Education

Assessment of Psycho-Social Factors Affecting the Promotion of Girl-Child Education in Katsina State, Nigeria (Published)

A Girl child is a prudent seed that breeds the generational continuity of man’s existence. Education is a life changing destiny that if equal opportunity is given towards the training of a girl child it could lead to sanity, equal growth and contributions in Nigerian society. The study investigated the assessment of psycho-social factors affecting the promotion of a girl-child education in Katsina State, Nigeria. The researchers adopted descriptive survey research design for the study. The target population was made up of senior secondary school female students’ in Katsina State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling techniques were utilized for the study. Thus, a total of nine hundred (900) senior secondary school female students participated in the study. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire which consists of two (2) sections. Section A consists of personal information of the respondents and Section B contains ‘Psycho-social Factors Affecting Girl-child Education Questionnaire (PSFAGCEQ). Two research questions were asked and three hypotheses were tested in the study. Frequency, percentage, standard deviation, mean and rank-order were used to answer research questions while analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the formulated hypotheses. Results show that all the twenty-one (21) psycho-social factors assessed such as poverty, mental ability, lack of finance, religious belief, cultural practice, parental level of education, early marriage, sexual violence among others affect the promotion of girl-child education Katsina State, Nigeria. Also, security issues, personal sanitation and hygiene, gender balance among teachers, lack of finance and poverty ranked 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th among the psycho-social factors affecting the promotion of girl-child education Katsina State. In addition, the results reveals that there is significant difference in the psycho-social factors affecting the promotion of girl-child education across the three zones (F _{(2, 897)} =59.578; P < 0.05); age groups (F_{(2, 897)} =11.682; P < 0.05) and class levels (F_{(2, 897)} =19.374; P < 0.05) in Katsina State, Nigeria. The following recommendations are made based on the results of this study girl-child should be given free education in order to increase enrolment of female students in schools and government at all levels, parents and other stakeholders in education should join hand together for the promotion of girl-child education in Katsina state and Northern Nigeria in general.

Keywords: Education, Girl-child education, Promotion, Psycho-social factors

Investigation into the Truant Behaviours among Secondary School Teachers in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State: The Counselling Implications (Published)

Truancy among secondary school teachers in Emohua Local Government Area has reached alarming proportion with disastrous consequences. This descriptive study investigated truant behaviours among secondary school teachers in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State. Three research questions were answered and two hypotheses tested at 0.05. Teachers’ attendance data were obtained from attendance registers provided in the schools. The results of the study show that overall rate of teacher absenteeism in Emohua Local Government Area was 38.62%. Rate of absenteeism among female teachers was found to be significantly higher than that of the male teachers, while the rate of absenteeism among married teachers was significantly higher than that of the single teachers. This rate of teacher absenteeism as found in this study is an indication that there is counselling failure among the counsellors in public secondary schools in Emohua Local Government Area. Therefore, counsellors must intensify their efforts using various programmes including individual or group counselling, seminar, workshops and conferences to enlighten the teachers on the need to be dedicated in their duties. The counsellors must also impress on the teachers the importance of doing their work diligently for social economic, technological and political development of the nation

Keywords: Absenteeism, Education, National Development, Truancy, facilities, salary

A Constructivist Appraisal of Paulo Freire’s Critique of Banking System of Education (Published)

Education is considered a prerequisite for all individuals to make meaningful impact in their society. It enlightens the individuals and engrains in them the capacity to develop critical ability that would enable them transform their society in the best way they can. However, the actual teaching method and the structure of the curricula across the tiers of learning seem to have defeated this basic purpose of education. In most cases, education has been designed as an instrument of conservatism, where the learner becomes a passive receptor of certain knowledge. This makes the learner unproductive and sterile so much so that rather than the learner utilizing the knowledge acquired, the learner gives value to the certificate awarded. Paulo Freire considers this method of education as a banking system of education, which for him is a dangerous approach to impacting knowledge. He suggests problem-posing as the alternative model to the banking system of education. This alternative model engrains in the learner the liberty to develop thinking abilities, which aid such person to contribute in the learning process. This model conceives education as a kind of symbiotic method of learning. While we appreciate Freire’s alternative model, our work assesses it as inadequate. This paper therefore aims at exposing the limitations and pragmatic bankruptcy of a problem-posing pedagogy as espoused by Freire in contradistinction to a problem-solving type of education, which our paper strongly advocates. Our study also underscores the fact that it is not enough for a learner to participate in the learning process, which only results in posing problem. Adopting the constructivist approach, this paper strongly argues that the most appropriate model that gives the learner that huge independent capacity to transform the society is the problem-solving type. Through this model, the learner develops critical abilities to address societal and contextual problems.

Keywords: Banking System., Conscientization., Constructivism, Education, Pedagogy

The Relationship between Ma’rifat and the Theory of Knowledge and Its Implication in Education (Published)

This article elaborates the knowledge achieved through fana’ process in accordance with Sufi experts. Hierarchically, fana’ stimulates “emotion” and awareness of the Oneness of God involving the existence of ratio. Unfortunately sensory and rational potentials do not function individually and are free from the emotion. Thus, people’s awareness often changes and the system of knowledge transforms as the result of impelementing muj­âhadah through maqâmât and hâl mechanism. The purposed knowledge here is not the direct knowledge achieved at the end of journey such as ladunni knowledge. This is a holistic knowledge combining rational, empirical, and intuitive knowledges, a model introduced by Sufi community through the concept of Ma’rifat. This concept is relevant with the needs of education field today. Without this concept, education is only a meaningless process of knowledge transformation.

Keywords: Al Îmân, Education, Knowledge, Ma’rifat, Soul Cleansing

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Usage of Calculators in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics at the Junior High School Level in Ghana (Published)

Educational technology is recognized as an essential component of the instructional process and thus, uses of calculators have been recommended to be introduced in Junior High Schools in Ghana. However, teachers’ attitudes towards the use of calculators have not been established. The purpose of the study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions towards the use of calculators in mathematics instruction in JHS in Ghana. Descriptive research design was used and data were collected from mathematics teachers using questionnaires. The results indicated that teachers have positive perceptions towards the use of calculators for mathematics learning. The finding is helpful to curriculum developers and they can integrate the use of calculators in mathematics teaching and learning in JHS in Ghana.

Keywords: Calculator, Education, Learning, Mathematics, School, Teachers