The University of Zambia Journals
Not a member yet
787 research outputs found
Sort by
Physiotherapy Intervention in Palliative Care for HIV Comorbidities: Can it be a Best Practice for Public Policy for Palliative Care in Zambia?
Get PDFIntroduction: The prolonged life expectancy for people living with HIV has led to an increase in the prevalence of people living with HIV and AIDS. Most of these patients are experiencing episodes of wellness and illness with related disability. In Zambia, manyHIVpatientswhorequiredrehabilitationserviceswerenotabletoaccesstheseservices. Acommunitybasedphysiotherapy intervention programme using Community Health Workers who were equipped with basic physiotherapy skills was set up in Mtendere and Chawama Townships of Lusaka, Zambia from 2008 to 2015. This study set out to assess the intervention output in relation to patients’ trends, process of the intervention and challenges experienced for the period October, 2012 to September, 2014.
Methods: This evaluation reviewed monthly and annual reports of the programme from October, 2012 to September, 2014. A desk review of palliative care related reports and policy was also reviewed. Both qualitative and quantitative data was extracted from these reports, with quantitative data being analyzed using excel while qualitative data was analysed using QSR NVIVO 10 after being transcribed and translated from texts.
Results: The patients’ trends during this period showed a steady increase in the proportion of new patients being enrolled onto the programme compared to those who were being lost to follow up, death, discharge or other loss such as transfers and many others. Themes under qualitative analysis were Community Health Workers, procurements, service delivery programme challenges and palliative care policy. The programme planned to conduct two trainings for each of the years under review but only managed one in each year. There were many challenges identified under this programme and all of them bordered on inconsistencies in the release of funds.
Conclusion: This evaluation shows that the prevalence of HIV patients presenting with disabling conditions has been increasing and there is need to provide the needed rehabilitation services through the community based programme. Using Community Health Workers to provide physiotherapy services in the community enables many patients to access these services and hence a policy that supports this would be ideal
Management of Teacher Attrition in Public Secondary Schools of Chongwe, Lusaka and Kafue Districts of Lusaka Province in Zambia
Get PDFThe article establishes how school managers address the challenge of teacher attrition. This was done by assessing its effects on the functionality of and closely examining measures put in place to sustain teacher retention in public secondary schools in Zambia. This study employed action research strategies of inquiry utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection to a total of 33 participants. Data was mainly analysed using thematic analysis, a process involving coding and categorising major themes emerging from the study findings and in relation to the objectives of the study. Findings of the study seem to suggest that teacher attrition led to poor staffing levels and poor student achievement. Moreover, school managers lacked sufficient support and ability to address the challenges arising from teacher attrition. Further, school managers should use the participative management approach and continuous professional development through proper valuation of teachers’ continuous professional development needs as strategies to enhance teacher motivation and retention. Another significant finding in this study was that the participants had limited understanding on the role school managers’ played in staff retention. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that school managers that lack basic understanding of what they are expected to do cannot be perceived as effective in addressing teacher attrition. The empirical investigation also underscored a series of practical challenges faced by school managers in Chongwe, Kafue and Lusaka districts
POLITICAL MARKETING AND ELECTORATE’S CHOICE OF POLITICAL CANDIDATES IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA
Get PDFThe need for political parties and candidates to be electorate driven in their political activities, has led to the adoption of marketing principles to political processes and election campaigns. Political marketing offers political candidates and their parties the capability to address diverse electorate concerns and needs through appropriate marketing analyses. This article examines the relationship between political marketing tools and electorate’s choice of political candidates as well as the effect of political marketing tools and electorate’s choice of political candidates in Kwara State. The study’s primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire that was administered to 384 respondents who were selected through a combination of stratified, simple random and purposive sampling techniques from the three senatorial districts of the state. Multiple regression analysis technique was the statistical method used to test the hypotheses formulated for the study. The results revealed that the electorate’s choice of candidates has a positive relationship with almost all the political marketing tools except a needs-oriented manifesto. It was also found that political marketing tools have a positive effect on the electorate’s choice of candidates. It is concluded that political marketing tools have a positive relationship with the electorate’s choice of political candidates. The study recommends that political parties and candidates should explore, recognise and understand the relationship that exists between political marketing and the electorate’s choice of candidates. Political parties can do this by placing emphasis on efficient and effective utilisation of these political marketing tools
Implementation of Inclusive Education Policy in Secondary Schools in Zambia
