THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, DISCIPLINARY MATTERS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION ON TEACHERS’ PRODUCTIVITY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined the impact of teacher involvement in school financial management, disciplinary issues, and conflict resolution on secondary school teacher productivity in Ekiti State. The survey-like descriptive research design was used for the study. The sample included 450 respondents consisting of 400 teachers and 50 school principals selected from 50 secondary schools used for the study. The random sample was selected using multi-stage and targeted sampling methods. Two sets of instruments were used to interpret the data for the study. The first instrument was called Teachers Participation in Secondary School Management Questionnaire (TPSSMQ) and the second instrument was called Teachers Productivity Questionnaire (TPQ). The reliability coefficients for the two instruments were 0.79 for TPSSMQ and 0.76 for TPQ. The data obtained were analyzed using percentage points, F ratio, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression. The hypotheses generated were tested at a significance level of 0.05. The study found that teacher involvement in the management of secondary schools in Ekiti State was moderate. Teacher productivity was also moderate. The study showed that the relationship between teachers' involvement in school financial management, disciplinary matters, conflict resolution and their productivity was moderate and statistically significant. The study also found that all predictor variables are factors that can have an impact on teacher productivity. Based on these findings, it was recommended that governments and school leaders should involve teachers more in decision-making related to school financial management, disciplinary issues and conflict resolution in order to increase teacher productivity in schools.  Article visualizations

Examining the Relationship Between Participation in Cross Career Learning Communities and Teacher Retention

As teacher turnover and the demands for accountability and student achievement persist, the need to hire and retain quality teachers becomes increasingly vital. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between participation in Cross Career Learning Communities (CCLC), a type of Professional Learning Community (PLC), and teacher retention in participating Network for Enhancing Teacher-Quality (NET-Q) schools in a southeastern state. One-to-one exact matching was used to match 251 teachers in CCLC groups to 251 control teachers on eight variables including both system and individual level variables. Results showed a ten percent significant difference between the retention percentages within the state public school systems favoring CCLC teachers, χ2(1) = 21.17, N = 502, p \u3c .05, with a medium effect size of h = .4. For teachers participating in CCLCs, a secondary research question asked if there were any differences in teacher retention in schools that had mandatory participation versus those that had voluntary participation. No significant difference was found between participation types and teacher retention. Furthermore, no significant difference was found in the attrition rates between the novice and the veteran teachers participating in the CCLCs. Based on a question from the NET-Q survey, the percentage of teachers indicating that their participation in CCLCs positively influenced their decision to continue in teaching, estimated at 31%, was statistically significant. This study extends the research on one particular type of PLC to teacher retention. The findings of this study may aid school leaders in better understanding how they can address and impact teacher retention in teaching and in their school buildings. Suggestions for future research and implications for policies addressing teacher support and retention are discussed

Effect of Auditory Training and Aided Language Stimulation on Speech Perception of Children with Hearing loss in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Children fitted with hearing aid, without appropriate placement on aural rehabilitation always find it difficult to benefit maximally from the use of such assistive listening device as well as experiencing difficulty in producing intelligible speech sounds. Therefore, most of them become discouraged and not interested to undergo aural rehabilitation. Thus, this study examined the effect of auditory training (AT) and aided language stimulation (ALS), moderated on onset and degrees of hearing loss on the speech perception (detection, recognition and discrimination,) of children fitted with hearing aid in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. A pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental research design, using a 3x2x2 factorial matrix, was adopted for the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 24 children (age ranged between 4 and 7 years) with hearing loss. The participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (AT and ALS) with a twelve-week intervention plan and a non-treatment control group. A standardised auditory trainer, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - 4th Edition (PPVT-4, r=.80 - .84), were the instruments used for the training. The five hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance, and data collected were analysed using Descriptive Analysis, Multivariate Analysis of Co-Variance (MANCOVA) and   Scheffe Post Hoc Analysis. The findings revealed a significant main effect of treatments on the speech perception of the participants; Recognition (F 71.45, η = 94) Discrimination, (F = 88.11, η = .95) and Detection, (F = 32.06, η = 87), with ALS being a more significant treatment (Recognition (F = 3.37, p<.05); Discrimination (F= 5.25, p<.05) and Detection (F = 3.38, p<.05). The onset of hearing loss on the speech perception of the participants was significant in Recognition, (F = 9.37η=51), Discrimination, (F = 12.40η=57), and Detection, (F = 4.72η=39). The degrees of hearing loss had a significant effect on Recognition, (F = .020η=.002), Discrimination, (F = .032η=004), and  Detection, (F = 4.31η=33),  Treatments and onset of hearing loss interacted on Recognition (F = 4.24,  η = .34);  Discrimination, (F = 4.86, η = .39) and Detection, (F = 8.51, η = 65.);but no interaction between treatment and degree of hearing loss on Discrimination,(F= .73, p>.05); Recognition, (F = .83, p>.05), and Detection, (F = .96, p>.05) Onset of hearing loss interacted with the degrees of hearing loss on Detection, (F = 4.69, η = .39) but not on Recognition (F =.67, p>.05); and Discrimination, (F = .53, p>.05).Treatments, onset of hearing loss and degree of hearing loss interacted on Recognition (F =4.31, df = (1, 23), p<.05, η = .47; and Detection, F = 4.95, df = (1, 23), p<.05, η = .52. but not on Discrimination, F = .14, df = (1,23), p>.05). Based on the above findings, it is recommended that children with hearing loss should be rehabilitated using auditory training and aided language stimulation as part of the aural rehabilitative strategies meant to maximize the use of the assistive listening device. Keywords: Auditory training, aided language stimulation, speech perception, children with hearing impairmen

