Determinants of access to learning during COVID-19 lockdown among primary school going children in refugee-hosting districts of Uganda

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to identify the determinants of access to learning during covid-19 lockdown among primary school going children in refugee hosting districts of Uganda. This study utilized data from the Education Response Plan COVID-19 Survey which was conducted from 10th to 28th March 2022. A total of 2,984 learners across all levels (pre-primary to A-level) in the sampled districts were interviewed. A total sample of 2,797 primary learners were included for analysis and a total of 1,767 learners had access to learning during lockdown while 1,030 did not have access to learning. The study employed logistic regression on the following factors: sex, age, learner’s education level, location (settlement), wealth index, access to self-study materials, learner’s perception on the importance of self-study learning materials, learner’s experience of child abuse during schools’ closure and learner’s disability status. The determinants of access to learning during COVID-19 lock down among school going children in the refugee hosting districts in Uganda were household’s wealth index, access to self-study learning materials and learner’s perception about the importance of self-study learning materials. It was found out that learners from rich households were 1.5 times more likely to access learning during COVID-19 lockdown as compared to those from poor households (OR=1.520, P=0.001). Learners who had received self-study materials were four times more likely to access learning during COVID-19 lockdown as compared to those that had not received self-study materials (OR=3.565, P=0.000). Learners who perceived self-study materials to be helpful were two times more likely to access learning during COVID-19 lockdown compared to those who perceived them as unnecessary materials (OR=2.424, P=0.000). In order to increase access to learning during pandemics, government and refugee supporting partners should; invest and provide learners with offline learning assets like radios and Televisions, formulate programmes aimed at sensitizing and changing the mindset for learners in refugee hosting districts about the importance of self-study learning materials. Future studies should focus on identifying data sources in Uganda that would allow analyzing the confounding factors that were not included in this study and elucidate how they contributed to the observed access to learning during COVID-19 lockdown in refugee hosting districts of Uganda.