Get PDFZambia adopted its first inclusive education policy in 1996. Since that time, teachers have been critical for the successful implementation of the inclusive education policy. With sufficient training and leadership, they have been found to support policy and facilitate its implementation. However, to date the majority of inclusive education research in Zambia has been conducted at the primary school level with a dearth of studies having been conducted at the secondary level. This study explored inclusive education policy implementation in secondary schools in Zambia from the perspectives of teachers and school administrators. A Mixed-methods study was conducted across two schools in one province of Zambia. Study participants were purposively sampled. Thirty-two purposively selected teachers responded to a survey and four senior school administrators participated in semi-structured interviews. Document review examined the schools’ inclusive education policies. Analysis included descriptive statistics for quantitative survey data and thematic analysis for the qualitative interview data. Triangulating the survey, interview, and document data enhanced the reliability of the study. The findings suggest that educators in Zambia face challenges that hinder the full implementation of inclusive education including a lack of clear and coordinated school inclusive policy guidelines, inadequate government funding, and inadequate provision of teaching and learning resources. The findings also suggest that there are facilitators of inclusive education policy in Zambia, including teachers who fully support the inclusion of pupils with special education needs and communities that support schools by subsidizing finances to provide required resources for pupils. This study furthers the understanding of challenges and facilitators of inclusive education policy implementation in secondary schools and provides recommendations for the education sector at the national, provincial, and district levels
Emotional Intelligence of Secondary School headteachers and school achievement: A Case Study of Kasenengwa District
Get PDFThis paper is anchored on findings of a study which investigated the role of Emotional Intelligence in education leadership and its relationship with school achievement of secondary school head teachers in Kasenengwa District. The study was anti-positivistic and adopted the mixed methods research. Targeting Kasenengwa District, 50 respondents: 8 head teachers of all the 8 secondary schools in the District and 42 heads of departments were sampled conveniently. Data collected was analyzed descriptively and thematically. Daniel Goleman’s theory of Emotional Intelligence guided this study. The major findings of this study show that secondary school head teachers on the average were poorer in Emotional awareness (EA) than in Emotional Management (EM), Social Emotional Awareness (ESA) and Relationship Management (RM). Nevertheless, the competences of EM, SEA and RM were effectively functioning but only needed further strengthening. Cooperatively and comparatively, the younger head teachers were better in EI than the older ones. Being older did not play advantage on the EI of the secondary school head teachers in Kasenengwa District. Head teachers who served more than 5 in administration irrespective of their ages were better in EI skills than those who had less experience (less than 5 years in administration). The EI of the female was better than the average scores of all the males and superior in academic achievement, fiscal responsibility and teacher well-being. EI had influence on school achievement (academic, fiscal responsibility and teacher well-being). The higher the EI, the better the school achievement. It recommends that MoGE deliberately embark on introducing emotional intelligence in tertiary education integrated in courses of education studies
A Critical Review of Ideological Trends in the Study of Zambian Literature in English
Get PDFTwo ideologically divergent schools of thought have emerged in the study of Zambian literature in English. The first one rooted in imperialist doctrines emerged in the early 1980s and continues to influence many studies on Zambian literature to this day. The second one with a clear object of the renaissance of world literatures like that of Zambia is recent. It begun towards the end of the second decade of the 2000s and challenges the first one. This paper gives a critical discussion of studies that constitute and mark these two trends. It is a desktop research that employs the documental analysis informed by the historical cultural materialism theory. It concludes that the imperialist school of thought overlook and impoverish our understanding of the wider ideological and political context in which Zambian literature in English has and is evolving and the world literary scene on which we encounter it. Then, the renaissance school of thought does not just remedy this ideological problem but creates an opportunity for us to study Zambian literature in English as a distinct local realist tradition that is organically developing and in transition
Exploring New Scientific Methods in the Teaching and Learning of Sesotho
Get PDFTeaching and learning of languages especially modern languages, be they
L1, L2 or L3, continue to evolve and shift from the traditional approach
where the physical instructor was key to the educational process to
contemporary interactive digital approaches that give the learn a certain
amount of confidence and autonomy. However, this is not the case in Lesotho
where the approach in the teaching and learning of Sesotho has arguably
been traditional, despite the fact that Sesotho is not only the official
language but also the only indigenous language spoken across the country.
This article concerned with problems related to teaching and learning of
Sesotho through the use of traditional methods. It argues that contemporary
approaches would render the language much more accessible to the masses
locally and internationally, particularly in the information age. Secondly,
new methods would help re-document the language with all the indigenous
knowledge and savoir-faire proper to the language and culture of Basotho.
