The effect of covid-19 on primary school enrolment in Arua City

Abstract

This study sought to examine the effect of COVID-19 on primary school enrolment in Arua city. The study was carried out between December 2021 and March 2022. The research design adopted was the cross-sectional design in that the researcher did not perform a follow-up after the research. The data was obtained from the Principal Education Officer of Arua City, Mr. Obiayi Ombere Raymond. The data was then entered into Microsoft Excel 2019 and later imported to Stata version 15.0 for analysis. Under the univariate analysis, primary one had the highest number (26%) of children enrolled in school before COVID-19 followed by primary four with 18% of the enrolled children whereas primary seven had the least number (5%) of the children enrolled. And after Covid, primary one still had the highest number (28%) of the children enrolling for school, followed by primary two with about 17% of the enrolled children. Primary seven still had the lowest number of children enrolled into school (6%). Under the bivariate analysis, that female enrollment was generally higher than that of males. However, the difference was not statistically significant, p (0.3175>0.05). From the multivariate analysis, , an increase in the average age of the children before COVID-19 by one year led to a 68.5% decline in general school enrollment after COVID-19. The relationship between age and enrollment after COVID-19 were not statistically significant (p=0.227>0.05). However, an increase in the average age of children after COVID-19 led to a 63.6% increase in the enrollment after COVID-19. There was a significant relationship between the averages. From this study, the researcher recommended that the interested future researchers be encouraged to undertake a similar study to determine the effect of COVID-9 on primary school enrolment in Uganda at large so as to provide a large view and thus come up with solutions to promote primary education at a national level.