The Relationship between Classroom Streaming and Self-Esteem among Students in Secondary Schools in Uganda: Evidence from Apac and Jinja Districts

The study aimed at understanding the relationship between classroom streaming and self-esteem, the possible strategies and interventions that can help reduce the negative effects of classroom streaming on students’ self-esteem. Four secondary schools were selected for this study, these schools were chosen from the districts of Apac and Jinja, giving a total sample size of 240. Results on the self esteem of secondary school students indicated that most of these students had low self-esteem. 23% occasionally felt like they were not very good, 19% think they do not have many things to be proud of,23% said that they occasionally feel useless,38% wished they were able to appreciate themselves more, 51% feel they do not have much to be proud of and 35% strongly agreed that had the impression that they had failed. On the other hand, further findings revealed that some had a high self esteem. 19% confirmed that they in general felt pleased with themselves and 33% believed they possessed a variety of positive characteristics. On the relationship between classroom streaming and self- esteem, results show that those in group one had a mean score of 32.28, which is higher than the mean score of 16.51 of group two. The standard deviation of 3.61 of scores in group one shows a wider distribution than the standard deviation of 2.90 of scores of group two. The relationship between streaming and self-esteem, the p-calculated value was found to be 0.0001.The conclusion is that classroom streaming has an effect on self esteem. The comparison of the mean scores and standard deviations indicates that those in group one had a higher self-esteem than those in group two (p=0.05, df=238)