Ounongo Repository (Namibia Univ. of Science and Technology)
Ounongo Repository (Namibia Univ. of Science and Technology)Not a member yet
826 research outputs found
Sort by
Causes of the underachievement of Grade 12 learners of English: A case study of a rural school in the Oshikoto region, Namibia
No full textN. Kamati is a First Year Postgraduate candidate, MEAL, Department of Communication, Faculty of Human Sciences, NUST, Windhoek. H. Z. Woldemariam is an Associate Professor/Deputy Director, Dept. of Communication, Faculty of Human Sciences, NUST, Windhoek, Namibia.This study assessed the causes of the underachievement of Grade 12 learners of English focusing on rural school in the Oshikoto region, Namibia. In January 2016, the Namibian (National) Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary Level (NSSCOL) examination results were announced. The results were slightly decreased in the percentage of graded entries, from 93.9 % in 2014 to 92.9% in 2015. The survey showed that teachers lacked knowledge of subject methodology and knowledge of subject content. Classrooms were overcrowded, creating more challenges for the teachers to assist individual learners. Learners lacked self-motivation and confidence in the subject, as English was stigmatised as a foreign language which was regarded as hard to learn. The school lacked teaching and learning resources. Parental support was not practised as most parents were uneducated. It was recommended that there was a strong need for regular in-service training for teachers, English teaching and learning resources, for emphasising the importance of parental education and awareness sensitisation at all levels. The lower primary curriculum needed to address the second language problems faced by these learners and improve the ways of tackling language difficulties. This included rigid language usage as from primary level (in rural area schools) and, finally, the government needed to build more secondary schools with hostels to accommodate more learners, as this could solve the problem of overcrowding of classrooms
The new Flexible Land Tenure Act: an update.
No full textThe Flexible Land Tenure (FLT) system was developed by the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement and the discussions started in the period of 1992-1998. It was conceived as an alternative for the land tenure catering for low income groups. The act passed in 2012, and currently the regulations are being revised for approval
Surface Activity Interactions in Aqueous Solution of Anionic Surfactants with a Water Treatment Protein from Moringa oleifera Seeds
No full textThe interaction of anionic surfactants sodium dodecylbenzenesulphonate (SDBS) and sodium bis
(2-ethyl-1-hexylsulfosuccinate) (AOT) with the water treatment protein extracted from Moringa
oleifera seeds has been investigated by surface tension measurements. The results were compared
with previously reported studies using surface tension and zeta potential measurements of the
same protein with an anionic surfactant sodium dodecylsulphate. There is a strong electrostatic
interaction between the protein and the surfactants characterized by a local maximum at intermediate
surfactant concentration. This surfactant concentration depends on the protein concentration
and corresponds to the surfactant concentration at the point of charge reversal (zeta potential
= 0 mV). The number of surfactant molecules required to neutralize the positive charges on
the protein was found to be 8 per protein molecule
The development of pragmatic competence (PC) through pragmatics stylistics (PS)
No full text*Associate Prof., Department of Communication, School of Human Sciences (NUST), Windhoek, NamibiaThe major objective of this research was to evaluate the relevance of pragmatics stylistics (PS) in the development of the pragmatic competence (PC) of students through teaching local poetry in English in a tertiary context. The paper, therefore, deals with a pragmatics stylistics model of teaching poetry interfacing the communicative language teaching (CLT) tasks so that an intriguing environment could be recreated in the ELT classroom for the students to develop their pragmatic competence. In this pragmatics stylistics model, pragmalinguistic features such as speech act verbs, deixis, modal verbs and hedging expressions were interlaced with the sociopragmatic features such as politeness and cooperativeness principles during the poetic conversation situation. Pragmatics stylistics model based interpretation of contexts and addressor and addressee relations in poetic texts were assumed to be transferable skills so that students could analyse other poems independently. The research was carried out on the basis of an experimental research design following a mixed research method. A total of 190 students (63.3%) were selected from the population of 300 students in various programs of the Department of English and Other Languages at Adama University, Ethiopia, through a systematic random sampling procedure. These students were again classified into experimental groups (95) and control groups (95). The students in the experimental group took a pragmatics stylistics module through five stylistics methods which included PS. However, the students in the comparison group took the same content with a traditional teaching method which was dominated by the lecture method.
A summary of the total mean gain score out of 20 showed an interesting result. As the mean pre-test score showed, both the control and experimental groups performed almost similarly in their pragmatics stylistics pre-test which was calculated out of 20. The experimental mean score for the pre-test, which was 11.01, was a little higher than the control mean score of 10.95. Similarly, the t-test showed that the p-value of the pre-test was 0.852, which was higher than 0.05. It also showed that the t-value of the pretest was 0.187, which was less than the t-critical value of 1.960. In both cases, it meant the result was not statistically significant. Therefore, there was no significance difference between the mean pre-test scores of the two groups. The t-test results for both pre- and post-tests for the pragmatics stylistics module showed that the t-value of the pragmatics stylistics post-test was 8.293. On the other hand, the table value of t-critical was 1.960 with 188 degree of freedom and at a significance level of 0.05. Because the t-value of 8.293 exceeded the t-critical value of 1.960 for the two-tailed test at 0.05 level of significance for 188 degree of freedom, the null hypothesis was rejected. Similarly, the t-test showed that the p-value of the post-test was 0.000, which was less than 0.05. The difference was statistically significant. Therefore, it was concluded that a pragmatics stylistics method of teaching poetry does contribute to the development of the pragmatic competence of students under EFL context. It was strongly recommended that the growth of the pragmatic competence (PC) of EFL learners could be extended through indigenous literature in English using a pragmatics stylistics approach
Remarks by Mr. Harold Kaura, General Manager, Namibia Institute of Pathology, at the MOU signing ceremony.
