Determinants of School choice in selected urban secondary schools in Zambia.

Item

Title
en Determinants of School choice in selected urban secondary schools in Zambia.
Description
en Article
Creator
Daka, Harrison
Date
2022-09-20T13:54:28Z
Date Available
2022-09-20T13:54:28Z
Date Issued
2021-05-17
Abstract
en This research paper conceptualises the determinants of school choice by parents in selected secondary
schools in urban Zambia. It empirically examines the extent school choice is determined by the following parameters:
the school’s academic performance; parents’ socio-economic status; location of parents and moral and religious
values of the schools. The rational choice and free market theories underpinned the conceptualisation of the
determinants of school choice. Convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed. The study was done in
Lusaka district based on the fact that it is the most urbanised town in the country. The study used both simple
random sampling and purposive sampling to select respondents. 120 parents responded to questionnaires, 8 parents
were interviewed to crosscheck other parents’ responses in the questionnaires. Interviews were also used to generate
data from 6 head-teachers and 1 key informant at District Education Office. Multiple and single regression analysis
were used to establish the significance of the factors of school choice under investigation. Key among the findings
that show a departure from global literature in the context of Zambia is that of moral and religious values which was
rated second and most significant determinant of School choice. Equally, school academic performance is the
biggest determining factor in parents’ school choice. In the third place was Parents’ socio-economic status. Location
of parents was however established to be insignificant as a determinant of school choice. The paper recommends that
government should work at issues that enhanced school academic performance and discipline in schools such as
intensifying monitoring and supervision especially in public schools so as to increase preference for such schools,
Therefore, the study recommends for future research on examination of determinants of school choice should focus
on primary level in both rural and urban settings.
Keywords: determinants, academic performance, moral and religious values, socio-economic status, school
choice
uri
http://dspace.unza.zm/handle/123456789/7726
Language
en en
Publisher
en Research in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
Subject
en Academic performance
Type
en Article
Item sets
The University of Zambia Collections