values of the social system in which they participated, and because they were not supported by a group of friends. At the core of his model, Tinto borrowed Spady;’s use of Durkheim’s two postulates to identify the concepts of academic and social integration. Academic integration was thought to be the result of sharing academic values, and social integration was viewed as the result of developing friendship with other pupils and faculty members. In Tinto’s model, a pupil who does not achieve some level of academic or social integration is likely to leave school.

While Tinto’s (1993) later model is similar in structure to his earlier ones, it offers another explanation of pupils’ departure: failure to negotiate the rites of passage. According to this theory, pupils would remain enrolled if they separated themselves from their family and high school friends, engage in processes by which they identified with and took on the values of other pupils and faculty, and committed themselves to pursuing those values and behaviors.

A second theoretical trust came from John Bean, based on empirical and theoretical studies published in the 1980s, an explanatory model of pupil retention, and a psychological model of pupil retention developed by John Bean and Shevawn Eaton (2000). Originally based on a model of turnover in work organizations, Bean’s model evolved into one where the overall structure was based on a psychological processes, the model was similar to Tinto’s in that it was complex and longitudinal. The model differed from Tinto’s original model in two important ways, however: It included environmental variables (or factors outside the school that might affect retentions) and a pupil’s intentions, a factor found to be the best predictor of pupil retention. These factors were subsequently incorporated into Tinto’s model (1993) model.

Bean’s model, described traditional-age pupils, posits that background variables, particularly a pupil’s high school educational experiences, educational goals, and family support, influence the way a pupil interacts with the school or university that the pupil chose to attend. After matriculation (as in Tinto’s model) the pupil interacts with institutional members in the academic and social arena. According to Bean (1993). The pupil also interacts in the organizational (bureaucratic) area, and is simultaneously influenced by environmental factors, such as wanting to be with others at another school or running out of money. A pupil’s interaction with the institution leads the pupil to develop a set of attitudes toward himself or herself as a pupil and toward the school. Academic capabilities (as indicated by grade point average), feeling one fits in at an institution, and loyalty to the institution are a primary set of outcomes that are extremely important in determining a pupil’s intentions to remain enrolled, as well as actually continuing enrollment. Bean eta-l (1985) also developed a model of pupil retention for non traditional pupils which reduced the emphasis on social integration actors since non traditional (older, working, commuting) pupils have less interaction with others on campus than do traditional, residential pupils.

Bean and Easton (2000) model describes how three psychological processes affect academic and social integration. While attitude-behaviors theory provides an overall structure for the model, self-efficacy theory, coping behavioral (approach-avoidance) theory, and attribution (locus of control) theory are used to explain how pupils develop academic and social integration.

These grand theories of pupil retention of the 1990s, which attempt to simplify a very complex action into a series of identifiable steps, are inadequate to deal with either specific populations or individual decisions. Because of this inadequacy, a series of articles was written to provide increased explanations of certain aspects of pupil retention. A collection of these partial theories, which provide a closer look at a certain aspect of pupil retention decisions, was published by John eta-l in 2000. This volume contains explanations of retention behavior based on economic factors, psychological processes, campus climate, pupil learning, campus cultures ethical differences, school choice, social reproduction, and power (critical theory).

Of these theoretical approaches, a number of studies of the economic influences on retention have been conducted, particularly by Edward (2000) based on cost-benefit analysis, these studies examine how retention decisions are affected by ability to pay, family resources, pupils aid, perceptions of aid, and tuition.

Regardless of the particular approaches taken in a model, the general process of pupil retention remains the same: Both experiences before entering school and academic abilities are important; the way pupils interact in the social and academic environment once at school are important, as are factors from outside of the institution, particularly the cost of attending the school; and the attitudes a pupil forms about the institution and about his or her role of being a pupil at a particular institution (Do I fit in? Am I developing? Am I validated?) are also important aspects of a pupil’s decision to remain enrolled.

