The effects of orphan hood status on school attendance in Uganda

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of orphanhood status on school attendance in Uganda. Secondary data from the 2006 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey was used. The data base contained 45,439 individuals, of which 26,474 children were aged 0-17 years. However for this study only children aged 6-17 years were included, since this is the active school going age. A total of 16,410 children fulfilled the criteria. Logistic regression model was used to determine the effect of being an orphan on school attendance. At multivariate level of analysis, there was a significant effects’ introduced by region of residence in the adjusted association between orphan hood and ever attending school. The model was adjusted for age, household wealth index, type of residence and the number of household members below five years. Thus the adjusted odd of having attended school among maternal, paternal and double orphans was presented stratified by the four regions.

The study further established that children from rural areas were less likely to report having ever gone to school when compared to their counterparts from urban residences. Also, Children from Eastern compared to Central (OR: 0.68, 95%CI: 0.55 to 0.83), Northern (OR: 0.14, 95%CI: 0.12 to 0.16), and Western (OR: 0.49, 95%CI: 0.42 to 0.57) were less likely to report having ever attended school (p-value <0.0001). Therefore being an orphaned child gives evidence for a child to attend school. However there are other forms of vulnerability that directly have an influence on children’s school attainment. Therefore more attention by policy makers should be drawn to identification, definition and understanding of other forms of vulnerability that can affect school attainment amidst all the existing programmes so as to attain education for all.