Title: The Educate! model: assessing student business clubs as a strategy against school dropout
Authors: Dr. Arinaitwe Julius, Asiimwe Isaac Kazaara, Akampurira Sarah
Volume: 10
Issue: 7
Pages: 311-319
Publication Date: 2026/07/28
Abstract:
This study investigated the Educate! model of student-led business clubs as a strategy for mitigating school dropout among secondary school students in Christian and faith-founded educational contexts in Uganda. Grounded in social cognitive theory and the Educate! programme's theory of change, the study examined how participation in school-based business clubs shaped students' mentorship exposure, self-efficacy, entrepreneurial skill, and academic motivation, and how these mechanisms in turn related to school retention. A cross-sectional survey design was employed among 420 students drawn from government-aided, private, and faith-founded secondary schools, using a structured questionnaire capturing demographic characteristics, business club participation status, standardized psychosocial and skill measures, and dropout/retention status. Data were analysed using univariate descriptive statistics, bivariate chi-square and independent-samples t-tests, and structural equation modelling (SEM) estimated through a sequential path-analytic framework to test the hypothesized mediation chain linking club participation to retention. Findings indicated that business club members recorded a substantially lower dropout rate (2.9%) than non-members (21.8%), a difference that was statistically significant (?² = 28.40, df = 1, p < .001). Club participation was significantly associated with higher mentorship exposure, self-efficacy, entrepreneurial skill, and academic motivation (p < .001 in all cases), and the structural model demonstrated an acceptable overall fit to the data (RMSEA = 0.052; CFI-analogue = 0.958). Business club participation retained a significant direct association with retention even after accounting for the psychosocial mechanisms (adjusted OR = 5.62, p = .014), suggesting the presence of both direct and indirect protective pathways. The study concludes that the Educate! business club model constitutes a promising, low-cost, faith-compatible strategy for reducing school dropout, operating principally through the strengthening of mentorship exposure, self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial competence rather than through academic motivation alone. Recommendations are offered for programme scale-up, integration into pastoral and guidance-and-counselling structures, and further longitudinal validation of the observed pathways.