STUDENTS' POOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN HARD TO REACH AREAS.

(A CASE STUDY OF KALANGALA ISLAND,UGANDA)

Hard to reach areas in Uganda refer to all those places which are less developed in terms of communication and transport infrastructure, day to day utilities and Banking systems. Such areas include places around the Ugandan boarder, mountainous regions, Islands and politically unstable places. Teachers in such areas who are on government pay roll are given Hard to Reach allowance. For the three years I spent working in Hard to Reach areas (Kalangala Islands), I realised that the students in those areas can favourably compete with their counterparts in other areas since they too are mentally gifted. The government has tried to support these areas with relevant teaching materials for example text books, teaching aids, qualified teachers but all in vain, the performance worsens each year at all levels. The whole district of Kalangala is covered by Lake Victoria and has over 80 islands but only 60 islands are habitable with men having the highest population compared to the women (originally islands where meant to be only for men whose main job was to fish and then return to their homes after spending some days fishing, so most of the women on these islands are prostitutes, casual labourers on the palm oil plantation (BIDCO) and those who are working at the district headquarters, areas which are more populated are the landing sites.) The people were at one time evacuated from the island because of Tsetse flies and the island was fumigated to eradicate the flies. This was done in the early 1980's. People were relocated to the near by areas of Masaka, Mukono, Rakai. After the Tsetse flies were eradicated, the people were told to go back. The main occupation of the people on the island is fishing, Agriculture is done on a small scale (food is got from Masaka via Bukakata- Bogoma route and some few commodities passing via Entebbe-Lutoboka. One of the reason why the children perform poorly is the back ground of the parents most of whom are not educated and are typical fisher men. These can not allow their children to go to school so that they acquire the knowledge and be well off in future since they also never went to school but they have the money got from fishing. They look at going to school as a waste of time since lake Victoria is open to any one who has a net, spear, basket and a boat for immediate gains from fishing. The district has only three schools at the secondary level that is SSelwanga Lwanga Memorial senior Secondary school, Bishop Dunstan secondary school on Bugala island, Bukasa Secondary school on Bukasa island and one agricultural institute (Farm School). These schools are under staffed, have very few qualified teachers (one qualified teacher teaching computer studies in the whole district), have poor infrastructure which greatly limits the learner capabilities. High rate of immorality on the island also contributes to poor academic performance. Most of the girls have been turned to prostitution as a means of earning money. Poor housing facilities also have a bearing on the poor performance of students. Most houses are temporary (wooden), parents share one room with more than four children, diseases are

on rampage especially HIV/AIDS not mentioning other sexually transmitted diseases. Early pregnancies and child labour visible on the oil plantations on the island are all contributing to poor academic performance on the island of Kalangala Therefore these and so many other reasons account for the students poor Academic performance in the Hard to Reach areas as the case of Kalangala island has revealed. By Yawe Geoffrey +2560782060456 yawe_geoffrey@yahoo.com