Factors influencing performance in literacy and numeracy among refugee children in Uganda

Abstract

This study examined factors influencing the performance in literacy and numeracy of refugee pupils in Uganda. The multivariable logistic regression model was employed on the data obtained from UWEZO which had carried out a study in 2017 in the four refugee hosting districts of; Adjumani, Arua, Isingiro and Yumbe. The characteristics studied included school ownership status, location, feeding program, school library, usable writing board, sitting materials, age, class, years spent in preprimary for the pupils and household main source of income, sex of household head, and highest education level attained by the household head. This study only considered refugee children and classified their responses into categories. For assessment of literacy competence, pupils were grouped as non-literate (pupils who could not read at all, only read a letter, word and paragraph) and literate (pupils who could read up to a story). For Numerate, pupils were classified as; non-numerate (pupils who were non numerate, could only recognize numbers, match, add, subtract and multiply), and numerate (for those who could do all the assessments up to division) as was suggested by UWEZO. A multivariable logistic regression model was run to establish the factors that had a significant relationship with pupil's performance in both literacy and numeracy. The study findings showed that Age, sex of pupils and school feeding programs significantly impact pupil performance in literacy (at p=0.05) in addition to location (at p= 0.1). More so, factors such as age, sex, presence of sitting facilities, presence of boards, school location impacted performance in numeracy at p=0.05 level of significance in addition to school ownership and household income source at p=0.1 level of significance. Factors such as years in preprimary school, sex of household head, presence of a school library, education of household head had no significant relationship with both numeracy and literacy. Factors such as household income source, school ownership and presence of sitting materials and boards in school had no significant relationship with literacy. Presence of feeding programs and school libraries also had no significant relationship with performance in numeracy. Based on the findings, government should continue to encourage polices to stop class repetition, the government should review funding to schools to accommodate inflation which would help to address lack of resources and support should be given to feeding programs in both rural and urban areas, also sensitize parents on the benefits of education to reduce the gender gap in schools.