Inequality in School Enrolment in Uganda among Children of Ages 6-17 Years: The Experience after Introduction of Universal Primary Education ∼ UPE

Abstract

In 1997 the government of Uganda introduced the policy of Universal Primary Education-UPE whose aim was to improve on school enrolment. Equal opportunity and access to education is a central theme in the political agenda of government of Uganda, indeed universal access to primary education is MDG Goal II, which governments world over are striving to achieve. Research has not established whether inequalities in access to education still exist a decade after UPE was introduced in the country. Using data from the Uganda National Household Survey 2009/2010, this paper attempts to examine this issue. A total of 12,424 children of ages 6-17 years are selected for study. A measure of unevenness-Theil's index and a multinomial logistic regression are fitted to the data, adjusted for a number of social and demographic characteristics. The findings suggest that 81% of the children were currently attending school. Gender inequalities in school enrolment were not supported by the regression model findings. However, substantial and significant differences were observed for the various regions of the country, rural-urban residence, poverty status age of child, and household size. Although not all factors affecting current enrolment among children were analyzed, the discourse in this paper suggests need for intervention to address specific child enrolment inequalities identified.

Evaluating universal primary education in Uganda: School fee abolition and educational outcomes

“…The household fixed effects are represented by ψ . We also control for three characteristics affecting educational access in Uganda, gender, rural–urban location, and region (Gideon & Bemanzi, 2013), the latter two are included only in the robustness checks without household fixed effects. The reference category for the regional dummies is the Central Region, which includes Kampala.…”