2.2. Conceptual review on retention

According to Noddings (1987), high quality educators cannot separate sound educational decision making from the dispositions associated with “caring.” The values found in the theme of “caring” are crucial to educators engaged in growth (Noddings, 1987). The common threads that run through this theme include the role educators’ play in the lives of their pupils, in the welfare of the community, and in the ethics of personal and professional accountability (Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Educators are caregivers, models, and mentors and must treat pupils with respect, set good examples, and support positive social behaviors (Lickona, 2001). The unit is mindful that there is no prototypical “teaching personality” but believes that standards would be incomplete without attention to dispositions. The Unit supports values, commitments and professional ethics that influence behaviours toward pupils, families, colleagues, and communities and that affect pupil learning, motivation, and the educator’s own professional growth.

Pupils that have economic, social, or educational advantages are the least likely to leave schools, while pupils lacking these advantages are the most likely to leave. Advantaged pupils are also likely to attend the most elite schools, and since these pupils are least likely to leave school before graduating, these schools have the highest retention rates, (Bandura, 1973). The reverse is also true. Community schools, regardless of their quality or value, are lowest status institutions and have the lowest rates of retention. To say that the most elite schools have the highest retention rates is partly a tautology, because one part of the definition of elite ness is the rate of retention. Nevertheless, elite ness and pupil retention run hand in hand.

2.3 SOCIAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PUPILS’ RETENTION

Achoka et al, 2012 asserts that long term effects of health and nutrition status of young children affect their retention in school to him the health of a child is very important if a child is to be retained in school the child must be healthy in order to learn as the saying goes healthy mind in a healthy body, while alderman et al, 2011, carried out a survey in parkistan rural children and found out that child health and nutrition had a greater impact on retention of children in school, further research by , onzima, 2010 indicates that school age going children who suffer from protein energy malnutrition, hunger or who luck certain micro nutrients in their diets donot have the same potential for learning as healthy and well nourished children.

Pidmore contends that children with poor health attend school less frequently and are more likely to repeat grades and less likely to remain at school this affects them because they don’t learn adequately and don’t have enough time to stay at school due to poor levels of retention, motivation, cognitive functions.

Irregular attendance is often the result of poor children’s health.

According to the probe report 2000 there is a link between illness related absence and retention as resuming studies after prolonged studies after prolonged absence from school can be difficult for a child on the other hand HIV/AIDS is also another issue slowing down the growth of the school aged population this has lowered enrollment in primary schools and caused low retention rates which are accelerated by effects originating from the deadly disease, Kasonde, 2013.

Parents shows discrimination to send HIV infected children to school because they feel little is occurring, teachers, few learning materials and employment prospects are slender to those children arguing that they will die before they Finnish school.

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, KAMOGA, 2010.

Parents’ economic status and child retention

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.

This scenario is also found in the provision of Lunch as children from very poor families who cannot afford lunch go without lunch which by itself is humiliation enough, leave alone studying on an empty stomach. this retards their physical and mental development and reduces their concentration at school which makes them leave school without completing their primary cycle.

Since UPE does not provide lunch in schools, this incidence happens to many children whose parents can’t afford to pay or pack some snack thus compromising equality of survival on the side of poor children. Failure to provide free meals in UPE schools is blamed on the Government; since this would be a strategy to retain children in schools (ibid) except that the Education Act (2008) gives this role to parents/guardians.

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 nowhere 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.

Gender and retention

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.

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,:2010)

According to Odaet et al, 2010), 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.

Child progress and retention

Schools in many countries especially in Uganda require that student’s successfully complete primary seven before allowing them to gain access to higher levels with situations were absence and temporary withdrawals are high the quality levels are low and retention rates are high, for example kane, 2004 drawing in UNESCO states that in over half of all the African countries more than one in ten students repeat at least one grade of primary there are added difficulties with these children repeating especially if they were late entrants since it extends the age range.

if children repeat more than once this may lead to low retention of children in school Lewin, 2007 asserts that lack of progression might also lead to children and some parents to question whether they should remain in school or not, further more rose 2001 further contends that if children repeat it deters them from completing the grade because they will be older and this increases the opportunity costs of their time and reduces their chances of finishing school.

