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The recent wave of randomized trials in development economics has provoked criticisms regarding external validity. We investigate two concerns – heterogeneity across beneficiaries and implementers – in a randomized trial of contract teachers in Kenyan schools. The intervention, previously shown to raise test scores in NGO-led trials in Western Kenya and parts of India, was replicated across all Kenyan provinces by an NGO and the government. Strong effects of short-term contracts produced in...

The study was conducted to investigate the influence of family background on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria. The study was carried out in the three senatorial districts of Kwara State. Three hundred respondents participated in this research. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data while t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to test the three generated null hypothesis at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The findings showed that there...

The breeding parameters and the egg and nestling morphology of Cyanistes caeruleus populations from rural, intermediate, and urban sites in Algeria and the relationships of those variables with lead contamination were studied during three consecutive years. Breeding success was explained only by predation and vandalism rates. Predation was higher in the rural area, whereas vandalism was higher in the urban site. The other measured breeding parameters and egg characteristics were relatively...

South African student teachers were studied to see how they coped with requirements to teach science using argumentation. Lesson observations, plans, reflective logs, post-teaching interviews and assessment of pupils’ argumentation were used to compare student teachers’ preparedness and interactions with pupils. Two clusters of students were identified representing high preparedness and low interaction. A high degree of preparedness alone did not guarantee high levels of argumentation....

M. Tech. (Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology

Given the fundamental objective of ESD—perspective change—it is increasingly being aligned with the theoretical foundation of Mezirow’s Transformative Learning. In 2008, Sipos et al. built upon this connection by proposing a matrix of learning objectives to assess ESD in formal settings. These objectives, grouped under the title of ‘Transformative Sustainability Learning’ (TSL), call for ESD initiatives to integrate heads, hands and heart (HHH) learning while facilitating a change in outlook...

This study was designed to interrogate the basic assumption that boys in specific regions in Kenya were –compared with girls– beginning to underperform in school attendance, performance and completion rates. The study took cognisance of the fact that Girls’ education has, for many years, been the preserve of projects. While these projects have produced some impressive results, they are necessarily limited in terms of promoting gender equality in the long-run because of their “blindness” to...

1.1 Problem Statement Understanding the context of the access to and retention of female students in higher education in Niger requires a brief overview of the percentages of women in regards to literacy, employment and higher education in the country. As a result, the national literacy rate represented 20% in 2003 of whom 90.4% were men and less than 10% were women despite women representing 51% of the total country population (INS, 2005). In 2005, this rate became 28.7% According to the...

The study sought to establish the current state of inclusive education in Zimbabwe. Focus was on the perceived gains of inclusive education, challenges in its implementation and how the challenges could be addressed. A survey design which was fundamentally qualitative in nature was used. Forty-two Bachelor of Education (Special Needs Education)(BEd SNE) purposefully selected students from Great Zimbabwe University participated in the study. The data were collected using an open ended...

1.1 Background Malawi introduced Free Primary Education in 1994 soon after democratic elections. Enrollment dramatically increased from 1.9 million in 1994 to almost 3 million in 1995. However, the resource implications were enormous. For instance, with a total of 5106 schools in the country the infrastructure shortage is serious with a gap of 24510 classrooms, 39696 teachers houses, 3057 head teachers offi ces, 3932 staffrooms, and 4700 libraries. The average Classroom pupil ratio is 1:116...

This article examines the challenges of teacher development strategies in post-1994 South Africa by arguing that school-based development initiatives address teachers’ specific development needs and that it is imperative to understand the conditions under which these initiatives can have a positive impact on teachers. A framework is developed through which to examine why TD initiatives evolve over time and why teachers do not benefit equally from these. It illustrates this by reporting on...

South African educators are mandated by international and national law to observe and promote human rights. However, given the realities of the limited teaching time available, educators cannot fulfil this obligation solely by teaching the curriculum. Another avenue needs to be found for educators to fulfil this obligation. Educators are also mandated to follow a positive discipline approach, but they are still finding this mandate difficult to accept. The authors of this article contend...

The equatorial ionosphere has been known to become highly disturbed and thus rendering space-based navigation unreliable during space weather events, such as geomagnetic storms. Modern navigation systems, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) use radio-wave signals that reflect from or propagate through the ionosphere as a means of determining range or distance. Such systems are vulnerable to effects caused by geomagnetic storms, and their performance can be severely degraded. This...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to follow up a cohort of South African doctors who had previously failed a validated musculoskeletal assessment tool, to examine the effect of a two-month Orthopaedic internship rotation on musculoskeletal competency. Methods A validated competency examination in orthopaedic medicine was used as the assessment tool. Topics included fractures and dislocations, arthritis, basic anatomy and emergencies that require immediate referral to an orthopaedic...

This paper describes the first African experience with the Nutrition-Friendly School Initiative (NFSI) in two large West African cities: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Cotonou, Benin. NFSI was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners in 2006, as a means of preventing the double burden of malnutrition: the coexistence of undernutrition and overnutrition among school-children. NFSI pilot-testing is one component of the Partnership Project on the Double Burden of...