Ensuring Primary School Attendance in Uganda: Effects of Private Financing under the Universal Primary Education Policy

• In Event: Equitable access to education: public - private school options

Abstract

Uganda, a landlocked country in East Africa, has dramatically increased the government commitment on education sector and given more explicit priority on primary education development, since the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy in 1997. Consequently, Uganda has made notable achievement in expanding access to primary education. However, many studies also find that there are numerous challenges especially in terms of low quality of education even at the early stage of the policy implementation (Byamugisha & Ogawa, 2010; Byamugisha, 2010; Deininger, 2003; Nannyonjo, 2007; Nishimura, Yamano, & Sasaoka, 2008; Zuze & Leibbrandt, 2011). Besides, recent studies sound alarm that non-attendance at primary school and the increasing number of pupils who drop out from primary school before completion is still a prominent problem (Tamusuza, 2011; UNESCO 2014).
It is the heart of UPE policy to abolish tuition fees and Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) charges, aiming at the removal of the impedance to accessing education for poor households. However, frequently delayed and inadequate amounts of grants caused the lack of spending on learning activities other than teachers’ salaries. In reality, it is essential for government schools to collect various voluntary fees from households and even the government policy clearly mentions the importance of parents’ contribution in some areas including school feeding (Byamugisha & Nishimura, 2008; Najjumba, Bunjo, Kyaddondo & Misinde, 2013). Moreover, there has been a significant increase in the number of low-fee non-government schools which cater to children from poor households in Uganda (Heyneman & Stern, 2013; Kisira, 2008). The important role of private financing in the provision of primary education is becoming non-negligible even under the UPE policy in Uganda.
As it is common in many Sub-Saharan African countries, Ugandan communities intrinsically have a strong willingness to be responsible for the education of their children (Hanson, 2010). Although many people believe that reviving their involvement is now a key to achieve good quality education for all in Uganda, some studies highlighted that schooling costs become an obstacle for households to send their children to primary schools (Garde, 2014; Lincove, 2012). Therefore, there is a need to carefully examine how households respond to the change of schooling cost in sending their children to primary schools. However little is known how private financing, especially a virtual cost sharing that is taking place in government schools, affects household decision making for schooling.
Against this background, this study intends to answer the following main research questions: (1) To what extent do the private costs for schooling interfere with primary school attendance?; (2) To what extent do the private costs for schooling affect drop out decision by household?; (3) What is the difference in the effect of the private costs on primary school attendance by different group? The significance of this study is in exploring the effect of private cost on primary school attendance by using the panel household survey data. Although there have been a lot of research on analyzing the determinants of primary school enrollment in Uganda, few research have analyzed the effect of private financing utilizing the features of panel data with individual-level information of schooling costs.
Analytical framework of this study is set based on human capital theory, whose applications to education issues are summarized in Becker (1964). I regard that households are rational in making decision whether they send their children to schools and, if they send, to what type of school they send their children, comparing the cost and the future return from the investment for schooling (Glewwe, 2002). Probit model and multinominal probit model are mainly used to answer the research questions. I use the Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS) data collected in 2009/10, 2010/11, and 2011/12, which are all panel with a sub-sample of the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) data collected in 2005/06.
One of the key preliminary findings is that virtual cost sharing in public schools does not seem to hinder access to the schools. Instead, the existence of cost-sharing seems to show the high education consciousness of the community. A child in a community where public schools collect more money is less likely to be out of school. Moreover, it is also obvious that a child in a community where public schools collect more money is more likely to be sent to private schools even among the lowest quintile in rural area. This may imply that private financing from households is not sufficient to ensure good quality of education which is equivalent to the one in private schools.

Author

• Katsuki Sakaue, Kobe University