University of Cape Coast Journals
Not a member yet
449 research outputs found
Sort by
Implementation of the school performance improvement plan in Ghana: What lessons can be learned? Implementation of the school performance improvement plan in Ghana: What lessons can be learned?
No full textThis study investigated the implementation of the School Performance Improvement Plan (SPIP) through the Capitation Grant (CG) scheme introduced by the Government of Ghana in the 2004/2205 academic year for basic schools. The scheme was introduced to abolish all forms of fees paid by pupils in basic schools with the aim of improving access and enhancing the quality of education. The study, which was conducted in 2016 used the interpretive qualitative approach to obtain data from 48 teachers and 8 head teachers from 8 basic schools in one of the largest Municipalities in the Central Region of Ghana. The participants for the study were selected by simple random sampling from five circuits in the Municipality. Interviews were held with the head teachers in all the 8 schools while 8 focus group discussions were held with groups of 6 teachers in all the schools. The findings show that head teachers involved all stakeholders such as the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), School Management Committee (SMC) and teachers in preparing the SPIP to ensure transparency. Furthermore, the SPIP preparation ensured that schools budgeted all items they would need. However, lukewarm attitude on the part of some SMC/PTA members and some teachers towards the preparation of SPIP, the bureaucratic nature of accessing the CG, exorbitant fees charged by the Municipal Education Office and lack of transparency on the part of some head teachers in the disbursement of CG were some of the challenges that emerged. The study also found that delay in disbursing CG to schools affected the purchase of resources for teaching and learning. Recommendations for the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service have also been suggested
Effects of aerobic training on cardiovascular parameters of diabetic patients attending Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano Nigeria: Effects of aerobic training on cardiovascular parameters of diabetic patients attending Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano Nigeria
No full textThis study investigated the effects of aerobic training on cardiovascular parameters of diabetic patients attending Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano (MMSHK). The population of this study consisted of 522 diabetic patients attending MMSHK. A sample of 24 type 1 and 24 type 2 diabetic patients were purposively selected and randomly assigned into experimental (n=12) and control (n=12) for both types 1 and type 2 diabetic patients. However only 40 of the subjects completed the study 10 each for type 1 and 2 experimental and control groups. The participants in the experimental groups were engaged in run/walk training three times (on alternate days) weekly for 16 weeks. Both experimental and control groups continued their medications. The control groups were advised to continue with their normal sedentary daily life. The systolic BP, diastolic BP, resting HR and Vo2max of all the subjects were measured before and after the 16 weeks training. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the stated hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed a significant reduction in the systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, resting HR, while the Vo2max increased significantly after the training among the experimental groups both type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients. The implication of the findings is that engaging diabetes patients both type 1 and type 2 in regular aerobic exercises will surely assist in the management and control of the illness due to the prevention of obesity which is known factor of diabetes. Based on the findings of the this study, it is recommended among others, that aerobic exercise (walk/run) should be used as an intervention in the management of both type 1 and 2 diabete
Question Design and the Rules of Questioning in UK Prime Ministers Questions and Ghanaian Ministers Questions
No full textThis paper examines how parliamentarians design their questions and flout parliamentary rules of questioning, leading to confrontations between parliamentarians (MPs) and (Prime) Ministers. A comparative corpus-assisted discourse analysis of UK Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) and Ghanaian Minister’s Questions (GMQs) indicates that GMQs are less confrontational than PMQs since Ghanaian Parliamentary Speakers prevent MPs from asking, for example, questions of opinion and argumentation, which contain strong emotions, generate attacks, accusations and counter-accusations. The paper argues that the confrontations and (counter-)attacks result from the way MPs design their questions. The paper suggests that “yobbery and public school twittishness” in PMQs could be curtailed if the Speaker would disallow questions that flout parliamentary rules of questioning as it is done in GMQs. The paper has implications for parliamentary interactions generally
Predictive validity of students\u27 entry qualifications into diploma in basic education programme in Colleges of Education in Ghana: Predictive validity of students\u27 entry qualifications into diploma in basic education programme in Colleges of Education in Ghana
No full textThe study was conducted to investigate the relationship between students’ West Africa Senior Certificate Examination (WASSCE) grades and their performance in the Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) programme at the Colleges of Education level in Ghana. The purpose was to determine the extent to which the WASSCE results adequately predict performance of students at the College of Educational level. The stratified randomly technique was used to select a sample of seven Colleges of Education with a total of 1,443 students. The Pearson product Moment Correlation coefficient statistic was used to determine the validity coefficients. The results showed a statistically significant positive but low relationship between the two variables ( r= 0.209 at 0.01). It was also found out that using only the core subjects results will better predict performance at the CoE than using the core and some electives. This meant that though the WASSCE results can be used for selection, they do adequately predict performance at the Colleges of Education for the DBE programme. It is therefore suggested that for effective selection of students for the DBE programme, the College of Education may resort to additional predictors such as entrance examination and/or oral interviews beside the WASSCE result
Stripping the Soul of Asante Naked: A History of Opanin Saniagya in Asante Chronicle
No full textThe paper examines a critical theme in Asante History at a crucial time of the life of the once powerful nation. It discusses the origins and significance of the Golden Stool (Sika dwa Kofi) to the existence and survival of the Asante nation. The paper further shows instances in Asante history where the Asante nation went to war rather than allow anyone to capture or defile the sacred Golden Stool. The piece then provides detailed information on how the venerated Sika dwa Kofi was defiled by one Saniagya, and also gives an account of Asanteman´s response to what could, arguably, pass for the highest act of sacrilege in Asante history yet.