Parents’ education level and child retention

Ersodo, 2005 observes that parental education is the most important consisted determinant of child education, high parental education is associated with increase in access, high attendance and high attention of the children in school, grant further states that parents who have attained a certain education level might want their children to achieve at least same level. Another set of reasons are put forward for the link between parental education and retention of children in school by some researchers indicate that none educated parents cannot provide the support or even don’t appreciate the benefits of schooling. There is evidence that educational level of the parent can influence which child is more likely to access and remain in school for a long time.

the above findings are in conformity with UNICEF 2011 minster of education 2014 who stated that parental education and decision always affect children retention in school were by students whose parents are educated can monitor and regulate their activities, provide emotional support, encourage independent decision are generally more involved in the studies of their children hence making them to complete their cycle.

According to Ezewu (1989), parental support and encouragement serve as a motivation to good performance and retention of girls in schools. This is supported by Otti (1995), who says that in order to enhance retention; parents have a big role in education of children.

Kirugi (2005) said that, so often girls are intentionally trained to be selfish through the strict upbringing and roles that they are often given at home. The parents who educate their girls want to dictate what type of subjects or courses to be done. Many poorly educated parents want their girls to study subjects which will give them good prospects for marriage.

Mukibi (2005) clearly shows the need of parental support and encouragement in enhancing retention of children at school. He contends that parents should provide all the necessary materials and good environment for girls’ education. England (1957) found out that abnormal home backgrounds are disruptive factors in enhancing retention of girls in school. Parents who are poor single parents and illiterate parents are in most cases unable to support their children in their studies thus; they fail to buy books, pens and other materials for their children.

Parental support in education may help to retain girls at school for longer periods of time and also enhance good academic performance. In his study Otawe (1953) concluded that children who dropped out early had worse conditions than those who stayed in school for longer periods of time.

According to UPE policies, parents are to participate fully in the education of their children by finding school places for them, providing mid day meals as well scholastic materials and this helps in retaining children in school and better performance in class. UPE hand books 2004, besides, parents provide safety and security to the children when traveling to and from school. It is therefore expected that parents have to play the primary role by supporting their children especially girls both at school and at home. Parental love, guidance and counseling in addition are vital tools for better performance and retention of girls in school. Girls, who are treated well at home and guided, feel accepted and build confidence and this enables them to develop desirable behaviours and motivation to continue with studies.

Makole (1989), stated that without parental guidance and counseling and realistic information to education, girls tend to have less ambition. This clearly puts parents responsible for guidance and counseling at home and at school.

2.4 CHALLENGES OF RETENTION OF PUPILS IN UPE SCHOOLS

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 secondary 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 the limited retention (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 limited retention.

Level of funding of UPE schools,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. This is just a sample of the incidents in UPE schools but the story is that corporal punishments threaten many children in schools which make them run away forever and never to return in school anymore.

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 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).

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.

2.5 STRATEGIES AIMED AT RETAINING PUPILS IN SCHOOL SO AS TO COMPLETE THE PRIMARY CYCLE

Poverty reduction, Njeru and Orodho,(2003). The two writers consent that the critical factors that are responsible for the low access and poor participation and retention in education is poverty.

High rates of poverty at household level have made poor households either not to enroll their children in primary schools or fail to sustain an uninterrupted participation of those who are enrolled due to inability to meet various requirements.

This has resulted in adequate provision of learning facilities to the enrolled, poor quality education and high dropout rates among the poor.

The above statement is supported by the UNESCO background paper which poses that poverty cannot be overcome without specific, immediate and sustained attention to enhancing access to education (UNESCO, 2002). Poverty is thus addressed in two avenues. First, inability to meet indirect costs for schooling, such costs are school learning and teaching materials, uniforms, transport to and from school and food Several studies done in Malawi, Ghana, Zambia, Ethiopia and Tanzania have shown that children are hindered form effective participation in schooling due to inability to afford such costs (Kelly, 2007).

In conformity with this situation, Mingat (2002) established that the richest households, 76 percent of their children attend school compared to 40% of the poorest households. This means that children from poor households have much lower attendance than those from richer households. UNESCO (2002) concurs with, Mingat that the level of the family income is one of the most powerful factor that influences primary school enrolments rates in the developing countries. (Onyango, 2000), showed that parental socio-economic background influences their children’s participation in education. This is especially so for the developing countries where children of the poor families are not provided with adequate educational materials and most are not apt to enroll in school if enrolled, they are more likely to drop out of school than children who are from better-off families.

