Cultural Mediation and Young Women's Re-entry in Secondary Schools in Eastern Uganda

The study investigated the influence of cultural practices and social settings on young women's aspirations for schooling. A survey was conducted on re-entrants and non re-entrants, followed by life histories. Central tendency values on personal characteristics, schooling history, family background and home-school environment were compared, and variables found to be significant included: working status; class of study at leaving; extra years in class/school; reasons for leaving school; socioeconomic status; parents’ marital status; mother's qualification; mother's occupation; father's occupation; rural/urban environment and quality of school attended. Findings suggest that coming from a low socioeconomic status family and rural environment reduced the women's chances of re- entering school. Teacher training programmes should equip teachers with skills on handling children from different cultural settings.