Effect of Nutrition on Children Academic Performance in Pre-Schools in Sironko District

Abstract : The study assessed the effect of nutrition on children academic performance in pre-schools in Sironko Town Council, Sironko District. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: to determine the effect of diet on children academic performance in pre-schools in Sironko District, establish the effect of frequency of feeding on children academic performance in pre-schools in Sironko District and to determine the effect of parental knowledge on nutrition on children academic performance in pre-schools in Sironko District. The study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey design where both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. Simple random sampling was used to select 60 respondents from Sironko Town Council, Sironko District and convenient sampling was used to select 10 pre-schools that had school feeding programs. The study found out that 65.2% of the respondents acknowledged that the schools provided meals that were balanced and 34.8% of the respondents acknowledged that schools provided meals that were not balanced. 80% of the respondents also believed that nutrition has a significant effect on children academic performance in pre-schools in Sironko District. Results also indicated that nutrition-related factors have a profound and statistically significant effect on preschool children’s academic performance. For the first objective, children with a balanced diet performed far better (M = 3.60) than those without (M = 1.66), t (215) = 25.07, p < 0.001, with a very large effect size (d = 3.99). This confirms that diet is a enhances learners academic performance in pre-schools in Sironko District.