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Summary A major survey of the determinants of access to primary education in Madagascar was carried out in 1994. The probability of enrolment, probability of admission, delay before beginning school, probability of repeating a year and probability of dropping out were studied. The results of the survey are briefly described. In the analysis, one major problem was non-random missing values in the covariates. Some simple methods were developed for detecting whether a response variable depends...

Abstract The initiation and implementation of development programmes in developing countries places demands on professional staff to acquire new skills and adopt new approaches to drive new development paradigms. It has been found that formal training plays a relatively small part in learning new skills in the workplace, compared with informal learning‐by‐doing within a supportive institutional environment. This paper describes and contrasts the ways in which two donor funded technical...

For many years, South African schooling has been driven by a terminal external examination system that is largely context insensitive. This assessment system has had a profound influence on educators so much so that many have adopted a 'teach to the test' pedagogy. The problem solving nature of the discipline of economics requires a pedagogy in keeping with the nature of the discipline. The nature of the external assessment has however dictated a different set of expectations of economics...

As a result of South Africa's historical legacy, vast aesthetic, technical, and conceptual discrepancies have tended to differentiate the works of many self-taught black artists from academically trained and internationally connected whites. Given these incongruities—which persist with the exception of a small elite of internationally recognized black artists—art historians and curators have been challenged to develop conceptual models that succeed in resolving differences or bridging gaps....

Extensive lava flows were erupted during the Upper Cretaceous in the Wadi Natash of southern Egypt. The lavas are mainly of alkaline (sodium dominated) composition and include alkali olivine basalt (AOB), hawaiite, mugearite, and benmoreite that intruded with acidic volcanics of trachytic to rhyolitic composition. Abundances of major oxides and trace elements including the REE vary systematically through this compositional spectrum. The gradual decrease of CaO with decreasing MgO is...

This study is an attempt to extend earlier analyses (Davies, 1995; Mpofu, 1997) of the target clientele of mature age entry schemes to a level where we understand who exactly avails themselves for these programmes, in five universities in Southern Africa. To say that the enrolees of these programmes vary from country to country and, in some cases, from institution to institution (within the same country), is perhaps to state the obvious. However, in the absence of empirical research to...

Unlike previous research studies that focused on teaching and learning strategies in indigenous societies, this study presents an investigation of assessment and evaluation strategies in a local community in Papua New Guinea. On the basis of the findings, this study also presents a process of developing more culturally appropriate classroom practices from the indigenous teachers' perspectives. It is a collaborative study between the indigenous teachers, who play the major role, and the researcher, who plays the role of facilitator.

Policies for creating a nonracial, democratic education system in South Africa are spawning implementation issues that reflect change and resistance to change in schools. This paper reports on a multiple-year ethnographic study in two contrasting schools in QwaQwa, South Africa. Faculty, administrators, and students were observed and interviewed to ascertain the degree of penetration of democratization reforms and to document developments in these schools as they experience the latest phase...

Outlines the role of institutions of higher education and the history of institutions of higher learning in East Africa and describes post-independence challenges to institutions of higher learning and their libraries in the region. Discusses the problems of managing change and identifies two groups of coping strategies: human resource and non human resource based. Concludes that the survival of organizations depends significantly on how much is invested in training as part of performance management.

In developing countries, there is a lack of trained personnel and testing equipment to facilitate the early detection of hearing impairment in children. A questionnaire offers a low cost option and the value of this for detecting hearing impairment in pre-school children was determined in several districts in Kenya. The questionnaire was completed by either teachers, parents/carers or community nurses. The children were subsequently tested using pure tone audiometry and visual examination of...

Communicative approaches are considered effective in Western countries for developing the English language skills of learners for whom English is a second or third language. This inspired the Namibian Ministry of Education's efforts to devise a new lower primary English syllabus upon independence from South Africa in 1990. The syllabus proposes the use of a communicative approach to teaching speaking and listening skills. In this article the extent to which this approach is appropriate to...

Zoological gardens and museums: two different types of institutions that nonetheless have a lot in common. Zoos, like museums, house collections. Unlike museum collections, those in zoos consist of living animals. Working with living collections has a number of advantages, such as the fact that animal populations grow and that animals fascinate people. Challenges include the fact that animals are susceptible to diseases, that they have to be cared for every day of the year and that transport...

The objective of this study was to determine the human health risk associated with fish consumption in a contaminated area downstream from a mercury processing plant in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study population consisted of fish consumers living in close proximity to the u'Mgeni River and the Inanda Dam downstream from the plant. A control group was selected from the area upstream from the mercury plant as far as the Nagle Dam. Total daily mercury consumption per kilogram body weight...

Significant increases in asthma morbidity and mortality in the United States have occurred since the 1970s, particularly among African-Americans. Exposure to various environmental factors, including air pollutants and allergens, has been suggested as a partial explanation of these trends. To examine relations between several air pollutants and asthma exacerbation in African-Americans, we recruited a panel of 138 children in central Los Angeles. We recorded daily data on respiratory symptoms...

Community-based lay health educators have been utilized in a range of settings and with a variety of health issues. However, little has been published about the specifics of training lay health educators to effectively deliver community-based programs. This paper describes the training used to prepare volunteer, church-based lay health educators to conduct a community-based weight-loss program, and the evaluation of that training.After recruitment through their respective churches, volunteer...

In the most recent legislation on labour relations in education, as contained in the Education Laws Amendment Act 53 of 2000, the principle of decentralisation of decision-making power to the school level means that the principal, for the first time, is statutorily empowered to investigate certain disciplinary matters. The incidence of misconduct among teaching staff in South Africa is increasing at an alarming rate. The large number of additions to the list of acts of misconduct, as...