Field Study of Mobile Phone Use by Motorists in Accra: 2010-2014

Mobile phone use by motorist is a known road accident risk factor. However, little known research has been conducted in Ghana to determine the actual rate of mobile phone use by motorists. In this study, we try to estimate the rate of usage by motorists in Accra-Ghana. Drivers on six major roads in the city were observed in regards to their use of mobile phone while driving over four years. Gender of the driver and the type of vehicle used by the driver was also recorded. The results show that among 9,383 drivers that were observed over period, on average 9.4% (almost 1 in 10) motorists used their mobile phones everyday. In addition, mobile phone use increased over the period from 4.4% (1 in 25 drivers) in 2010 to 9.4% (1 in 10 drivers) in 2013. The results also show that there was a significant difference between men (9.0%) and women (12.2%) in the use of mobile phone by motorists in the Accra. In addition, average daily use of mobile phones among drivers of private vehicles (13.2%) was higher than among commercial vehicles (5.6%). Keywords: Mobile Phone, Driver Distraction, Motorist, Private Vehicles, Commercial Vehicle

Partnership between TVET Training Institutions and Industry: A Survey of Industrial Experience of Academic Staff of Accra Polytechnic

Tertiary education in general and polytechnic education in particular has undergone a great deal of transformation during the last 50 years. As part of a sustained and continuous process of optimizing the quality of skill training required in the country, the Government of Ghana is in the process of converting the Polytechnics in the country into Technical Universities at the beginning of 2016 academic year. Industrial experience of academic staff is one of the key requirements given by a Technical committee set up by the government in the proposed bill. It is against this background that this study was conducted to assess the industrial experience of staff of Ghanaian Polytechnics with Accra Polytechnic as a case study. Using descriptive statistical tools, an analysis was conducted on the industrial experience of all the 189 full time academic staff of the institution. Key findings in the study are that, about 51 percent of the teaching staff have some form of industrial experience relevant to their areas of specialization and the average years of industrial experience for staff in the school of engineering is the highest. The study recommended amongst others, the need for a national governmental policy to incorporate staff industrial internship into faculty development scheme to help foster partnership between TVET training institutions and industry. Keywords:   Industrial experience, TVET, Technical University, Partnershi

Discriminant Analysis of Discrimination against People with Disability

Negative stereotypes about physically challenged people result in discriminatory social policies which in turn reinforce or confirm negative attitudes that greatly affects them as they strive to function in the society, these problems create some difficulties as the physically challenged persons strives to effectively play active role in various sectors of the society. The main objective of this study was to identify the category of people who perpetuate discriminatory practices against physically challenged people in Tamale metropolis of Ghana. Questionnaires and interview guide were used to collect data for the study. Discriminant analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was then performed on the collected data. The results revealed that "survey respondents who had discriminated either consciously or unconsciously against people with disabilities were more likely to be less than 40 years in terms of age, male in terms of sex, educated with regards to formal education, and working in the formal sector in terms of occupation than survey respondents who had never discriminated against people with disabilities." Keywords: Discriminant Analysis, Discrimination, Physically Challenged Peopl

Funding of Quality TVET Programmes in Tertiary Institutions: The Role of Business Development Units

Funding for TVET activities is mainly through government subvention to tertiary institutions that undertake general education. TVET education is still underfunded in relation to general schooling. Management of institutions has to develop strategies to provide additional sources of funding for specific TVET activities that link education with practical training. In recent years, managers of several tertiary institutions have set up Business Development Units to find innovative ways of sourcing for additional funding for quality TVET programmes. These units have the arduous task of convincing industry and corporate organizations on the need to invest in such programmes. The setting up of business incubators to help grow small businesses borne out of students’ ideas has been largely successful in some institutions. Developing businesses in academia may be seen as a deviation from the core mandate of a tertiary institution, however such departure has the potential of not only increasing internally generated funds but churn out entrepreneurs for the future of our country, as they begin to conceive viable business ideas, incubate them and gradually grow them into big businesses, with some financial support. In Accra Technical University, the Business Directorate aims to ensure that the institution provides solutions to specific business and organizational needs through training, contract research or consultancy. This paper examines the critical role the Business Development Units play towards the funding of quality TVET programmes in a tertiary institution. Keywords: Business Development, Funding, TVET, Incubator, Academia

