An Investigation of Safety Precautions in Primary School Environment in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

This research investigated the availability of safety precautions and the problems associated with safety in schools using some selected primary schools in Bayelsa State, Nigeria as case study. Consent letters and methodology of selection of participants were sent to schools to solicit willingness to be involved in the study. The population of the study comprises of 631 primary school teachers teaching in the 62 primary schools in a Local Education Authority in Bayelsa State. 210 out of the 631 teachers were randomly selected using the staff nominal roll and selecting every 5th name. The design of the study was a descriptive survey design. Four research questions were posited for the study ranging from security measures, conditions of school buildings, sources of water supply and its availability and the likely safety problems in the participating schools. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire developed by the researcher and validated by experts in measurement and evaluation. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient of 0.78 was realized using test retest method of testing reliability. The findings revealed that there are no security measures in place in the participating primary schools. Most of the school buildings are dilapidated and the classrooms furniture are death traps. The finding of this study shows a gross neglect of safety in the school. Also, there are no regular visitations by the ministry of education to schools to ascertain the nature of safety precautions in the schools. It was therefore recommended that safety measures should be put in place for staff and pupils safety. Such safety measures should be in the form of installation of surveillance cameras in strategic places, provision of firefighting equipments, engaging professional security personnel among others. Keywords: Safety, precaution, primary school, Nigeria, school environmen

A Comparison of Adolescents Consumption of Micro and Macro Nutrient Rich Foods

The study involves a comparison of pupils' consumption of macro and micro nutrient rich food as well as healthy and less healthy snacks after being exposed to a teaching model on balanced diet developed by the researcher which takes into cognisance pupils' prior knowledge of healthy eating. Healthy snacks are snacks that are low in fat and sugar while less healthy snacks are snacks that are high in fat and sugar. The study was carried out in Britain, United Kingdom in summer term of 2007. Participants were year 7 pupils of Ceredigion Local Education Authority in rural Mid-Wales, they were requested to fill-in a Food Diary of food consumed at breakfast, lunch and dinner times including mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks for five days (Thursday to Monday). This is to include both food consumed at home at weekend as well as school meals consumed at school during weekdays. There was evidence of increase of consumption of healthy snack as well as the consumption of macro nutrients (carbohydrate, fat and protein) and micro nutrients (vitamin, mineral and fibre); all six classes of food that makes up a balanced diet [1] after the intervention compared to before the intervention, although the rate of increase in the consumption of micro nutrient was not statistically significant compared to the increased in the consumption of macro nutrient. This study revealed that though the teaching model was able to alter eating behaviour in the desired direction of healthy eating which is the consumption of micro nutrient. More has to be done to encourage adolescents to consume more vitamin, mineral and fibre rich food items

EVALUATION OF TEACHING PRACTICE EXERCISE IN NIGERIA

Evaluation is centrally concerned with the making of value judgments. In the school setting, evaluation underpins the teacher’s development of curriculum activities, his/her selection of instructional objectives in his/her day-today lesson planning and choice of materials and methods by which to judge the progress of his/her students. Evaluation enables the teacher to make appropriate decisions about his/her on-going classroom activities and to plan future activities more purposefully and effectively in the light of his knowledge of the progress of his/her students. Appropriate decisions, however, depend upon correct judgments and these in turn can only be derived from adequate instruments and applications of knowledge glean as a result of training to become a teacher. This paper discussed the evaluation of student-teachers by supervisors who go the practicing schools to supervise the would-be-teachers (student-teachers) in order to ascertain that the would-be-teachers are putting into practice the theories and methods learnt; as well as an examination process to assess teaching effectiveness to grade the student-teachers. It was recommended that the assessment of student-teachers should be done by both the cooperating teacher (mentor) from the practicing school as well as the visiting supervisor from the training institutions as this is not currently the case.  Article visualizations

WASTE GENERATION AND ITS MANAGEMENT IN SCHOOLS

Waste management in schools continues to generate thoughts, interest and research because of the huge amount of the refuse that schools generation which include papers, cartons, cans, broken bottles, polymers which can be recycled but are rather turned out as rubbish to be collected as refuse. These refuse from schools are collected alongside other household refuses and heaped on streets or refuse dump with it antecedent health challenges which include unsightly heap of refuse, the odour emanating from such heap and the heap being a breeding ground for disease vectors like mosquitoes, cockroaches, rodents, reptiles among others. Among all the significant contributors of environmental waste, schools have been chosen for this write up since the waste generation rate and its corresponding composition has not been reported or has been underestimated. Hence, the present paper is an attempt to fill up this gap in knowledge. The objective of this paper specifically is to raise awareness among educators, learners and their families of the cause and effect of poor waste management and the benefits of recycling, reuse and reduce as waste management strategies. Also, to provide environmental tools to enhance quality of life and assist schools with portfolio development and waste minimization projects.  Article visualizations

EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF CLINICAL SUPERVISION MODEL OF SUPERVISING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

There are few empirical evidences of the effectiveness of the various teaching practice supervision models. This study is aimed to add to the dearth of empirical evidences of effectiveness of teaching practice supervision model by evaluating the clinical supervision model. Clinical supervision is a method of supervision whereby the supervisor is involved with the pre-service-teacher in a close, ‘helping, relationship’. Essentially, clinical supervision in education involves a teacher trainee receiving information from a supervisor who has observed the teacher trainee’s performance and who serves as both a mirror and a sounding board to enable the teacher trainee critically examine and possibly alter his/her own professional practice. Within the context of such supervision, ideas are shared and help is given in order to improve the teacher trainee’s ability through the analysis of objective data that is collected during the observation.  Article visualizations