No full textMemorandum of Understanding, NUST and Namibia Institute of Patholog
The impact of corruption on development: a comparative developmental perspective
No full textAuthor supplied preprintCorruption has attracted increased and intensive consideration in discourse on development in recent years. Beyond being an ethical problem, corruption is also a governance and development challenge. To contextualise the impact of corruption on development, a comparative analysis of the outstanding development characteristics of developing as opposed to developed countries of 16 internationally accepted indices has been conducted. From analysing the indices, overall patterns emerge that demonstrate that developing countries such as Namibia and Kenya, with relatively low scores in terms of development indicators, present more obstructions to development that act as co-producers of corruption compared to a developed country such as Norway, which has fewer such obstructions. Such co-producers and their interaction increase the level and complexity of corruption as well as magnify its impact on development. As the drivers of corruption take different forms, emerging obstructions are less dominant in developed countries and, given all other possible co-producers, corruption can be managed more easily compared to the situation in developing countries. To change a culture of corruption requires that the environment must be developed to make problems impossible to arise and to dissolve corruption as a complex problem situation. Keywords: Corruption; development; perceptions; co-producers
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of informatics at Namibia University of Science and Technology
No full textThis is an abstract, the full text is available in a printed format in the library
Geochemistry and potential environmental impact of the mine tailingsat Rosh Pinah, southern Namibia
No full textMine tailings at Rosh Pinah located in semiarid southern Namibia were investigated by the combinationof mineralogical methods and leaching using water and simulated gastric solution. They are well-neutral-ized with leachate pH > 7 and neutralization potential ratios (NPR) up to 4. Neutralization is mainly dueto abundant Mn-rich dolomite in the matrix. Concentrations of released contaminants in water leachatefollow the order Zn > Pb > Cu > As. Relatively high leached concentrations of Zn and partly also of Pb arecaused by their link to relatively soluble carbonates and Mn-oxyhydroxides. In contrast, As is almostimmobile by binding into Fe-oxyhydroxides, which are resistant to dissolution. Barium is released bythe dissolution of Ba-carbonate (norsethite) and precipitates in sulfate-rich pore water as barite.Dissolved concentrations in neutral mine drainage water collected in the southern pond are low, butwhen total concentrations including colloidal fraction are taken into account, more than 70% of Zn isin colloidal form. Groundwater upgradient of the mine tailings is of poor quality and there seems tobe no negative impact on groundwater downgradient from mine tailings.Contaminant concentrations in simulated gastric leachates are in the order Ba > Pb > Zn > Cu > As witha maximum gastric bioaccessibility of 86.6% for Ba and a minimum of 3.3% for As. These results demon-strate that total contaminant content and toxicity in the solid phase are poor predictors of risk, and there-fore mineralogical and bioavailability/bioaccessibility studies are necessary for evaluation ofcontaminant environmental impact
Testing the export-led growth paradigm through econometric methods: Empirical evidence from Namibia.
No full textDespite the large volume of documented empirical studies in the existing literature concerning the export-led model in the last four decades, the exact connection between exports and economic growth remains largely unanswered. Indeed, both theoretical and empirical inquiries are still seeking for definite answers. Accordingly, this study employs the VAR technique to empirically assess the applicability of the export-led growth model in the context of Namibia through the help of quarterly time-series data-sets for the
period covering 1990 to 2012. In this regard, the study tested for the existence of a long-run relationship between exports and economic growth. The results of the unit root test indicated that, foreign direct investment and exchange rate variables attained a stationary status in levels, while real gross domestic product and exports only became stationary after first differencing. The cointegration test suggests a stable long-run relationship among the variables used in the VAR specification. The Granger-causality test found a unidirectional relationship running from exports to economic growth.
Therefore, the study recommends that trade policies which encourages export
expansion should be aggressively pursuit by the government of Namibia, while simultaneously striving towards improving upon the competiveness of its exports in foreign markets
Welcoming remarks by Prof. Tjama Tjivikua, Vice Chancellor, NUST, on the occasion of the 9th Graduation Ceremony of the Commercial Advancement Training Scheme (CATS) programme, on 24 September 2015, at 18h00, Arebbusch Travel Lodge, Windhoek, Namibia.
No full textCommercial Advancement Training Scheme (CATS) Graduation Ceremony (9th: 2015 Sep. 24: Windhoek, Namibia