RHETORICAL STRUCTURE OF ANNIVERSARY SPEECHES IN THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN GHANA: A CASE OF WESLEY GIRL'S HIGH SCHOOLS AND ST. AUGUSTINE’S COLLEGE IN THE CENTRAL REGION

The study presents a case study on the use of rhetoric in anniversary speeches of Heads of Wesley Girl’s Senior High School and St. Augustine’s College in Cape Coast in the central region of Ghana.  Purposive sampling was used to sample ten (10) speeches out of twelve (12) speeches collected from the selected schools. The study employed qualitative content analysis and content analysis (these concepts are synonymous; hence no need to repeat as if they are entirely different) to analysis the data.  The results show that anniversary speeches of Heads of public Senior High Schools have a six-move structure, with moves two and three used by the schools to persuade the audience and promote the schools. It was also found that the schools used the material processes to show the audience that they are working institutions by indicating what they have achieved, what they are doing and what they will do. The study also revealed that testimonials are commonly used in promotional discourse and consist of a written or spoken statement of a known or unknown endorser who praises the virtues of a product or service

TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH A FOURIER SERIES APPROACH IN FORECASTING SOLID WASTE GENERATION IN A TVET INSTITUTION: A CASE STUDY OF ACCRA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Globally, waste volumes are increasing quickly, even faster than the rate of urbanization. According to the World Bank Report (2012), there is a direct correlation between the per capita level of income in cities and the amount of waste per capita that is generated. As the world moves towards an urban future, the amount of solid waste being generated continues to compound. As part of the Sustainable Development Goals, we are to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation. TVET institutions in Africa must be strategically involved in the attainment of this goal. Management of solid waste in our municipalities continues to be a major challenge for local governments in urban areas across the world. Accra Polytechnic, like other TVET institutions, has a concentration of thousands of students who generate solid waste on a daily basis, which if not managed properly could have dire consequence on our environment. Due to the lack of available adequate data on solid waste generation and the waste characteristics in our institutions, integrated solid waste management is always a challenge. The prediction of students’ solid waste generation will play an important role in solid waste management in our institutions. Traditional forecasting models for solid waste generation rely on demographic and socioeconomic factors on a per capita basis. Most of these models are designed based on the configuration of semi-empirical mathematical models. This paper looks at the determination of the solid waste generated per capita per day by students on Accra Polytechnic campus using a Fourier series approach. Keywords: Solid Waste, SDG, TVET, Fourier Series, per capita

GENDER INEQUALITY IN TVET INSTITUTIONS – BRIDGING THE GAP: THE CASE OF ACCRA POLYTECHNIC

In many countries, gender differentiation within education has become a key principle which shapes the selection, distribution and evaluation of educational knowledge for young men and women. Issues of gender have been topical and dominate most education related discussions in recent times. Access to Technical and Vocational education in Ghana has increased in the past decade. Within these TVET institutions, the challenge has been gender disparities, with focus on female involvement both as trainers and trainees. For Technical Education, males dominate and in Vocational Education, females outnumber their male counterparts. The Polytechnics are no exception as some of its programmes are aligned in this way. Improving access to higher quality tertiary education and skills training is central to enhancing Ghana’s productivity, spurring social inclusion and reducing inequality. Even though females today have an increased opportunity to enroll in Technology education programs, the vast majority still choose not to. They perceive Technology education as a male domain to which they do not belong. There is the need to address this lack of participation by understanding the differences between males and females choice of study. This paper is concerned with the under-representation of women in Engineering education as well as men in Vocational education and the underlying reasons. A stratified random sample of staff and students selected from the Science and Engineering faculties of Accra Polytechnic was used in this study. Data on enrollment and graduation were also used for further analysis. This study recommends that competency based training must be adopted in the Technical and Vocational fields of study in our TVET institutions. Keywords: Gender, TVET, Polytechnic, Stratified