 
Mathematics classroom discourse in typical Ghanaian public school: how does it look like? Mathematics classroom discourse in typical Ghanaian public school: how does it look like?
No full textThis paper reports on a study which investigated the nature of classroom interaction and how that affects the way pupils learn mathematical concepts meaningfully. Observation of mathematics lessons of three primary six teachers from one District in Southern Ghana were recorded. This was followed by analysis of the rationale, general aims and objectives of teaching mathematics and the general teaching approach suggested in the preamble of the mathematics curriculum. The data collected were analysed qualitatively and presented as narrative description with illustrative examples. The results from the study revealed amongst others that the traditional school mathematics microculture constituted the dominant public discourse in the three lessons developed. Discussion of the findings and implication for mathematics curriculum development and delivery and further research are provided
Colonial Policy, Chieftaincy and Land Politics in Ghana: The Case Study of Gyaman
No full textThe partition of Africa in the late nineteenth century destabilized some societies in Africa. In West Africa, the imaginary territorial boundaries divided the Nzema between Ivory Coast and Ghana, the Dagaaba between Burkina Faso and Ghana, and the Ewe between Togo and Ghana. The partition exercise also caused protracted disputes and neglect of existing ethnic groupings. Using information from oral, archival and secondary sources, this article examines the impact of the partition of Africa on Gyaman, a traditional ethnic setting in modern Ghana in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The paper blames current Gyaman problems on the Partition exercise
Chieftaincy, Development and the Ghanaian State: A Historical Overview of the 19th and 20th Centuries
No full textThis multi-sourced paper explores the relationship between the chieftaincy institution and the Ghanaian state in the 19th and 20th centuries. It specifically looks at how the relationship between the two has evolved in the overlapping political and economic spheres and how the metamorphosing conceptualization of development on both sides fits into it. Using mainly Asante references,1 this paper argues that the relationship between the state (colonial and post-colonial) and chieftaincy in both spheres has been determined by the policies of the former to either court or curtail the power of the latter when it suits its politics. Chiefs on the other hand, recognizing the nature of this relationship, have skilfully played a “survival politics” strategy in order to remain relevant in the economic and political spheres. This strategy in recent years includes (re)identifying itself with prevailing concepts such as development and either utilising, or readjusting local ideologies where necessary, in order to ensure their own institutional survival.
_________________________________________
1 The examples utilised in this paper focus on the experience of chieftaincy in southern Ghana, particularly Asante and Akan in general. This is not because happenings in chieftaincy in northern Ghana are not significant. Rather it is because the study is based on the southern experience, particularly, that of the Asante. While the Asante chieftaincy institution does not always mirror the nature of chieftaincy in the entire southern Ghana, its scope and reach presents an important case study to measure the extent of changes that occurred during the 19th and 20th centuries
What Color is Black: Epistemic Disobedience in Jean Genet’s The Blacks
No full textJean Genet’s writing has generated controversies over the years, particularly his advocacy for demoting whiteness and its means of domination. He is primarily regarded as an angry homosexual white French male who portrays grotesque shadows of humanity in his work. In his 1959 Play The Blacks, Genet describes the way Blacks are categorized in France through the mediation of abjecting politics of disgust, which cast black bodies as repulsive and outside the pole. At the same time, The Blacks considers the strategies of resistance and critique that are available to these bodies and those working alongside with them. Characters in The Blacks conform to the roles that they are given, therefore creating a visual mask over their identity. For Genet acting becomes a (positively) perverse and subversive mean for gaining power over oppression by taking an art from something that is traditionally based in strict role playing and turning it into a form of individual and collective expression necessary to “negatively” creating what can then be conceived as an assertively “positive” socio-political identity.
 
Denkyemmireku: A Usable Past for A New African State
No full textIn Ghana – The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1971), Nkrumah recounts the deliberations within the United Gold Coast Convention on J. B. Danquah’s proposal for adopting the Akan art motif Funtummireku Denkyemmireku (Denkyemmireku, for short), the proverbial two-headed crocodile, as emblem for the emerging nation of Ghana. Dismissing it as a “hideous monstrosity” that symbolizes selfishness, it was never adopted. Yet, the art motif, a kind of jeremiad that says pity that poor crocodile, whose two heads cannot stop fighting over food, even though they share one stomach, is a recognition of the dialectic of nature as one of unity in diversity, the very essence of the hallowed African monistic thesis of matter. This paper posits that Denkyemmireku embodies a potent philosophical and ideological symbol capable of serving as a usable past for a much-needed reconstruction of a more legitimate African state.
______________________________
1 Some aspects of this article have been previously published in the Journal of Black Studies by the author. See, Kwasi Boadi, “The Ontology of Kwame Nkrumah’s Consciencism and the Democratic Theory and Practice in Africa – A Diopian Perspective.” Journal of Black Studies, Volume 30, Number 4 / March 2000, 475–501