Disadvantages Of Children's Participation

Perceived benefits of children’s participation on different actors in the two schools.

In the study, the perceived benefit of child participation in both schools was explored as a motivational factor for implementing it or actively involving children. All the respondents agreed that child participation is important for not only the schools, children but also their families and the wider communities. The Ministry officials asserted that child participation empowers children, and therefore a socialisation and learning process. Other authors share and opinion that, the purposes of children’s participation have been variously identified to include; upholding children’srights; fulfilling legal responsibilities; improving services; to improving decision-making; enhancing democracy; to promoting child protection; enhancing children’s skills; empowering and enhancing self-esteem Sinclair and Franklin (2000), as cited in (Sinclair, 2004:108). Therefore, for child participation to be meaningful, the process should contribute to the above mentioned prosepcts.

In Kitante, the children won a school bus through the debate and quiz competitons, they also participated in Bank of Uganda essay competitions and won 1 million Uganda shillings equivalent

On the contrary, some children pointed out the inability to balance assignments where children tend to get involved in one activity and they neglect others which limits their scope and sometimes could lead to poor perfromance. Overall, the respondents believed for regulation of children’s involvement in various activities depending on the context. There was a consensus on the advantages of involving children in different activities for example, one child from Primary Six (P.6) pointed out