Students’ leadership and academic engagement of students in secondary schools in Kyegegwa district, Uganda

Abstract

The study was about the relationship between students’ leadership and academic engagement of students in secondary schools in Kyegegwa District. It was guided by three objectives which are i) to examine the relationship between students’ leadership involvement in decision making and academic engagement of students, ii) to establish the effect of Students’ leadership involvement in communication on academic engagement of students and iii) to analyse the relationship between students’ leadership involvement in problem solving and academic engagement of students. The study adopted a descriptive research design focused on quantiative and qualitative aproaches to collect data from 127 respondents who had been picked for the population of 202 individuals. The study used two data collection methods which included questionnaire survey and key informant interview. For objective one, correlation results show that students’ leadership involvement in decision making and academic engagement are significantly and positively related (r = .209, p < .05) which implies that changes in students’ leadership involvement in decision making leads to changes academic engagement. In terms of the second objective, the regression analysis showed that students’ leadership involvement in communication had an effect on academic engagement (R Square = .456) and students’ leadership involvement in problem solving and academic engagement are significantly and positively related (r = .678, p < .05). The study recommended that school administrators should establish structured platforms such as student councils, leadership forums, or participatory committees that allow students to regularly contribute to decisions affecting school life. It was also recommended that teachers should actively involve student leaders in class-level communication by allowing them to co-facilitate discussions, relay academic updates, and coordinate peer support activities. Finally, the study further recommended that school leadership should design structured programs where student leaders are tasked with identifying common academic or behavioral issues and proposing viable solutions during regular leadership training or review sessions, thereby nurturing critical thinking and responsibility.