Exploring the link between literacy practices, the rural-urban dimension and academic performance of primary school learners in Uganda district, Uganda

Abstract

This study aimed at establishing and analysing the literacy practices in the rural and urban communities and their effect on the academic achievements of learners. It also aimed to establish the impact of other factors, such as the exposure to the language of examination, the level of parents formal education and the quality of parental mediation in the their children's academic work, which could be responsible for the imbalance between the rural and urban learners academic achievements. This study endeavours to established that the literacy practices in urban areas prepare learners for schooled and global literacies while the literacies in rural areas are to localised and thus impoverish the learners initial literacy development. This study also seek to determine the extent to which the current language policy in education in Uganda favours the urban learners at the expense of the rural learners as far as the acculturation into and acquisition of the schooled and global literacies are concerned.