Constraints Affecting ICT Utilization by Agricultural Extension Officers in the Niger Delta,Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on constraints affecting the utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for agricultural extension activities by Agricultural Extension Officers in Nigeria's Niger Delta Region. Data were derived from 160 extension officers affiliated to both public and private extension organizations in four states of the Niger Delta. Findings revealed important specific constraints to include: poor ICT infrastructure development, high cost of broadcast equipment, high charges for radio/television presentations, high cost of access/interconnectivity and electricity power problems. The use of Factor Analysis aided to crystallize identified constraints into three factors of ‘poor enabling environment’, ‘lack of access’ and ‘dissemination of unrelated information’. Against the background of several national government initiatives to develop the infrastructure base of the country, recommendations are proffered to ameliorate ICT use constraints.     

An Assessment of Children Literacy Development in Nigeria in the Context of EFA 2015 Policy Targets

Abstract

The paper analyses the interface between Nigeria's anticipated failure in the Education for All (EFA) 2015 targets and her policy implementation strategies in relation to children literacy. The principal purpose is to locate evidences that may explain the expected failure. The paper relies largely on secondary data and existing literature to examine key literacy intervention strategies in Nigeria under the Universal Basic Education (UBE) and Nomadic Education policies. The analysis focused on the linkage between the book industries, education funding and literacy policy implementation strategies, where evidence of large scale disagreement was found in support of the thesis of this paper that Nigeria's anticipated failure in the 2015 EFA targets is largely consequent upon poor policy implementation strategy arising from 1) disconnection between her book industry and literacy policy implementation and 2) unsettled socio-demographic influences. Some measures are recommended to reinvigorate Nigeria in the global drive towards EFA beyond 2015.     

Impacts of organisational culture on academic efficiency and productivity in selected private universities in the Niger delta region of Nigeria

Organisational efficiency is a consistent quality that derives more from and thrives on strong internal culture than on isolated instances of timely and effortless accomplishments by corporate systems. This study sought to evaluate the relationship between organisational culture and enhanced productivity and efficiency among members of five universities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, which with its peculiarities provided a unique context for the study. The quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection among 104 respondents. Faculty were assessed on the direct impacts of their organisations' culture on their research and publication, creativity and innovativeness, among others, while students were assessed on learning, career prospects and others. The study suggested that most of the five universities had no well-articulated organisational culture. This significantly compromises their unique value addition to the educational system, implying that they risk losing their relative advantages unless they fortify their organisational cultural frontiers.     

Scaling up comprehensive sexuality education in Nigeria: from national policy to nationwide application

Nigeria is one of few countries that reports having translated national policies on school-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) into near-nationwide implementation. We analysed data using the World Health Organization-ExpandNet framework, which provides a systematic structure for planning and managing the scaling up of health innovations. We examined how Nigeria's nationwide programme was designed and executed. Since 2002, Nigeria has developed a well thought through strategy to scale up CSE. Crucial attributes that facilitated the scaling up included technical consensus about the innovation and clarity about its components, dissection of a complex intervention into manageable components for implementation by organisations with complementary expertise, strong political leadership and championship in concert with advocacy and technical support from non-governmental organisations, proactive and energetic involvement of community stakeholders, effective programme management, and improvements to the information management system to ensure on-track implementation and mid-course corrections to keep stakeholders, including funders, informed and engaged. Challenges included programmatic values, competing priorities for available human resources and a lack of predictable funding for sustaining a rapid scale-up effort. Despite some weaknesses, implementation has largely proceeded according to plan. The lessons learned from Nigeria's experience can and should be used in other settings to achieve wide-scale coverage.     

高校教务管理的数据安全研究

随着教务管理系统软件在各高校的广泛使用,数据安全问题越来越引起教务工作者以及数据安全研究人员的广泛关注。在教务管理系统中数据的安全性非常重要,针对教务管理数据面对的安全问题提出使用现代密码技术进行加密的方法,通过软件开发技术、密码学技术等多种手段保证其安全可靠,并在具体的教务管理系统中实现数据安全设置。     

The economic impact of eight research universities on the Boston region

Abstract

The greater Boston region's eight research universities play a key role in the region's economic health and welfare. They are magnets for research and development talent and for billions of dollars in investment. These institutions contribute S7.4 billion dollars to the regional economy, jobs for about 50,000 university employees and 37,000 workers in related areas. They produce an annual talent pool of 31,000 graduates many of whom elect to remain in the region and contribute to the exploitation of university patents and licensed technology that sustain the regional economy, as well as its social and cultural institutions. Drawing on economic impact studies conducted for eight institutions in the Boston region we will describe the impact of these universities on the Boston region. We will review the implications of this large concentration of research activity on the region's economy, labour force, pre and post university educational structures, political leadership, funding sources and social and environmental quality. This paper will explore the issues facing these eight research institutions as they pursue their desire for sustained growth and development. Among these are changes in national research funding priorities, financial incentives for innovation, conflicts with non‐university sectors of the economy including competition for housing, manpower and economic resources.     

