FACTORS INFLUENCING PARENTS’ CHOICE OF O’ LEVEL SECONDARY SCHOOLS FOR THEIR CHILDREN IN KIBOGA DISTRICT, UGANDA

Abstract

Education is globally known to accelerate economic growth through knowledge and skills development by improving the human capabilities, in terms of ensuring that the individuals are confident, more aware and physically active. This is done by parents taking cautious decisions of schools for their children. This study was conducted with a general objective of ascertaining the factors that influence parents; choice of O’level secondary schools for their children in Kiboga District, Uganda. A Cross-sectional Correlational Survey design involving both quantitative and quality approaches was employed targeting a sample of 361 respondents, 12 key informants and 2 focus group discussions. The sample size was generated using disproportionate stratified sampling. Findings revealed that 54.8% of the parents earned between 200,000/= and 600,000/= a month. Parental choice findings revealed that most of the parents (55%) were taking their children to private secondary schools Findings on potential parental choice predictors revealed that lack of formal education, (AOR 0.056, 95% CI = 0.003-0.937, p =0.045), earning less than 200,000/= (AOR 0.26, 95% CI = 0.075-0.90, p = 0.033), beauty consideration (AOR 0.252, 95% CI = 0.092-0.687, p = 0.007), availability of public transport (AOR 0.251, 95% CI = 0.106-0.594, p = 0.002) positively influenced choice of public secondary schools in Kiboga District. The ministry of education should sensitize parents on important aspects of education so as they can make rationale choices.