Home background and gender disparities in secondary schools in Gulu District, Uganda

Abstract

The study sought to establish the relationship between home-background and gender disparities in secondary schools in Gulu District. The objectives of the study were to investigate the effect of ability of parents to send their children to school on the gender disparities in secondary schools in Gulu district; to investigate the influence of social economic status of parents and gender disparities in secondary schools in Gulu district and to establish the contribution of the level of education of parents and gender disparities in secondary schools in Gulu district.

The study used cross sectional survey research design. Female students from ten secondary schools in Gulu District were sampled. The study used a sample of 103 respondents. Simple random sampling and stratified sampling were used. Self administered questionnaires were used as the method of data collection. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to determine whether there was a linear relationship between the independent and the dependent variables. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis.

Findings of the study revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between parents’/guardians’ ability to send their children to school and gender disparities in secondary schools. The study further revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between social economic status of parents/guardians and gender disparities in secondary schools and that, there was a positive significant relation between parents’ level of education and gender disparities in secondary schools in Gulu District.

The research concluded that parents’/guardians’ ability to send their children to school, social economic status of parents/guardians and their level of education had positive relationship with gender disparities in secondary schools in Gulu district.

The study recommended that; Parents should be encouraged to engage in income generating activities that can boost their ability to pay school dues. Encourage and put up programmes that will enable them eradicate poverty to educate equitably both the female and male children and finally put up adult literacy programmes and spread them to all parts of Uganda so that parents can be enlightened and get better paid jobs to educate equitably both the female and male children.