UFS Publications Platform (Univ. of the Free State)
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The Quality of Students’ Accommodation in Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions
No full textThe quality of students’ accommodation has been one of the factors that influence students’ academic performance and achievements. This has been shown in Sustainable Development Goals as related to education and housing. This paper thus assessed the quality of students’ accommodation in a Nigeria’s tertiary institution. The objectives are to determine the factors responsible for students’ choice of accommodation and examine the variation in students’ accommodation based on their quality. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 212 (10%) students living in 8 on-campus and 8 off-campus hostels in the study area. Questionnaires were used as research instruments in this paper. This study adopted descriptive, inferential, and spatial analytical techniques. The results reveal that the hostel fee was higher off-campus than on-campus, while the power supply was more stable at on-campus hostels than at off-campus hostels. At a p-value greater than alpha at 0.05, and an F-calculated value of 1.613 which was less than the F-tabulated value of 1.71 at F0.05, 15, 196, there was no statistically significant variation in the overall mean value of the factors considered for the quality of students’ accommodation across all sixteen hostels. This paper concludes that the quality of students’ hostels is not significantly different in both on-campus and off-campus in the study area. This paper thus recommends that the quality of students’ accommodation should be improved without exerting an exorbitant fee on students. There should also be a government policy regulating the off-campus and on-campus hostels in terms of fees and quality. 
Assessing Professors\u27 Prestige, Reasons behind Declining Dignity: A Special Review of Nepalese Context
Get PDFAcross the globe, a professor is not only an academically alluring position but also one of the most vital and valuable statuses that the government, as well as other professional societies of respective countries, pay with unparalleled dignity and prestige. However, the situation of professors in Nepal has gone haywire, setting a noticeably regressive and defaming decline compared to the other countries of the world. This paper tries to thoroughly assess the situation of decaying dignity of the professors in Nepal. Besides, it tries to unearth those substantial causes that have obstructed professors from upholding the expected dignity of position as earned by the professors in other countries. As an inference, this study has found that the dignity of professors in Nepal is at a constantly declining state and deplorable downward trajectory. An apparent erosion in academic integrity and honesty, zero research engagement, fewer professors and more political fellows, followed by excess politicisation in universities, has degraded the system. Thus, they should be completely barred from political engagement. Making quality research works compulsory and refraining universities from political intervention and experiment is a must. Finally, this paper argues that reviving authentic academic culture might assist in repairing the decay of professorial dignity
Exploring Educational Technologies Used by Mthwakazi University Rural Satellite Campuses to Implement Distance Teacher Education Programmes
Get PDFThe 21st century has seen a massive advent of technologies, arguably more than any other time in the history of humankind. Education systems worldwide have embraced emerging technologies to expedite their teaching and learning systems to stay abreast and relevant to the time. The study explored the types of educational technologies used by Mthwakazi University (MU) rural satellite campuses to implement distance teacher education programmes. An interpretive research paradigm was employed using a qualitative research approach and a case study design. Interviews were used to gather data from six purposively selected lecturers at MU rural satellite campuses. Data was analysed narratively under emerging themes. Findings concluded that lecturers at MU rural satellite campuses used limited educational technologies, mostly traditional paper and text, due to electricity and internet challenges and lecturers’ lack of ICT skills and knowledge. The study recommended that MU rural satellite campuses should use flash drives, Compact Disks (CDs) and Digital Versatile/Video Disks (DVDs) to download Encarta, encyclopedia and updated information and upload it into computers for access by students, invest in alternative internet sources like dongles and wireless mobile networks like ECONET and MTN
Dilemmas of Children Raised by Single Parents in the Kingdom of Eswatini
Get PDFChildren raised by single parents face many challenges that can be social, psychological, cultural or economic, resulting in erratic behavior. This study explored the dilemmas of children raised by single parents in the Kingdom of Eswatini in Lubombo region. The study was undertaken in a transformative research paradigm, and the Participatory Action Learning Action Research (PALAR) design was used. This qualitative study employed in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to get views from single parents and children in single parenting, and the data were analysed through thematic analysis. A sample of six single parents and six children raised by single parents were selected from the Lubombo region using the purposive sampling technique. Informed by Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the findings of the study revealed that single parenting led to children feeling abandoned, rejected and unloved by the absent parent, which had social and psychological effects on the children. The study concluded that children raised by single parents face psychological, social, economic and cultural challenges. Most of them are fixated and need counselling. The study suggests, for Eswatini, that the Home Affairs Department, in partnership with relevant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should make psychological counselling readily available for single parents and their children.