Briggs, (1980) cited in Mbai (2004) contends that poor families may contemplate bearing the cost of sending their children to school but might abandon the whole exercise when more exercises are demanded.

A report carried out in contemporary economic policy magazine in January 2001 entitled “Determinants of school enrolment on performance in Bulgaria,” revealed that the role of the income among the poor and the rich is a major determinant for school access. Those poor families are constrained in their investment in education and withdraw from school prematurely.

Ending child labor, According to Mutegi (2005) conversation of the rights of the child defined a child as anyone below the age of 18. Child labor is destroying a generation of children. Children who start working when they are young never grow as they miss out on education. The Koech Commission TIQET (1999) also found that child labor is a rampant practice that continues to keep children out of school, especially in the prevailing situation of poverty at the household level. Children in different parts of the country are involved in activities such as fishing, picking of coffee, tea, Mira, hawking and petty trading. In addition many school age girls are employed as house girls and child menders in urban and rural areas. This habit contravenes the children’s rights as stated below “every child shall be protected from economic exploitation and any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with child’s education” (Children’s Act, 2001 pg. 153).

One of the most serious obstacles to school enrollment is child labor. Children who work tend to have erratic school attendance and poor concentration in class. For example, using household survey data from MOES (2011) found a link between child labor and reduced educational attainment, as measured by grade repetition. Guarcello et al. (2008) also identify child labor as a major obstacle to achieving universal primary education and other development goals.

Children from poor households are particularly vulnerable because the opportunity cost of schooling is substantially higher for them. Such children may have to work in the fields, grazing the family’s animals or protecting crops against predators. Both Psacharopoulos (2009) and Priva (2010) found that children from poor households who work contribute significantly to total household income. Priva argues that banning child labor could reduce the welfare of the households intending to send their children to school. .

TIQET (1999) thus concluded …All these forms of labour, whether paid, interfere with children’s participation in education, either denying them access and retention or hindering their effective participation, by causing dropout and absenteeism.

Organization are working towards ending gender discrimination this is normally by non government organization and civil rights activist, according to burke et al, 2006 most NGO are in the developing world trying to agitate for equality, Other factors that influence retention of pupils in school include the gender of the child. Burke and Beagle (2004) found that female parents may favor girls; in that the mother’s schooling is associated to a greater degree with a daughter’s attendance than a son’s attendance. A correlation has also been documented between low attendance at school and children from ethnic minorities, children who are disabled, and children in conflict or post-conflict regions.

Moreover, where these issues exist, they tend to exacerbate the gender differences.

Reduction of Birth rates: Birth order also affects schooling. We may start with the premise that a large number of children in a household has negative causal effects on the quality of education. This is because given equal resources; parents with more children have fewer resources to commit per child than parents with fewer children. Park and Chung (2007) found a strong but negative causal relationship between sib ship size and education of the first-born and second-born children in rural Bangladesh. Using evidence from the Turkish Demographic and Health Survey, Kirdar et al. (2007) also concluded that birth order affects schooling, to the detriment of the middle children. They found this impact to be more pronounced in poor families, and they maintain that scarce financial resources are the underlying cause of this birth order effect.

Creation of small and manageable sizes of families, According to West (1980) cited in Otunge (2004) large numbers of children in a family of limited income result in overcrowding in the home and this may in turn have a serious effect upon behavior. West further adds that parents in overcrowded accommodation cannot protect or supervise their young children as they might wish. According to Ruther (1980) cited in Otunge (2004) large family size is quite strongly associated with social disadvantage. The large family size limits the parental involvement in the academic welfare of each child. Thus leads to low participation of the child in school activities and may eventually lead to dropout

Encouraging adult education so that they are taught the benefits iof eduction to the society, A study done by Ngau (1991) on grade repetition and school dropouts in Uganda primary schools reveals that parents level of education is important for children’s educational support. Peasant parents who are also poorly educated are disadvantaged. While these parents try to provide the best education to their children, the priority family goal is “survival” as the family does not even have proper and adequate medical care, food and shelter. Teenage children with educated mothers are less likely to become pregnant (Vila 2002).

