Free Senior High School Policy: Implications to Education Access Equity in Ghana (Published)
Equity in education is when every student receives the resources needed to acquire the basic work skills of reading, writing, and basic arithmetic. While Ghana has achieved near universal access to primary and lower secondary education, the gross enrollment rate in higher secondary education was below 45 percent in 2014, with large disparities in access. In the year 2017, the government of Ghana implemented a free SHS policy on a free access to secondary education for all. This research sought to investigate the implications of the free senior high school policy to educational access and equity in secondary education in Ghana. The document analysis approach was adopted for this study. The findings revealed that the free SHS policy has really increased enrollment figures in secondary schools’ attendance. The researcher recommended that parents, teachers, school administrators, policy analysts and relevant stakeholders have the responsibility to offer alternative proposals and do so in a manner that is constructive and helpful to the policy discourse.
Keywords: Access, Education, Equity, Quality, enrolment, equality, free senior high school
Internal and External Quality Assurance Practices as Predictors of Institutional Effectiveness of Public Universities in Cross River State, Nigeria (Published)
This study assessed internal and external quality assurance practices as determinants of institutional effectiveness of public universities in Cross River State, Nigeria. The study was intended to address two objectives, from which two null hypotheses were developed. Based on the descriptive survey research design, the census approach was used to study the whole population of 157 administrators (Deans and head of departments) in the two public universities in the study area. Quality Assurance Practices and Institutional Effectiveness Questionnaire (QAPIEQ) was the instrument utilized to collect data. Five experts validated the instrument while an overall Cronbach reliability rating of. 853 was obtained. Data were gathered from 132 respondents due to restrictions that prevented data collection from the targeted 157 respondents. Multiple regression analysis with R studio software version 3.6.0 was used to test the two null hypotheses at the .05 alpha level. Internal quality assurance processes have a substantial influence on university institutional effectiveness (R=.924, R2=.846, F=120.851, p.05), according to the findings. External quality assurance measures were also shown to have a significant influence (R=.792, R2=.782, F=79.100, p.05) on university institutional effectiveness. Based on these findings, it was concluded that internal and external quality assurance processes are critical components that can increase university institutional performance. It was suggested, among other things, that the Nigerian Institutions Commission (NUC) should ensure that accreditation visits are made to universities at least twice, in each academic session to verify the quality of courses and programs.
Keywords: External quality assurance, Practices, Public Universities, Quality, Quality Assurance, institutional effectiveness, internal quality assurance
Ensuring Quality Early Childhood Education Provision: The Indispensable Role of Parents in the Effutu Municipality of Ghana (Published)
There is a notion that children are the hope of the future of a society. This has led to Early Childhood Education becoming the focus of debate at all levels of government. However, the benefits emanating from Early Childhood Education cannot be realized on its own without a key component of the indispensable role parents play. Consequently, this ethnographic research employed a focus group interview to collect data from 14 participants from the Effutu Municipality to answer the research questions formulated to guide the study. The study found that if parents actively involve themselves in the education of their children, it can build a rapport between them and the school to be informed about what goes on in the school about their children so they can continue at home. This can increase their children’s happiness at school, and possibly encourage them to participate in school activities. However, the study found that the parents were faced with challenges ranging from financial constraint and their lack of education to wrongly prioritizing their children’s education which potentially prevented them from living up to their parental expectation. From the findings, it is recommended that parents should re-orient their perception and attitude towards early childhood education and consider it to be a critical stage in their children’s educational ladder and subsequent general development as human beings. They should also visit their children’s schools whenever need be, and they should have time for their children and be interested in their education.
Keywords: Early Childhood Education, Parents, Provision, Quality, Role
Tutors’ Perception about Teacher Trainees’ Appraisal of Tutors’ Performance as Part of Quality Teaching and Learning in the Colleges of Education in Ghana (Published)
The study intended to explore the perception of the college tutors about the performance appraisal of tutors by the student teachers as part of quality teaching and learning in the Colleges of Education in Ghana as well as improving the tutors’ performance and development. . Sixty seven (67) tutors were randomly selected from three Colleges of Education to constitute the sample for the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The study found that college tutors generally acknowledged the relevance of performance appraisal to their job goals and development. Secondly, college tutors perceived performance appraisal feedback as irregular and unconstructive and did not reflect their actual performance. Thirdly, college tutors perceived the performance appraisal processes as being unfair because they were left out in the discussion of the assessment procedures claiming that performance appraisal by the student teachers alone is not enough, Fourthly, college tutors perceived that the student teachers judgment were affected by hallo and horn effect. Last but not least, college tutors somehow did not take their performance appraisal by the student teachers alone very seriously. It was recommended that assessment procedures and items leading to appraising the performance of the college tutors should be discussed with them to enable them state their positions openly in order to satisfy their needs. Also, there should be the need for triangulation of the assessment processes leading to appraising the performance of the college tutors to ensure checks and balances as well as validity of the results. Finally, performance appraisal feedback should be made regular, constructive, fair and useful to enable college tutors receive and support the programme as genuinely helping them to improve their performance and development.
