School organisational factors and learners’ attendance in Universal Secondary schools in Bombo town council, Luweero district.

Abstract

Abstract The study was carried out in Bombo Town Council (BTC) to establish the influence of School organisational factors on learners’ attendance in the area. It was prompted by the growing concerns of stake holders in education in Luwero district over the continuing learners’ absenteeism from school despite government Universal Secondary Education programme. The objectives of the study were to establish the influence of staffing, school infrastructure and management of School policy on punishment on learners’ attendance. The study design was a cross sectional survey, using quantitative and qualitative research approaches in which questionnaires, interview guides and observation check list were used as data collection instruments. Simple random sampling was used to identify four USE schools in the council, 36 teachers (9 from each school), 28 students (7 from each school), 4 Head teachers (head teacher from each school, were selected using purposive sampling technique, which brought the number of respondents to 68. Data was edited, coded and entered into SPSS computer programme where it was analysed and transformed into frequencies and percentages in a descriptive manner. The major findings of the study indicate that the teaching force is not enough in the USE schools in BTC and the teachers who are there do not come to school regularly, giving little time for interaction with learners. Also teachers do not seem interested in learners’ attendance and little effort has been put in place to monitor learners’ attendance. Further still, inadequate furniture and lack of sports facilities has made learners to keep away from school since they lack seats in class. Above all, the USE policy of automatic promotion has made learners relax at school since they are promoted to the next class whether or not they attend class. From the findings, the study concludes that the level of motivation of staff to do their work has a bearing on learners’ attendance, inadequate infrastructure and facilities and absence of proper means punishment to discourage indiscipline amongst students all affect learners’ attendance of school negatively. The study recommends that more teachers should be posted to USE schools, and the schools should provide teachers with accommodation around the schools to keep them around. Teachers should improve monitoring of attendance. Government should relax the USE policy to allow schools academically sieve students through promotion and parents should contribute fees, so that learners may be provided with lunch at school. School managers should put provisions and furniture for reading rooms and optional classes and equipment for co-curricular activities should be put in place.