According to Onyango (2000) better educated parents appreciate the value of education more than illiterate ones. In this case, educated parents are able to assist their children progress in education both materially and morally hence retention of children in school

Education of children on the core values of society especially the language and the culture of a given society, Language and medium of instruction is another factor that influences access and retention. Learning using a foreign language or another ethnic group language which one is not familiar with is not easy especially in the early years of schooling. It demands one to learn the language before learning the content. The double task discourages one from catching up with schooling. As such pupils either perform poorly or repeat classes a practice that usually leads to drop outs

Poor supervision and indiscipline

Poor supervision and indiscipline in schools has pushed many pupils to engaging in frustrating activities, such as smoking, drinking of alcohol, miraa chewing among others. It has been observed that teachers pass time in the staffroom chatting, gossiping or simply whiling away their time while classes remained untaught and the syllabus remain uncovered (UNICEF, 1998). The low performance of students eventually means that education does not fetch enough benefits as an investment; parents get demoralized and see education as a waste of time and the resources that could be invested elsewhere.

Attitudes:

Parkinson (1976) defined attitudes as either mental readiness or implicit predispositions that exert some general and consistent influence on a fairly large class of evaluative responses. Altitudes are reinforced by beliefs and often lead to particular forms of behavior. Thus we can infer that our perceptions and our value system are shaped by our altitudes which start at a very early stage after birth. Dorothy (1947) suggested that at birth a child is exposed to the values and practices of the human group very early in life, and that one becomes a cultural being by learning the ways of his people.

Attitudes and practices have a big influence on education. It is the culture and attitudes that mould the society, and determines the way of life According to the 1995, primary census MOEST (1998) the commonest reason for dropping out of school is lack of interest on the part of parents owing to their own illiteracy.

Government increased fight against HIV/AIDS, Education, in addition to being a goal in itself, is a powerful driver of progress toward the other MDGs (Bruns et al. 2003). Research indicates that education for boys and girls is an effective preventive weapon against HIV/AIDS. Better education also contributes to natural resource management, including preservation of tropical rain forests (UN Millennium Project2005). However, Bruns et al. note that most of the positive externalities associated with primary education require that children complete at least seven years of schooling.

HIV/AIDS is slowing down the growth of the school aged population; this has lowered enrolment in primary schools. Dropout rates have been accelerated by effects originating from the deadly disease (Kasonde-Ngandu, 2013). Parents show discrimination to send children to school because little is occurring, teachers are frequently absent, few learning materials are available and employment prospects are slender. Parents also choose not to send their infected children to school urging that they will die young before they have been able to garner any economic returns for what was spent on their education UNESCO, (2002).

Campaigning against early pregnancy, Teenage pregnancy is another major factor influencing retention of girls in primary schools. When pupils get pregnant in school, they have to go and stay at home until they give birth. The return of such pupils will depend on family support and the ability to maintain both the child and their daughter. All things being equal, there are few poor families which are in a position to take on the double responsibility and so, the majority of the girls who get pregnant do not return to school (Ngau, 2007)

Repetition according to researchers; Ngau (2007) and Theuri (2004) has negative psychological effects on pupils because it tends to lower pupil’s self-esteem and damage peer relations. Hence it has been cited as a major cause of school dropout. Refuting the views of its proponents who see it as an appropriate investment in pupil recovery since as it argued children do not all acquire knowledge and/ or attitudes at the same rate.

Residence: Children living in rural areas are less likely to attend school because the distances are greater, the facilities are poorer, and the need for child labor is greater. In particular, younger children are affected by the distance to school since they are less able to walk sizable distances. . Number of schools are highly dispersed this force children to traverse difficult terrain and lack of transport makes access to schools more difficult for primary pupils.

Moreover, poorer households are more likely to be rural than urban (Filmer and Pritchett

1998). Poor households spend more proportionately on education than do the rich (Kadzimira and Rose 2003), which means that they have less money to spend on other household necessities like food and medical bills

Peer group influence:

Fobih (1987) in a study in Ghana found that peer group exerts considerable influence on the adolescent by setting a pattern of values and behaviors for the individuals. In the greater Accra region of Ghana, peer group was found to have influenced members to drop out of school to join such activities as going to the beach and lorry parks (i.e. bus or train stations) to work as carriers of baggage or packages during school hours. Fobin (1987) also found that having early sexual relations is a vital factor associated with drop out among adolescent situations