Keywords: Appraisal, Perception, Performance, Quality, Teaching and Learning
Availability of Educational Resources for Quality Assurance in Secondary Schools (Published)
This work looked at the availability of educational resources for quality assurance in secondary schools. Educational resource is seen as the physical, material, human and financial inputs in the teaching-learning process. Quality is viewed as an accepted standard measure by which product are judge as fine enough for consumption. Quality assurance is termed as the processes and actions through which the quality of secondary education is maintained and developed. The work also examined the need for quality assurance in secondary schools, strategies for establishing quality assurance in education, quality assurance measures put in place to guarantee finesse of product, availability of facilities, instructional materials, human resources and financial resources that brings about quality assurance in secondary schools. The work revealed that physical facilities, teaching and non-teaching staff as well as instructional materials were highly insufficient. The study further revealed that annual subvention to schools was less than the amount required for the administration of the schools. Based on these findings, the work concluded that quality assurance in secondary schools is crippled by insufficient educational resources. Therefore, the work suggested among others that; government should increase the annual subventions to schools, parent teachers’ association and old students’ association should also be involved in the funding and maintenance of the school facilities, the ministry of education should have a unit whose duty is to monitor the funds available to avoid misappropriation.
Keywords: Assurance, Quality, Quality Assurance, annual subvention, educational resources, insufficient, secondary school and educational system.
Ibn–Khaldun’s Concept of Education: Pre-Conditions and Quality (Published)
The present study aimed to shed some light on the quality of education and its pre-conditions according to Ibn –Khaldun through connecting his philosophy to the contemporary studies on one hand, and to the present situation in today’s schools. To achieve these objectives, the qualitative approach was employed through using the content analysis method to analyze Ibn-Khaldun’s Muqaddimah so as to elicit the most relevant and recent educational trends in this renowned book. The researcher concluded with the idea that Ibn –Khaldun was able to found a clear pedagogical philosophy when he set major pre-conditions for learning which in turn leads to minor pre-conditions that work together to enhance learner’s endowment and talent that contribute to learning. Furthermore, the content –analysis of Al- Muqaddimah revealed that Ibn-Khaldun provided educational procedures and concepts that paved the way for the modern educational theories relevant to methods of teaching and educational psychology which in turn contributed to the recent improvement in today’s educational system.
Keywords: Concept of Education, Ibn –Khaldun’s, Quality, pre-conditions
IBN–Khaldun’s Concept of Education: Pre-Conditions and Quality (Published)
The present study aimed to shed some light on the quality of education and its pre-conditions according to Ibn –Khaldun through connecting his philosophy to the contemporary studies on one hand, and to the present situation in today’s schools. To achieve these objectives, the qualitative approach was employed through using the content analysis method to analyze Ibn-Khaldun’s Muqaddimah so as to elicit the most relevant and recent educational trends in this renowned book. The researcher concluded with the idea that Ibn –Khaldun was able to found a clear pedagogical philosophy when he set major pre-conditions for learning which in turn leads to minor pre-conditions that work together to enhance learner’s endowment and talent that contribute to learning. Furthermore, the content –analysis of Al- Muqaddimah revealed that Ibn-Khaldun provided educational procedures and concepts that paved the way for the modern educational theories relevant to methods of teaching and educational psychology which in turn contributed to the recent improvement in today’s educational system.