The teacher education curriculum and the world of work: A study of teachers of disadvantaged children in Nigeria

A key element in the current attempt to actualise the goals of the Dakar Framework of Action for Education for All in Nigeria is the broadening of access to education for disadvantaged groups. These groups include: nomadic pastoralists; migrant fishermen; and out-of-school children and youth. Special educational programs are being provided for them so as, inter alia, to: integrate them into the mainstream of Nigeria's social and political life; disseminate modern occupational and life skills; and promote cultural renewal based on reconstructionist principles.The major concern of this paper is to analyse the teacher education curriculum in Nigeria vis-à-vis the concrete existential realities in which teachers of these disadvantaged groups teach. It critically examines the extent to which the curriculum prepares teachers for the world of minority children, particularly the realities of the schools and the cultural contexts within which teaching takes place. To what extent has the teacher education curriculum adequately prepared teachers for the realities and challenges of teaching disadvantaged children? What do the teachers themselves think of the training they have received? How have their experiences as teachers of disadvantaged groups influenced their sense of marginalisation, professionalism and sense of worth? These questions are posed using quantitative and qualitative strategies so as to determine the level of congruence or incongruence between the existential realities of teachers’ work and the teacher education curriculum. Finally the paper highlights the suggestions made by the teachers sampled for this study about how to reform the teacher education curriculum in order most effectively to address the peculiarities and challenges of the cultural and educational contexts in which they work.     

Relative Effectiveness of Expository and Field Trip Methods of Teaching on Students' Achievement in Ecology

The study was a pre‐test treatment post‐test control design. Three educational districts from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria were treated as clusters. Twenty boys and 20 girls were randomly selected, making up a total of 40 students, in each of Group A, Group B, and Group C. Students in Group A were taught ecology by taking them to the school farm, pond, and nearby stream, while students in Group B were taught ecology strictly in the classroom. Students in Group C were not taught but have knowledge of ecology. Findings of the study revealed a highest performance of Group A relative to Group B and Group C. Students in Group A (field trip) were thus able to perform highest because of their opportunity of having first‐hand experience of organisms in their natural habitat.     

Science in Nigerian higher education during the first twenty-five years of independence

The rapid expansion in the number of universities in Nigeria greatly increased student enrolments. But the consolidation of the older universities was hampered by the loss of financial and teaching resources to the new institutions. Postgraduate training was expanded to meet long-term staffing requirements, rather than to strengthen research capacities. Investment in research for development was neglected by the federal government. Consequently the research institutes suffered from poor facilities and high rates of senior staff turnover. There is awareness of the need to coordinate scientific activities between the universities and government research institutes, but policy has not been implemented. At present, therefore, Nigeria's growing body of scientifically-trained manpower is poorly utilised.     

Opinion polling and the measurement of Americans’ attitudes regarding education*

Abstract

The meaning, measurement, and implications of ‘public opinion’ have long been a source of debate. In this paper, we examine the extent to which the educational priorities of elites in the US reflect the educational priorities of the American public. To do so, we focus on one particular segment of the education policy-making elite – education poll creators. Through a content analysis of questions asked between 1969 and 2013 in the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes toward the Public Schools, we examine the salience of key educational issues over time. We compare these trends to the proportion of poll respondents who label those issues the ‘biggest problem’ facing schools, thereby approximating two different conceptions of public opinion regarding education. We find that the issues that receive the most coverage by pollsters do not typically match the issues that respondents claim to be the biggest problems in schools. In light of the important role that opinion polls may play in shaping discussion and debate over educational issues, we argue that further study of the construction of public opinion is warranted.     

Teaching Development in Higher Education as Scholarly Practice: A reply to Rowland et al. 'Turning Academics into Teachers?'

The author replies to an attack, made by Rowland et al. in Teaching in Higher Education 3(2), on the practice and profession of university teaching development (also known as 'academic development' and 'educational development'). It argues that by omitting reference to Scholarship, Rowland has confused his subject-matter, since the so-called 'dichotomy' between research and teaching on which the argument is based has been transcended since Boyer's work. It argues that teaching development is a legitimate second-order practice in the same family as literary and artistic criticism and similar fields. It appeals for a close collegial relationship between teachers and teaching developers, based on mutual respect, understanding and appreciation of each other's contribution to the academic enterprise. This is necessary in the face of the onslaught of the corporate managerialism that has (on his own admission) triggered Rowland's work. Written from an Australian perspective, the paper contributes to a dialogue about vital contemporary issues in Higher Education.     