Community Empowerment, Sustainability of Forest Conservation Projects and the Moderating Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation Practices in Kenya
Get PDFThis research sought to investigate the moderating influence of monitoring and evaluation practices on the relationship between community empowerment and the sustainability of forest conservation projects. This study was conducted in Taita-Taveta County, located in the southern part of Kenya. Community empowerment is viewed as a process and an end where community members gain control of their lives. The empowerment practices considered were knowledge and skills empowerment, decision-making empowerment, conflict resolution empowerment and income-generating empowerment activities. The study relied on a cross-sectional survey study design. A sample of 365 respondents for quantitative data was determined using Yamane formulae. Mixed methods were used to collect and analyse data. Cluster sampling and systematic sampling were used progressively to select respondents for quantitative questions, while those for qualitative questions were selected purposively. Additional data collection methods were observation and document analysis. The study noted that projects implemented in the study area were barely sustainable, with at least 44.1% of respondents agreeing while 52.1% neither agreed nor disagreed. Regression analysis results indicated the R-square change (model 2) of 0.015, which implied that model 2 with monitoring and evaluation practices positively enhanced the influence of community empowerment activities on the sustainability of forest conservation practices by at least 1.5%. Based on the results, the study concluded that monitoring and evaluation practices enhance the sustainability of forest conservation projects with a recommendation that project designers should always include monitoring and evaluation practices in their projects
Workplace Conflicts and Perception of Quality Higher Education in Ghana
Get PDFConflicts as a complex reality are common in higher education settings. Unfortunately, little is known about their impact on perceptions of the quality of higher education. This study assessed the impact of structural and interpersonal conflicts on the perception of quality higher education. To obtain the data, the study used a cross-sectional survey research design. The study sampled 310 academic and administrative staff from three universities in Northern Ghana using a multi-stage sampling technique. The questionnaire was the primary data-gathering tool. The prevalence of conflicts and perception of quality in higher education were assessed using simple frequencies and percentages, while the structural equation modelling technique was used to investigate the complex relationship among structural conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, and perception of higher education quality. The results indicate that most workplace conflicts in higher education are structural in nature, arising from jurisdictional uncertainties, interdependence, and authority relationships. The findings further indicate that structural and interpersonal conflicts have little influence on perceptions of quality higher education. Nevertheless, in terms of direction, structural conflicts have a positive link with the perception of quality higher education, whereas interpersonal conflicts have a negative relationship. It is hereby recommended that a cross-sectional survey on the influence of conflicts on effective teaching and learning in public universities in Ghana should be conducted
The Needed Categories of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Natural Science Curriculum in South Africa: Narratives from Pongola schools
Get PDFFor centuries, South African education was dominated by colonial practices that devalued Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). To reform education, the CAPS 2012 Natural Science (NS) curriculum documents instruct teachers to use IKS when delivering instruction without specifying the categories that should be used. The study was conducted to gather the views and narratives of participants on IKS categories that should be incorporated into the NS curriculum. An African renaissance theory that calls for the decolonisation and Africanisation of education guided the study. An interpretivist research philosophy was used to understand the phenomenon from participants’ point of view, and through the use of a qualitative approach, data was gathered directly from participants in their natural settings in Pongola schools. A case study design allowed the researcher to focus on selected schools and collect in-depth information from purposively selected Principals, NS Heads of Departments and teachers through interviews and focus group discussions. Data were analysed and presented narratively and verbatim under emerging themes. Findings revealed that participants advocated for the incorporation of the following six IKS categories into the NS curriculum, traditional veterinary medicines, traditional diets and food processing, traditional medicines, weather forecast, environmental and disaster management, traditional values, uBuntu lenhlonipho (humility and respect). The study recommended that the Department of Basic Education review its policy and incorporate IKS into the Natural Science curriculum as a full knowledge strand. The 6 IKS categories suggested by participants should form a firm foundation and background for the incorporation process
