Influence of selected cultural practices on pupils’ school attendance in Naweyo Sub-County, Butaleja District

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the influence of three selected cultural practices on pupils’ school attendance in Naweyo Sub-county, Butaleja District. The three are circumcision, early marriage and child labour. The study was conducted in that particular area because pupils’ school attendance had been reported to be poor yet available studies had left out the role of cultural practices.

The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design which employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A total of 390 respondents constituted the sample of the study. These included ten head teachers, four local leaders, four cultural leaders, 66 teachers and 306 pupils (Primary four, five six and seven classes) from ten schools. The researcher used two types of research instruments: namely questionnaires and interviews.

The results revealed that circumcision affects pupils’ school attendance. This means that if more circumcision is done, learners’ missing of school attendance will increase. Secondly, early marriages affect pupils’ school attendance in that the more pupils engage in early marriage the more they miss attending school. Finally, child labour affects pupils’ school attendance. This means that an increase in child labour would lead to an increase in learner absenteeism or non-attendance. Therefore, if the rates of child labour increases, then there will be an increase in learners’ non-attendance, an indication that child labour has a negative effect on pupils’ school attendance. The conclusions were that circumcision, early marriage and child labour as cultural practices negatively affected pupils’ school attendance in that the more those cultural practices are performed the more children miss school attendance in Naweyo sub-county. The study recommends that the cultural leaders should circumcise children during holidays or vacation period. Besides, MoES and Local Councils should operationalize the by-laws of child labour by punishing the offenders. , Cultural leaders, Local Councils and parents in Naweyo Sub-county should punish those people who engage pupils in early marriage in Butaleja District.