The Invisibility of Women's Organizations in Decision Making Process and Governance in Nigeria

The exciting development in the recent political era was the increase in women's political participation globally. Women are becoming more engaged in varieties of institutional decision making processes and Africa appears to be leading in women's parliamentary representation. Since the re-birth of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, women have tried to gain access to decision making positions by contesting at various political levels and the representation of women's organizations on various policy debates has increased at local and national levels. However, their efforts appeared not to be greeted with much gains as the result seemed not very encouraging. What is problematic is whether the representation of women's organization in democracy and decision making in Nigeria was descriptive or substantive. Even when women's organizations were represented in decision making arena, it appeared that their influence was not much felt. Therefore, this paper investigated how visible and substantive were the roles played by women's organizations in decision making arena in Nigeria and whether their roles were appreciated. The paper utilized the descriptive survey research design to elicit and describe information. The findings revealed that the roles played by women's organizations in decision making arena was significant but not visible and unappreciated. It was therefore, recommended that women's organizations should do all they could to be more active in governance and encourage more women to be fully involved in decision making process in Nigeria to enhance national development

Reliability Analysis of Complementary Assessment Tools for Measuring Teacher Candidate Dispositions

Assessing the dispositions of teacher candidates remains a challenge for many Educator Preparation Providers (EPPs). This article details the process and results of establishing the reliability of two complementary instruments, the Candidate Beliefs Self-Assessment Survey (SAS) and the Candidate Dispositions Performance Assessment Rubric (CDPA). The instruments are linked through the same dispositional themes that undergird the indicators in the CDPA and belief statements in the SAS. Internal consistency reliability coefficients were determined using Cronbach’s alpha for SAS (0.81) and the CDPA (0.96). In addition, inter-rater reliability coefficient of 0.80 was determined for CDPA using Intraclass correlation (ICC) method based on one-way random model and absolute agreement. It is argued that using these instruments in tandem, SAS at program entry and CDPA as well as SAS at program exit, offers a viable solution to assessing and monitoring candidates’ development and acquisition of dispositions needed for effective performance in the teaching profession

INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN NIGERIA’S TERTIARY

Women have been historically marginalized in all spheres of life including social, economic and political spheres. This anomaly has been recognized globally and it has become accepted that issues of women’s human rights are important for any meaningful development to take place. Apart from social justice, which demands equal opportunity for all citizens, it is smart economics to plan with both halves of one’s population because it benefits society as a whole. In consonance with this global standpoint, and coupled with Civil Society engagements, the Nigerian government has been overt in engaging in gender responsive policies and programmes, including the development of the National Gender Policy in 2006 which puts credence on strengthening institutions and systems for gender mainstreaming and building partnerships with male led institutions to deliver results for girls and women. The policy recognises gender education as a major pillar in the process of achieving gender equality and women empowerment through transformative development process. Although the process has been somewhat slow, the Nigerian tertiary institutions are now becoming responsive to the engendering process that is, ensuring that academic programmes and the learning environment are gender responsive. Although the gender profile in Nigerian tertiary institutions is still abysmally poor, a number of universities are now adopting gender mainstreaming strategies in knowledge production and in practice. Using Ekiti State University as a case study, the paper presents gender mainstreaming strategies and mechanisms adopted in Nigerian tertiary institutions, noting achievements, challenges and prospects. Basic gender profile of the university is presented, while intervention programmes and initiatives at bridging gender gaps and institutionalising gender mainstreaming as an administrative tool are processed and analysed

