School administration and performance of the Universal Secondary Education Programme in Kasese District- Uganda

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between school administration and performance of USE programme in Kasese District, western Uganda. The objectives of the study were: - to assess how administration of staff affairs, students’ affairs and financial resources affect performance of USE programme in Kasese District. The study was prompted by the fact that while USE is supposed to lead to increased equitable access and high retention of students, reports from various sources were indicating that the drop out rate was on the increase. The study employed a cross- sectional survey design. While the sample size of the study was 163, the actual number that participated in the study was 147. In this study, data was collected mainly through self administered questionnaires and interviews. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine whether there was linear relationship between each of the three independent variables and the dependent variable. The study revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between administration of staff affairs, students’ affairs, financial resources and performance of USE. The study concluded that when staff affairs, students’ affairs and finance resources are effectively and efficiently administered, high performance of USE programme will be registered meaning that equitable access and high retention levels will be achieved and vice versa. The study recommended that for USE to succeed, Head teachers and government should seriously look into the financial and non financial needs of teachers, internal supervision in schools should be formalized, team leadership should be employed when handling discipline issues and clear policy guidelines should be put in place regarding students’ lunch, gender issues and budgeting process. The study suggested areas for further research like USE in public private partnership schools, roles of different stake holders in implementation of USE and gender mainstreaming issues under USE.