Keywords: Concept of Education, Ibn –Khaldun’s, Quality, pre-conditions
Regulatory Challenges in the Upgrading and Maintenance of Standards in Teachers’ Professionalism in Nigeria (Published)
The compliance with minimum regulatory standards in the practice of teaching is bound to promote a competent, dedicated and productive classroom teacher for character molding and qualitative education. In Nigeria, issues of professionalization of teaching have continued to suffer from setbacks resulting to poor remuneration, low self-esteem and quackery in the teaching profession. This scenario negates the promotion and achievement of functional educational system at all levels. This paper examined the challenges militating against the attainment of minimum regulatory standards in teaching despite its pioneering effort as the mother of all professions. It adopted the exporatory approach to examine the various trend analysis and used the institutional framework design through secondary literature and observation to justapose the structures of teaching with other professional bodies. Based on the challenges,it recommended the institutionalization of a professional body for the upgrading, coordination and enforcement of minimum regulations to benefit members in raising the status of the teaching profession to meet global competiveness.
Keywords: Code, Education, Ethics, Membership, Profession, Quality, Regulation, Standard, Teacher
REFORMS AND INNOVATIONS IN TEACHER EDUCATION: FACILITATOR OF ACCESS, QUALITY AND EQUITY AS EMERGING ISSUES IN EDUCATION IN KENYA (Published)
Teacher Education Programme (TEP) is a critical component of education in the society. It determines the rate and level of development in any society. This is because the programme focuses on preparation and production of school teachers whose main role is to transform a society with relevant competencies for development. However, due to the dynamic nature of education and society, Teacher Education Programme experiences emerging issues in education. Today in Kenya, and indeed in the whole world, the concerns in education are access to education, quality in education and equity in education. These are current aspirations by all in education but somehow elusive to realise. However, when proper reforms and innovations in Teacher Education Programme are undertaken, it is possible to develop and manage these important developments in education. This paper explores and discusses how reforms and innovations in Teacher Education Programme in Kenya can facilitate the achievement of access, quality and equity in education.
Keywords: Access, Equity Emerging Issues., Facilitator, Innovations, Quality, Reforms, Teacher Education
Journal Impact Factor to Lecturer Research Evaluation: Married incompatibles in Zimbabwe (Review Completed - Accepted)
The purpose of this study is to clarify the confusion among some academics over the journal impact factor and its’ uses. It was motivated by the observation that, while the impact factor was designed for use by librarians, it is being misused for the assessment of the quality of lectures’ research for tenure and promotion in some universities in Zimbabwe. The study was guided by qualitative research methodologies. Data was collected by documentary analysis of internet materials for the history, purpose, use and abuses of impact factor. The study revealed that, the words, “impact and quality” are not synonyms, hence journal impact factors cannot be used to assess the quality of research. The journal impact factor was initiated by two librarians, Gross and Gross (1927) who needed to identify scientific periodicals they could buy for their college libraries. Garfield (1960) improved its application and the Institute for Scientific Information commercialized it. Impact factor of a journal is a numerical measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in the journal within a period of two years. It is a useful measure of journal visibility within the literature of a particular discipline. It reflects journal influence in that field not research article quality (Baum, 2011). Critics of a journal impact factor point out that the mean is an inappropriate statistic for journal impact factor which is a skewed and not linear distribution. It can be manipulated by journal editors hence unreliable. Today the journal impact factor is being misused for ranking journals, evaluating research articles and lecturers’ research for tenure and promotion. Garfield (1998) denounces the use of impact factor to evaluate the quality of journal articles or researchers who publish in journals with low impact factors. The European Association of Science Editors issued a statement against evaluation of research using impact factor in 2007. The Joint Committee on Quantitative Assessment of Research disapproved it in 2008. Higher Education Funding Council pointed out that, using the impact factor of journals as a surrogate for the impact of articles published in them is assessing science in a fundamentally unscientific way. Researchers describe the use of journal impact factor to evaluate the quality of research as “foolhardy” (Seglen, 1997), “dubious” (Amin and Mabe, 2000), and “bad scientific practice” (Brembs, Button and Munafo, 2013). Stephen (2012) concluded that, those using journal impact factor to rate the quality of research papers are “statistically illiterate”. This study concluded that, those research assessors calling for journal impact factors to evaluate the quality of the research articles and researchers are marrying incompatible partners by using a wrong tool. This study recommends that use of journal impact factor should be a tool for librarians, confined to its initial purpose of identifying journals with high readership. Those intending to use it for evaluating research should be educated through published research papers clarifying the issue of journal impact factor. In fact, by using journal impact factor for research quality evaluation in 2014, when Garfield denounced it, 16 years ago in 1998, Zimbabwean academics at university level are using an expired drug.
Keywords: Impact Factor, Incompatibles, Lecturer Research, Quality