Does teaching methods and availability of teaching resources influence pupil’s performance?: evidence from four districts in Uganda

Abstract

This paper explores ways of improving education quality in Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools in Uganda. Following the introduction of UPE in Uganda in 1997, primary school enrollment increased tremendously, leading to a strain on existing teaching resources such as classrooms, teachers’ accommodation, toilets, teachers, chalk, and students’ furniture among others. The inadequacy of teaching resources partly attributes to the low quality of education in UPE schools as reflected in the Primary three and six pupils’ performance in literacy and numeracy. Accordingly, Government responded by increasing supply of teaching resources with the hope of improving the quality of education in UPE schools. The major findings of the paper include: i) Supplying more teaching resources in the current Uganda context should not be the number one priority intervention if the quality of education in public primary school is to be improved. Paradoxically, supply of teaching resources is found to have adverse effects on education quality. This suggests that the supply of teaching resources in these schools seem to be done at the expense of effective teaching. ii) Primary school teachers employ teacher-centred methods of teaching, which are less effective. The study finds that child-centred methods of teaching are more effective for both males and females as regards improvement of education quality. Yet, teachers in UPE schools hardly employ child-centred approaches to teaching, which mainly explains the poor quality of education in UPE schools. iii) There is urgent need for the ministry in charge of education to focus more on teacher supervision to compel teachers to attend to their duties and use child centred methods of teaching. This calls for increased budget for school inspection and teacher supervision.