Technology-assisted Learning

Information technology provides potential advantages for educational provision in terms of flexible access, decreased need for on-site teaching accommodation and enhanced explanations by the use of special electronic effects. However, in order for students to gain the maximum benefit from the use of technology to assist in learning, there are specific issues that must be addressed by those designing and providing this type of education. This paper highlights some of these issues. These include clarification of the teacher's role, the skills required and parameters which must be considered in facilitating information technology, assisted learning and the planning required to ensure that a coordinated educational experience is offered.     

Higher education in Vietnam: key areas need assistance

Many developing countries are in the process of restructuring their higher education system to meet their nation's socio-economic development. As their educational budget is not unlimited, working with international educational institutions has become one of the attractive solutions to improve the quality of their education and to make it relevant to meet their nation's educational demand for economic development. This paper identifies some key issues which have prevented the Vietnamese higher education system from serving effectively its country's open-door policy and provide necessary recommendations to help Vietnam overcome its short-comings and weaknesses. The issues identified together with recommendations, on the other hand, may help some educational policy makers from developed countries select their fields of assistance or cooperation as well as to establish their long term educational strategies to deal with developing countries such as Vietnam.     

Editorial

ABSTRACT

An enduring concern for educational policy in many affluent countries is the endemic nature of educational inequalities that are predominately located in poor urban contexts. Given the inabilities of school reform per se to deal with these inequalities, the paper focuses on issues of scarcity and spatial processes that are implicated in the formation of young people's educational identities – identities that then mediate the conversion of educational resources into educational attainments or achievements.     

Students Returned from Abroad in the 1990s

Since the 1980s, the increasing cost of education has been a global trend, and there is a growing demand for increasing efficiency in different countries. As a result, education economists began focusing on the issue of efficient allocation of educational resources and borrowed production function from economics to study educational production issues in order to provide empirical evidence for maximization of the effectiveness of educational resources. This paper employs the multiple linear regression model to build a model for the relationship between the allocation of educational resources and student academic performance in public junior secondary schools in rural areas of China's western region. It also provides a decision basis for different levels of government and schools to draw educational resources allocation policies for junior secondary schools in rural areas of China's western region and to improve the quality of education.     

Globalization and the Asia Pacific: an exploration of efficiency and equality aims of education1

The paper aims to explore the relationship between globalization and education through an investigation of educational policy development in the specific context of the Asia Pacific. The paper's primary focus is on data collected from the World Bank, OECD, IMF and UNESCO to look primarily at three interrelated trends in education: increasing enrollments at all educational levels, issues of gender equality, and changes in public expenditure. In the paper, we argue that developments in education are increasingly impacted by a particular conception of globalization, which is illustrated in the overarching pressure of efficiency on educational aims. Although both efficiency and equality aims of education are present in recent policy developments in the Asia Pacific, the importance attached to education's capabilities of advancing human capital development have brought about a fundamental tension between two purposes of education: one relating to efficiency and one underlying education's potential to advance goals of access and equality.     

Moral Judgement Development Within the Family

Abstract

This paper examines research and theory regarding the process of moral judgement development within the family environment. Four major issues in research on the family's influence on moral judgement development are outlined and the existing data relevant to these issues are briefly presented. The author's approach to studying these issues is described. The implications of research on moral development within the family for moral education are also addressed.     

Skill Acquisition through Indigenous Apprenticeship: A case study of the Yoruba blacksmith in Nigeria

This paper is primarily concerned with indigenous apprenticeship in the Yorubaland of Nigeria with particular reference to training in blacksmithing. First, it provides a background which considers the nature of apprenticeship and shows how it is different from schooling. Then it discusses the necessary and vital ground work that should be done before a candidate is admitted to apprenticeship. The article describes the various stages in the apprentice's training, their rationale and their implications. Finally, the implications of this indigenous approach to manpower development for schooling and out-of-school educational programmes are considered.     

Learning Technologies and the Issues for Management Education

abstract

Innovation in teaching and learning is an important feature of current general educational developments at all levels. This article will explore the literature regarding the development of new delivery systems, in particular those which are technology based, and will seek to identify the critical issues and implications involved in using emerging technologies in open learning. However, the author's specialism is post experience management development and thus the focus of the article is directed primarily towards the implications for learning in this area.     

Enhancing the early literacy development of children at risk for reading difficulties

Abstract

This paper reviews the dynamic and interactive links between the development of children's language, phonological awareness, and reading. Some of the key issues explored are procedures to enhance children's language development, decoding and word recognition skills, along with some relevant assessment and programming strategies that can facilitate children's early reading development. In particular, the paper supports the suggestion that deficits in phonological awareness are often a consequence of slow vocabulary development (a classic marker of language delay) and that teachers need to be able to adapt their language and dialogue interactions for children with language delays.