COMPARATIVE PARTIAL COMPETENCY BASED TRAINING: A CASE STUDY OF ITS APPLICATION TO THE STATISTICS PROGRAM

In Ghana, the traditional University system is designed to give the learner a sound basis to be able to chart a career path after the initial training. The Polytechnics, on the other hand, have been set up to give its students practical oriented training which provides manpower, largely, for the middle level. In recent times a competency based training regime has been on the lips of every educationist as it is seen as a panacea to churning out graduates who are already prepared for the job market. In Accra polytechnic, competency based training has so far been run in two departments – Mechanical Engineering and Fashion Design. It is clear that there have been some challenges with the adoption of this training approach. However, such a laudable approach to learning must not be dumped but the challenges overcome so as to replicate in the other programs of study in the institution. This paper suggests that a fully competency based training for an entire program may be fraught with several challenges. A better option will be to apply competency based training to aspects of a curriculum. A case study of the Design and Analysis of Experiments content of the Statistics Curriculum has been practically analyzed and the results show that students were more competent in the learning outcomes using this approach than the traditional method of teaching and learning. The experiment was designed as a three factor study and analyzed using ANOVA techniques. Keywords: Competence, Learning outcomes, Polytechnic, ANOVA

Application of Macrobenthic Faunal Indices in Assesssing the Ecological Quality Status of Laloi Lagoon of Ghana

The aim of this study was to assess the macrobenthic fauna structure and use its indices as a tool for characterizing the ecological state of the Laloi lagoon. Thus, a field assessment of the benthos in the Laloi lagoon was carried in January 2012. Four replicate samples were taken at each station contained in three zones and analysed for their structure and composition. Twenty-one (21) species of macrobenthos belonging to 19 genera were identified. The highest number of species belonged to Polychaetes (15 species) followed by Bivalves (6 species) and 1 species of Gastropod. The grain size of sediments and total organic matter as essential factors in distribution and population diversity of macrobenthos communities were also analysed. The results showed that all of the stations were characterized by medium sand to very fine sand. Shannon-Wiener index (H'), species richness (S) and Pielou’s evenness were calculated and they revealed a high species diversity with variability in abundance within stations. The ecological indices, such as (AMBI, M-AMBI, BENTIX and H’) were also applied to the available benthic species data to determine the ecological status of the lagoon. AMBI, M-AMBI, H' and BENTIX gave different results regarding the boundaries for High, Good and Moderate and it was worse when applying H' and BENTIX. However, the index AMBI provided a more suitable evaluation of EcoQS corresponding to ‘slightly polluted’ lagoons in compliance with univariate community indices. Keywords: Macrobenthic Faunal Indices, Laloi Lagoon, Ecolog

Factor Analysis of Competency Based Trained Graduates of Polytechnic/Technical Universities in Ghana

Higher Education, particularly Polytechnic education which sits at the apex of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has undergone a great deal of transformation over the last several years. Polytechnic education was incorporated into the educational system with the primary objective of providing employable skills needed to propel growth in the various sectors of the economy. Therefore, Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) plays a significant role for the socioeconomic development of any country to meet the challenges of skilled labour in the global market and the ever widening digital divide coupled with the development of a knowledge-based economy. Competency Based Training (CBT) which entails the practical aspect of technical and vocational training relates theoretical knowledge to actual practice. For more than a decade, this has been part of the curricula of polytechnic education in Ghana as an alternative method of delivery to equip students with hands-on experience and competencies required in the job market (Salifu et al, 2010). CBT provides an improved form of delivery centered on the integration of acquired knowledge, professional and practical skills and attitude, coupled with a market-driven focus on the student (Afeti et al, 2003). Having churned out graduates through the CBT approach, it is imperative to assess the readiness of these graduates for the job market. It is against this background that the study was conducted to do a ‘Need Analysis’ of these graduates. A total of 55 graduates in two polytechnics were used for the study. The study sought to examine the relative influence of factors influencing career choices of these graduates having been trained through the competency based mode of Teaching and delivery. Factor analysis of ratings of importance of a number of job creation characteristics were used. These results were used to build scales of importance and preference, which were then tested with other variables in a predictive model in which the dependent variable was the decision to be self-employed or to be engaged for employment by third parties upon completion of their respective programmes. The following were found to influence decisions; work-related concerns, gender, age, financial support, family background and internship placements. The results also showed that most of the graduates exhibited that sense of inadequacy towards becoming entrepreneurs or starting their own businesses