International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development 166 International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development Online ISSN: 2349-4182, Print ISSN: 2349-5979, Impact Factor: RJIF 5.72 www.allsubjectjournal.com Volume 4; Issue 5; May 2017; Page No. 166-175 Relative age effect on academic achievement of pupils at lower primary Level: Evidence from Uganda Peter Jegrace Jehopio, Ronald Wesonga, Douglas A Candia Department of Planning and Applied Statistics, Makerere University, Uganda Abstract In this study we tested the existence of relative age effect on academic achievement of pupils whose median age was 10 years. Specifically, the study investigated the relative age effect in mathematics and English language academic achievement while controlling for the other pupil characteristics and location of their school. Findings show that academic achievement in mathematics was better for the older pupils while in English language the younger pupils performed better. With respect to relative age effect, this study reveals significant gender differences, with results showing consistent lower scores for the boys than girls in both English language and mathematics. Apparently, this suggests that being relatively young in a cohort is more beneficial to girls. Keywords: relative age effect, achievement, lower primary level, cohort, Uganda 1. Introduction 1.1. Background Information This study set out to test existence of relative age effect (RAE) on academic achievement of primary three pupils (where median age was 10 years). Specifically, the study investigated the RAE in mathematics academic achievement and in English language academic achievement, on the basis of pupil characteristics and location of pupil’s school. The study used secondary data on progress in education, collected in the year 2015 by the National Assessment of Progress in Education (NAPE) of the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB). The dataset on primary three pupils, contained 24,043 data points on variables of interest including age, gender, school location, region and school ownership. Academic achievement in mathematics and English language were classified as presented in the Table 1. Table 1: Classification of academic achievement. Classification of Achievement Level English language (Literacy in English) [%] Mathematics (Numeracy) [%] Advanced 66 - 100 83 - 100 Adequate 42 - 65 49 - 82 Basic 25 - 41 26 - 48 Inadequate 0 - 24 0 - 25 Adopted from Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) 1.2. Literature Review A child’s age in comparison with the age of his or her peers (relative age) has been found to be an influential factor on his/her academic achievement. Considering a cohort (i.e. a group of pupils working together through the same academic curriculum from beginning to end [1] , literature is awash with the effect of age on various life outcomes, such as sports [2, 3] , academic achievement [4-6] , level of educational attainment [7-9] and earnings [10-13] . According to [4, 14] , one widely recognized method of investigating the effect of relative age is to investigate how the relative position of a child with regards to his or her age has an effect on academic achievement when the average age of the class or cohort is higher or lower. The “relative age effect (RAE)” in school, suggests that being the oldest in the cohort is advantageous [11] . Hence, many parents or guardians, especially the affluent ones, tend to delay their children’s entry into formal education so that the children gain relative advantage in school on the account of being older and, therefore, more mature in comparison to the others in the cohort [15, 16] ; the practice commonly referred to as academic “redshirting.” Apparently, the likelihood of delayed school entry is more common for some subgroups. Several studies, [15, 17] show that boys are much more likely to be held back than girls. Research findings suggest that significant gender differences may exist in terms of social or emotional development, behavioural regulation, and academic achievement among primary school pupils and may explain why girls outperform boys in early development measures [18] , with boys consistently scoring lower than girls in both language and mathematics at lower primary school level [19, 20] ; premised on the evidence that boys do not mature as quickly as girls [21-25] . Scholars have attempted to explain this phenomenon in which boys regularly score lower than girls in both language and mathematics at lower primary school level. For instance, [26, 27] attempted to explicate the phenomenon on the basis of medical insight, [28, 29] on the basis of the amount of time spent in school; all unsuccessfully. Presently, the hypothesis that has proved plausible is the RAE [30] . For deeper insight, here, recourse may be made to cognitive–evolutionary model underpinning (by Jean Piaget) which focus on “normative”