Economic, social and cultural determinants of access to primary education among disabled children: A case of Dodoma and Chamwino district, Tanzania

Abstract

Despite efforts made by the Tanzanian government to provide primary education to all children, many disabled children are still out of school. Therefore, this research was carried out to determine the economic, social and cultural determinants of access to primary education among disabled children in Dodoma Municipality and Chamwino District. The main objective was to analyse factors that influence access to primary education among disabled children. The specific objectives were to: identify economic, social and cultural factors which influence disabled children’s access to primary education; assess disabled children’s access to primary education; and determine the extents to which some economic, social and cultural factors influence disabled children’s access to primary education. A total number of 120 households were involved in the study in which parents and/or guardians of disabled children were interviewed. Moreover, teachers, members of CHAVITA in Dodoma and street/village leaders were interviewed. Data were collected in November and December 2010. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software, Version 16.0, in which case the main analytical model was binary logistic regression. In the model, the dependent variable was access to primary education with the following two options: has no access (0) and has access (1). The study revealed that there were different economic, social and cultural factors which influenced disabled children’s access to primary education to different extents. The most important factor was inaccessibility to school compounds; it had the highest impact on the chances of disabled children accessing primary education (Wald statistic = 4.138, p = 0.042). In view of the results, it is recommended that school compounds should be improved for more accessibility by disabled children.