The Impact of Artisanal Mining on Career Development of Adolescents in Zimbabwe
Get PDFThe research explored the impact of artisanal mining on the career development of adolescents at three selected schools in Imbizo District, Bulawayo Metropolitan Province. Interpretivism research philosophy was employed in the study, and a qualitative research method was used. The phenomenological research design was adopted for the study. The sample comprised fifteen school children aged between 14 to 20 years, and six teachers were selected from schools in Imbizo district in Bulawayo province, Zimbabwe, using purposive sampling. Due to COVID-19 regulations, interviews were telephonically, and focus group discussions were conducted online. Interviews were used to collect data from children, while focus group discussions were used to collect data from teachers. The findings revealed that causes of child involvement in artisanal mining include influence from society, poverty, drugs, adventure and the COVID-19 outbreak. The research findings revealed that child involvement in mining brought undesirable behavioural traits such as anti-social behaviour, poor academic performance, health and safety risks and different forms of abuse. Strategies suggested by teachers to mitigate child involvement in illegal mining encompassed legalising the small-scale mines, life skills education, educational support to all vulnerable children, community awareness campaigns, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government involvement. The children suggested that the government could help by providing them with basic needs like food and paying for their schools and stationery
Striking a Balance between Two Extremes: COVID-19 Pentecostal Annotations and Government’s Response-Actions in Nigeria
Get PDFThe outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and subsequent government’s response-actions generated fascinating reactions and interpretations from different quarters in Nigeria. The country’s vibrant socio-political and religious spaces were inundated by a series of interpretations, thoughts and opinions, especially by prominent clergies from the Pentecostal Christian faith. Five perspectives emerged: the divinely-permitted pandemic/punishment perspective, the eschatological perspective; the Satanic-orchestration perspective; the conspiracy perspective; and the pragmatist’s perspective. This article examines the thrusts, strengths and limitations of these perspectives in the light of scientific explanations of the global outbreak of COVID-19 and government’s response-actions in Nigeria. The standpoint was used as the theoretical underpinning for the study, while the argument was based on secondary sources, including audio/visual sermons/addresses of various clergies on the subject matter. These were content-analysed and subjected to historical and descriptive methods. Findings show that while some of the claims and interpretations by proponents of the perspectives were labelled ‘unscientific’, unverifiable, outrageous and premised on sentiments, such claims went a long way to shape beliefs, public perception and disposition to the pandemic and subsequent measures by the government. It was concluded that such overriding influence ought to have been leveraged by the government to achieve compliance with its measures and manage the pandemic regarding its spread and the administration of vaccines
Prioritisation and Nationalisation of Teaching of Sciences in Ugandan Schools: Practitioners and Documentary Perspectives
Get PDFConsiderable investment in and prioritisation of teaching of sciences among secondary schools in Uganda have been made. But despite this, performance in sciences remains poor. We sought to understand why this is so, and to this end, the present study explores perceptions regarding reasons surrounding students’ poor performance in sciences. We used an exploratory case study to interview teachers of science, inspectors of schools, and a representative of the Uganda National Examinations Board. Also, documentary analysis was done for a deeper understanding of the study question. Qualitative analysis was employed in the identification of themes and sub-themes. In the findings, what our research suggested is that there is a combination of factors which have resulted in poor science results within schools – the quality of the teaching, the expectations and support of the school and the ability of the pupils themselves, although the quality of teaching seemed to be the major factor. Therefore, this would suggest that the teaching and learning of the sciences in Ugandan schools could benefit from adapting to new ways – teaching the necessary skills, developing the pupils’ scientific interest and skills, and improving facilities within the schools. Further inquiry could be channeled towards understanding apathy in the teaching and learning of sciences, support strategies in resource utilisation, and monitoring of the teaching-learning process