Availability and Conditions of Sports Equipment and Learners’ Participation Levels in Sports in Primary Schools in Katima Mulilo, Namibia (Published)
Sports equipment and facilities play a vital role in the teaching of Physical Education (PE) and are equally important in developing sports-related skills among learners. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and assess the availability and conditions of sports equipment and facilities in primary schools in Katima Mulilo, in the Zambezi Region of Namibia. An observational study was adopted for this study, where Physical Education school teachers were observed using the available sports equipment in the schools during their PE classes. The targeted population consisted of 10 teachers within 10 respective primary schools. Two questionnaires were administered to collect data on available facilities and equipment. Data was analysed using SPSS statistics software. Based on sports code level of participation, athletics was found to be the most popular activity with 35% of learners taking part. Soccer came in second with 25%. Netball was the third most played sport, with 20% of participants in annually scheduled competitions at regional and national levels. Volleyball was the fourth highest with 10% of learner participation. The lowest four sports codes were boxing at 5%, rugby 3%, gymnastics 1%, and cricket 1%. Sport facilities available in all the schools were all found to be in deplorable conditions. This study therefore concluded that sports equipment and facilities were either unavailable or completely in poor condition in all primary schools under study. So, it is very important to get the right tools and facilities so that physical education and sports can be taught and learned well.
Keywords: Availability, Primary schools., Sports Facilities, conditions, sport equipment
The Impact of Communication Gap in the Management of Primary Schools in Anaocha L.G.A of Anambra State (Published)
The study investigates the impact of communication gap in the Management of primary schools in Anaocha local government area of Anambra state, with the purpose of finding out its causes, impact and strategies. The study employed descriptive survey research design. The population used for this study is 685 teachers from 50 public primary schools in Anaocha L.G.A of Anambra State. Using the simple random sampling technique, 150 teachers were drawn from the 50 public primary schools in Anaocha L.G.A. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire validated by three experts, which contained 15 items based on the three research questions formulated for the study. Meanwhile, it was subjected to reliability testing using spearman’s formula, in which 0.82 was obtained as the reliability index (very high). Data collected was analysed using mean. Findings revealed the impact of communication gap in the management of public primary school as inaction, while misinterpretations, bad work relationship, lack of knowledge are identified as the causes. It was observed that when handbook of information for teachers is been provided, there will be an effective communication in the school as it will let them know the various activities in the school. To this end, the researchers recommended that head-teachers should use appropriate media for communication and manage barriers to effective communication adequately as it will help them in improving communication in school. Implications and suggestion for further studies were also made.
Keywords: Communication Gaps, Management, Primary schools.
ASSESSMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS CLASSROOMS IN NIGERIA (Published)
The focus of this study is to determine the proportion of Nigerian Primary School teachers that use the various assessment instruments in the assessment of pupils in mathematics; the sources from which teachers generate their mathematics test items; the levels of questions set by the teachers on the Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive domains; the extent to which Primary School teachers validate their test instruments; how the teachers utilise the outcomes of the formative tests in schools; and problems faced by the teachers in the assessment processes in primary schools. The research design for this study was the survey research design. One hundred and Fifty primary school teachers were sampled from Ebonyi State of Nigeria through purposive sampling technique. There were made up of 108 females and 42 males. The main instrument used for the data collection was a Mathematics Assessment Construction Scale (MACS) questionnaire designed to elicit responses from the subjects in the areas of assessment instruments, source of test items, levels of cognitive domain covered by the questions, validation and item analyses. Other areas covered are the use of formative tests and problems of assessing pupils in primary school mathematics. The questionnaire consists of 23 questions on a four point likert scale using never, not often, often and very often. The split half method was used to establish a reliability coefficient of 0.79. Simple frequency counts and percentages were used to analyse the data and answer the research questions. Results of the study showed that most of the teachers often written tests(100%) and assignments(88%).Group work(76%) very few of them use observation(30%), oral examination(6%) and peer group assessment(8%); 74% of the teachers source their assessment questions from textbook publisher’s questions, 76% construct their questions and very few of them source their questions from past questions(32%) and question and answer books(30%); most of the teachers set questions covering knowledge(100%), comprehension and application(88%) while only 38% of them set questions on real life problems; 82% of the teachers often carry out content validity of the test instruments and very few teachers carry out reliability test(4%), item difficulties(10%) and item discrimination power(24%); most of the teachers give formative test and feedback to pupils while only 52% of the teachers often give remediation lessons to the pupils. Some of the problems identified include absenteeism, lateness and truancy of pupils, lack of interest by pupils, lack of materials, lack of knowledge about assessment by teachers etc. It was recommended that teachers should be encouraged to use variety of assessment instruments; teachers should be retrained on the techniques of test construction, and be encouraged to set questions on real life problems.
Keywords: Assessment Instruments, Assessment in Mathematics, Primary schools., Pupils.