The Effect of Direct Infrastructure Utilization on Students’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Zombo District, Uganda

Abstract

The study examined the effect of direct infrastructure utilization on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Zombo district of Uganda. The study aimed to examine the effect of direct infrastructure utilization on students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Zombo district of Uganda. A cross-sectional study design was used. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted with a sample of 150 out of 224 target population. A simple random sampling technique was used to select amongst the students, while purposive sampling was used to determine the headteachers and director of studies. Quantitative data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation) and regression, while qualitative research used a thematic approach. Findings revealed a moderate positive correlation (r = .503) between direct infrastructure utilization and students’ academic performance. Results of regression analysis of direct infrastructure utilization revealed that a unit increase in direct infrastructure utilization leads to an improvement in students’ academic performance by 30.3% and was statistically significant at 1%. Thus, it was concluded that direct infrastructure utilization significantly affected academic performance in selected public secondary schools in the Zombo district of Uganda. It is recommended that secondary schools in Zombo district of Uganda should focus on direct infrastructure to improve students’ academic performance.