Educational attainment and literacy in Ugandan fishing communities: Access for All?

This paper explores the experience of formal schooling in three Ugandan fishing villages, highlighting through the findings of in-depth qualitative research the low educational attainment in fishing communities where very few children complete primary school and even fewer successfully transition to secondary school. The paper focuses on five areas: the reasons that children do not access formal education and drop out; the nature of the aspirations and attitudes of children and their parents towards formal education; strategies to formally educate children; the failure of those strategies; and official attempts to keep children in school. In conclusion, a nuanced understanding of the complexities of girls? and boys? everyday lives is essential to ensure that government policy is based on social reality to provide more positive life choices and outcomes.