A Fuzzy-Ontology Based Information Retrieval System for Relevant Feedback

International audienceObtaining correct and relevant information at the right time to user's query is quite a difficult task. This becomes even complex, if the query terms have many meanings and occur in different varieties of domain. This paper presents a fuzzy-ontology based information retrieval system that determine the semantic equivalence between terms in a query and terms in a document by relating the synonyms of query terms with those of document terms. Hence, documents could be retrieved based on the meaning of query terms. The challenge has been that surface form does not sufficiently retrieve relevant document to user's query. However, the results presented showed that the Fuzzy-Ontology Information Retrieval system successfully retrieve relevant documents to user's query. This is irrespective of different meaning and varieties of domain. The System was tested on words with different meanings and some set of user's query from varied domains

Clinical audit of paediatric magnetic resonance imaging under sedation at a Nigerian tertiary institution

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in paediatric patients requires them to be calm during the procedure to avoid motion artefacts in the acquired images. Sedation and/or anaesthesia is a way to achieve this. We evaluated all paediatric MRI sedations since installation of an MRI device in our hospital. Material/Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 69 paediatric MRI sedations performed over a 5-year period using records of patients' biodata, MRI date, indication, findings and scan time, sources of referral, body region scanned, type, dose, related adverse events and route of administration of sedatives as well as image quality. Results: The median age and weight of the patients were 24 months {range of 0.3 months (10 days) to 132 months (11 years)} and 11.5 kg (range of 2.6 kg to 42 kg), respectively. Males constituted 50.7% of the patients. Most participants (94.2%) were in-patients of the hospital, mainly (60.0%) referred from the paediatric unit, with slightly over one third (36.2%) of the studies performed in 2015. The commonest indication and scanned body region were macrocephaly (18.8%) and the brain (76.8%), respectively. Hydrocephalus (17.4%) was the commonest MRI finding. Sedation was planned in 66 (95.7%) patients and was successful in 68 (98.6%). Midazolam and the IV route were the commonest sedative agent and route of administration, respectively. Image quality determined by age was fair to good in 68 (98.6%) patients with only 1 patient requiring re-scanning due to motion blur. No adverse events with sedation were recorded. Conclusions: Midazolam via the IV route with or without oral route is the drug of choice for MRI sedation in children in our institution with a success rate of about 99%

Addressing the under-reporting of adverse drug reactions in public health programs controlling HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria: A prospective cohort study

Background Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) are a major clinical and public health problem world-wide. The prompt reporting of suspected ADRs to regulatory authorities to activate drug safety surveillance and regulation appears to be the most pragmatic measure for addressing the problem. This paper evaluated a pharmacovigilance (PV) training model that was designed to improve the reporting of ADRs in public health programs treating the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria. Methods A Structured Pharmacovigilance and Training Initiative (SPHAR-TI) model based on the World Health Organization accredited Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SOR-IT) model was designed and implemented over a period of 12 months. A prospective cohort design was deployed to evaluate the outcomes of the model. The primary outcomes were knowledge gained and Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSR) (completed adverse drug reactions monitoring forms) submitted, while the secondary outcomes were facility based Pharmacovigilance Committees activated and health facility healthcare workers trained by the participants. Results Fifty-five (98%) participants were trained and followed up for 12 months. More than three quarter of the participants have never received training on pharmacovigilance prior to the course. Yet, a significant gain in knowledge was observed after the participants completed a comprehensive training for six days. In only seven months, 3000 ICSRs (with 100% completeness) were submitted, 2,937 facility based healthcare workers trained and 46 Pharmacovigilance Committees activated by the participants. Overall, a 273% increase in ICSRs submission to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) was observed. Conclusion Participants gained knowledge, which tended to increase the reporting of ADRs. The SPHAR-TI model could be an option for strengthening the continuous reporting of ADRs in public health programs in resource limited settings

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation