Cultural Practices and the Right to Education of the Girl Child in Mubende District, Uganda

ABSTRACT The study sought to examine Cultural practices and the right to education of the girl child in Mubende District, Uganda. The study objectives were; to investigate the effect of early marriages on the right to education of the girl child in Mubende District, Uganda, to examine the effect of polygamy on the right to education of the girl child in Mubende District, Uganda and to establish the effect of child labour on the right to education of the girl child in Mubende District, Uganda. The study employed a cross-sectional research design provided the broad picture of cultural practices and children right to education in the study. Cross-sectional research design was a type of observational study that analyzes data from a population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time. The target population of the study was 13,247 inhabitants in Mubende District and the sample size was 388 respondents. The study revealed that in respect to gender, the males were 258(69.7%) and female 112(30.3%), this implies that the number of boys was higher than that of girls since it was believed boys are the ones who often oppose cultural practices in most societies. The study concludes that early marriage has been linked with low educational attainment, poor health outcomes for offspring, low maternal social status in husbands’ families, compromised reproductive control, and high rates of maternal mortality and marital violence which confirms the specific objyctives. The study recommends that awareness be created on the existence of Government and other stakeholders programs that address child rights violations with a view of minimizing the incidences. The communities need to be informed on the role of the Government especially the children departments as they are the custodian of girl child welfare in Uganda.