Family Structure and Learners’ Education Achievement in Uganda

Abstract

This study aimed at establishing the effect of family structure on learners‟ Education achievement at primary level in Uganda. The study made use of Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS 2016/17) data set from Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). Different levels of analysis were employed. The descriptive characteristics were generated. The independent variables were tested for collinearity using pairwise correlation test with a cutoff of 0.5 adopted for selecting variables to be included in the model. The bivariate test of relationship between the outcome variable and the predictors was done. The probit model and associated marginal effects were run to test the association between learner‟s education achievement and the selected predictors. The results showed that household size and the level of parent‟s education were strongly associated with learner‟s education achievements. The other factors associated with learner‟s education achievements include the place of residence, household poverty status, region, sex of the household head, and occupation of the learner‟s parents. It therefore can be concluded that, family structure does have an effect on learner‟s education achievements alongside other factors. The findings suggest that programs that address household poverty are critical to improving learning outcomes. Policies that encourage small manageable families are essential to improve education learning outcomes. Also deliberate affirmative actions like free education need to be strengthened to improve achievements of the rural areas. Key words: Family structure, Learner‟s, achievement, and Uganda