The article explores possible avenues of electronic language documentation
and digitisation with the aim of improving the teaching and learning of
Sesotho in formal academic establishments and in informal settings
generally meant for foreign agents working or representing international
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the rural areas of Lesotho. This
is where citizens may know how to read and right but not be particularly
conversant in the second official language - English. Finally, the article
advocates for collaboration between computer scientists and linguists with
the objective of developing an on-point Sesotho language software that
supports regulated online language learning platforms
Patterns of Sexual Assault Victims Presenting to the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia: A Cross-Sectional Study
Get PDFSexual assault, which encompasses defilement and rape, is a public health and public safety problem with the majority of victims being women and children. The consequences of sexual assault include physical injuries, psychological trauma, depression, suicide or suicidal attempt and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a long-term consequence. Others are unwanted pregnancies and risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections including the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). There is little information about the conditions under which sexual assault occurs. The aim of this study was to determine the patterns of sexual assault victims presenting to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
This was a cross sectional study that was carried out on sexual assault victims who presented to UTH over a period of four months from December 2013 to April 2014. A total of 160 participants were recruited, 59 from the Gynaecology admission ward (C03) and 101 from Paediatric Centre of Excellence Child Sexual Assault (PCOE-CSA). Participants were interviewed using an interviewer-administered questionnaire while some data was extracted from victims’ files including documented HIV status. Frequency tables were constructed and characteristics of sexual assault compared between victims aged below 16 years and those aged 16 years and above. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.
The age of 160 victims ranged from 2 to 34 years and the most affected age group was 11-15 years (n=91; 56.9%). Victims were mostly single (n=149; 93.1%), had attained primary education or none (n=102; 63.8%) were unemployed (n=149; 93.1%) and resided in high-density areas (n=144; 90%). Only 7.5% (n=12) of victims tested HIV positive. A positive HIV test occurred 14 times more frequently in victims aged 16 years and above (OR = 14.32, CI = 2.35 – 87.22, P-value < 0.01). Majority of the incidents took place in residential homes (n=110; 68.8%) and these were significantly less common among victims aged 16 years and above (OR = 0.33, CI = 0.11 – 0.98, P-value = 0.05). The majority of perpetrators were known to the victims (n= 119; 74.4%). Sexual assault perpetrated by strangers affected victims aged 16 years and above more than those aged below 16 years (50.0% versus 17.5%;
Assessment on the Effects of Intercropping Patterns on Incidence and Damage to Cotton by Diaparopsis Castanea: Hampson (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Magoye, Mazabuka District of Zambia
Get PDFThe Red bollworm, Diaparopsis castanea (Hampson) is an insect that has gone from being a minor cotton pest to being a major pest of cotton in Zambia. This study was conducted in Magoye, Mazabuka district, Zambia to assess the effects of intercropping patterns on the incidence and damage caused to cotton by D. castanea. The first part of the study involved conducting a survey among 80 randomly selected farmers in Magoye to determine the different types of intercropping patterns being used in the area. The second part of the study was an experimental field study to assess various intercropping patterns identified in the survey. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with four replications. Cotton cultivar CDT II (Gossypium hirsutum) was sown by hand in 100-cm spaced single rows. The intercrops selected were maize (Zea mays L.), sorghum (Sorghum vulgare L.) pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annus L.). The data collected was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique and LSD using GenStat discovery edition 3 computer package. The survey revealed that only 28% of farmers in Magoye area were using intercropping as a pest control strategy. The intercrops were grown either as a strip/single row pattern alongside the cotton crop or in between each row of cotton. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the field study showed significant differences (F =2.22; d.f =5;
Multiple Phase-Formation in Ni-Ge System Monitored by SEM, AFM and PIXE Analytical Techniques
Get PDFWe present evidence of multiple phase formation in the Ni-Ge system observed with the aid of the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) analytical techniques. Using a conventional optical mask, we prepare lateral diffusion couples of thick rectangular germanium islands on a nickel thin film. We observe at elevated temperatures a lateral diffusion of excess atoms from the Ge rich island to the surrounding Ni thin film; in a process which leaves a sequence of clearly discernible multiple phases whose interfaces are optically resolvable. We reveal finer detail in structure, texture and stoichiometry of the phases using AFM and SEM micrographs together with µ-RBS (Microprobe Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry) and µ-PIXE elemental distribution maps. Our results confirm that when complemented with AFM, SEM, and micro-Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, lateral diffusion coupling technique is the most effective method to observe simultaneously multiple phases in a metallic-semiconducting binary system