Re-Engineering University Education for Employability in Nigeria

The paper examines the worrisome issue of unemployability among Nigerian graduates in recent times. Certain factors such as unplanned expansion, unnecessary duplication of courses/programmes, deterioration of physical facilities, overstretching of teaching, research and managerial capacities, massification of student numbers, upsurge of various forms of ills, etc, have been implicated. The paper went further to identify some employability skills and suggested how university can be re-engineered to achieve these skills for the benefit of our students and society at large. KEYWORDS: Graduates, employability skills, Nigerian universities

イヤナガ ショウキチ シ オウブン ショカン ニツイテ 2

史料紹

Teaching as a Career: Perception of University Education Students in Cross River State

This study in which survey design was utilized sought to determine trainee teachers’ perception of pursuing teaching as a career; and to determine those factors responsible for their perceptions. Four research questions were postulated to guide the study and a research instrument tagged ‘Student Teaching Career Questionnaire (STECAQ)’ was designed to collect data from the 233 registered final year students who constituted the study sample. The findings showed that 135(57.9%) of the students want to be teachers after graduation; out of those interested in making teaching their professional career 40(29.6%) are in education Sciences; More females are favourably disposed to making teaching their career after graduation than males. Low societal regard for teachers, low remuneration and allowing of non-trained teachers into the profession were among the factors cited as inhibiting students from making teaching their career after graduation. It was recommended among others that the agreed teacher salary scale be paid by the government both at the state and federal levels

Susceptibility profile of yeast-like organisms isolated from HIV/AIDS patients; using NCCLs macrodiltion method compared with agar diffusion technique.

Yeast like opportunistic fungal infection has been reported globally amongst HIV/AIDS patients, particularly as the etiologic agent of oral thrush. Fluconazole antibiotic has been most popularly employed in treating cases of oral thrush in HIV/AIDS patients. Recent reports have recorded antifungal drug resistance amongst immunocompromised subjects. This constitutes a big problem in the management of opportunistic candidiasis. The NCCLS micro/macrodilusion sensitivity testing procedure is expensive, cumbersome and requires a level of sophistication. This study was designed to compare NCCLS M-27-A macrodilution method (expensive) with agar diffusion technique (cheap and simple), to provide a reliable rapid alternative to the new pressing need for antifungal routine sensitivity testing. Sputum specimens from 213(108 females and 105 males) HIV positive patients were plated onto SDA. The isolates were identified by morphotyping, microscopy and speciated using germ tube test, and battery of biochemical sugar fermentation; and assimilation tests. Fluconazole agar diffusion susceptibility testing was carried out on each isolate, compared with the NCCLS macrodilution sensitivity assay standard. Of the 74 isolates tested for fluconazole sensitivity, 59(79.7%) were sensitive (zone diameter > 19mm, mean diameter 28mm), 6(8.1%) were Sensitive Dose Dependent (S-DD) (zone diameter 13-18mm, mean diameter 16mm), while 9(12.2%) were resistant (zone diameter 64μg/ml profile, using the NCCLS macrodilution assay. The differences between the test method (Agar diffusion) and the control standard method (NCCLS-M 27-A broth Macrodilution MICS) were not statistically significant using t-test (two tail) (t = 4.302656, P=1.0). Among the C. albicans isolates, 26(86.7%) were sensitive to fluconazole. The rank of susceptibility was C. albicans > C. tropicalis > C. krusei. It is concluded that broncho-oro-pharyngeal Candida and other yeast-like species existed in about one third of the HIV and AIDS patients studied; in which C. albicans was the most prevalent, while about ten percent of all the Candida isolates were resistant to fluconazole. The reliability of germ tube production as a confirmatory test for Candida albicans in HIV infection was as high as 96.7% and is therefore, recommended for continued use. Agar diffusion compared favourably with the NCCLS macrodilution technique, hence it is recommended for routine antifungal sensitivity test on all isolates of yeast-like cells from HIV and AIDS subjects. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, oral thrush, yeast-like cells, fluconazole resistance, NCCLS vs agar diffusion technique.African Journal of Clinical and Experimental Microbiology Vol. 9 (2) 2008 pp. 88-9

Effect of Flipped Strategy on Achievement in Algebraic Concepts among Secondary School Students in Ikom Education Zone, Cross River State

The study investigated the effect of flipped strategy on achievement in algebra concepts among secondary school students in Ikom Education Zone, Cross River State. Quasi- experimental research design was adopted for the study. The target population of the study consist of included all government senior secondary school class two (SSII) students in Ikom education zone during 2021/2022 academic session. A total sample of senior secondary school (SSII) students of forty-five males (45) and thirty-eight females (38) was used for the study Purposive multi-stage random sampling technique (stratified and simple sampling) was used to composed the sample. Three research objectives and questions guided the study, alongside with corresponding three hypotheses which was tested at 0.05 significance level. The study used Students Mathematics Achievement Test (SMAT). The instrument was developed by the researchers. The SELMQ consisting of 16 items to assess the effective participation of students in learning mathematics which was developed by the researchers. It has 4-point Likert type response scale in which respondents were expected to indicate in the column against each of the item The SMAT was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was established by the use of Kunder-Richardson K-21 to obtain an index of 0.85 used of Kunder-Richardson K-21. The research question were answered using Descriptive statistics, analysis of Co-variance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The finding revealed that flipped classroom instructional strategy has a significantly greater effect on students’ academic achievement in Mathematics than the teacher-centered approach. Based on the results of the findings, it was recommended among others that Cross River State Secondary school education board should deemed implementing the flipped classroom instructional strategy in Mathematics as it engages students dedication, interest and motivation in learning

Design and Characterization of a 500 kW 20 kHz Dual Active Bridge using 1.2 kV SiC MOSFETs

High power Silicon Carbide (SiC) semiconduc-tor enable an increase of the power level for the Dual Active Bridge (DAB). This paper presents a concept for a novel high power DAB up to 500 kW. 1200 V SiC MOSFETs are used as power semiconductors, which are operated with a switching frequency of 20 kHz. In order to investigate the feasibility of such high power DABs basic design rules are presented and the influence of parasitic components is deduced. It is shown that these parasitic effects become more and more important with increasing power and therefore cannot be neglected as in the case of lower power DABs. Using a calorimetric measurement setup a detailed loss distribution is presented. Measurements confirm the concept for the parasitic influence and design target of 500 k W