Determinants of students performance in Uganda Certificate of Education in Mityana District

Abstract

Due to low grades at UCE in Mityana district, this study was embarked on to investigate the determinants of students’ performance in Uganda Certificate of Education in Mityana district. Specifically, the study addressed the following areas; the study established the effect of socio economic background on students’ performance in Mityana district, examined the influence of school characteristics on students UCE performance in Mityana district and found out the effect of student characteristics on UCE performance in Mityana district. The study used both primary and secondary data on a sample of 384 students who sat for UCE in 2012 in Mityana district and enrolled in the same district at Advanced level. Data was collected using a self administered questionnaire which had a section of students as the sample unit and a section to teachers who gave supplementary information to back up the students’ responses. Data was analyzed at three levels, univariate analysis which gave the descriptive statistics of the data, at bivariate analysis cross tabulations were used to give the relationship between the independent variables and UCE performance, and at multivariate analysis, a multinomial logistic regression model was run to find the effect of the independent variables on UCE performance. Students’ PLE grade, teacher’s level of qualification, nature of school, Parents education level, employment of household, class size and sex of the student were found to have a significant statistical effect on UCE performance. The study recommended that government and the schools should recruit more teachers so as to improve on the students’ performance.