Causal Factors for Academic Underachievement in Public Primary Schools, Iganga District, Uganda

Waiswa M. Michael and Dr. Benson N. Kinuthia – University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, Kenya
Email: waiswamarkmichael@gmail.com

Received February 13, 2020; Reviewed April 9, 2020; Accepted April19, 2020

Abstract: This study explored causal factors for academic underachievement in public primary schools in Iganga district. The study specifically pointed out school and home factors that explain persistent academic underachievement.The core intention of these investigations was to get in-depth views of stakeholders concerning the two basic environments (home and school),which control teaching/learning process.Whereas the home is a habitat of all activities and decisions which support child’s going to school, the school environment promotes all activities and decisions that enable imparting knowledge and skills into a child’s mind. Data were collected from 205 teachers from 16 public primary schools in four sub-counties, 493 primary seven pupils,and 27 school management committee members. This was done through questionnaires, focus group discussions, observations and interviews. Purposive and cluster sampling techniques were used to determine the respondents. Data was analyzed through descriptive statistics using means and standard deviations. Qualitative results were used to back-up the quantitative results.Findings revealed the following as the causative influencing factors: absenteeism, inadequate teacher preparation, parental neglect, lack of school and managerial skills.The study recommends close teacher support supervision by the district inspectorate department, head teachers and heads of department at school level to help teachers improve their daily routine and professional duties,Government to provide teachers with accommodation at school, make bye-law to keep pupils in school and set up standards for school management committees.