Factors Behind Consistent Decline in Uce Performance: A Comparison of Secondary Schools in Eastern and Central regions of Uganda

This study aimed at determining the factor affecting UCE performance in Eastern Uganda in relation to Central Region. The study was specifically conducted to establish three objectives including, assessing the trend of performance of UCE in Eastern region in comparison to Central Region in Uganda, examining the family factors affecting UCE performance in Eastern Uganda, establishing the environmental and cultural factors affecting UCE performance in Eastern Uganda and assessing the school based factors affecting UCE performance in Eastern Uganda. The study was conducted as a cross section employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study targeted 4874 individual including students and parents of respondents, former students, class teachers and head teachers and district local leaders in both Mukono and Iganga District. The study employed structured questionnaires, interviews and documentary review in collecting data. Thematic analysis of qualitative data was done by identifying common themes based on the objectives of the study, while quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Most of the factors that were identified applied to both regions as the central region has a significant number or people from other parts of the country. However, some factors were more prevalent in the Eastern region. Among the factors that were found to bring about consistent decline in academic performance in eastern region included gender-based inequality, low government financing, family economic status and policy related factors. Overall, the study concluded that the central region is better equipped to offer quality education due to availability of a better infrastructure and staff remuneration. There is thus a need to ensure that Eastern Region is equipped with the required resources in terms of physical infrastructure, competent and enough teachers, increased funding, increased supervision of USE and technological innovations required in improving quality of USE. KEY WORDS: Educational inequality; Gender; Quality of life; Secondary schools, Comparative study DOI : 10.7176/JEP/15-10-11 Publication date : October 30th 2024