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

Evaluation of a pilot study on student's conceptual understanding and practical skills acquisition of dietary knowledge

This study is a trial pilot study that investigated if there is a relationship between the method of teaching dietary knowledge in the classroom and students' conceptual understanding and practical skills acquisition of dietary knowledge of children aged 10–11 years. The research was carried out in a school within the Healthy School Scheme Award in rural mid Wales, United Kingdom. The methodology included eliciting the conceptions held by students on the concept of balanced diet and healthy eating using questionnaire, diary and interview before and after a teaching intervention on the concept of balanced diet. The teaching intervention involved comparing a Teaching/Learning Sequence (TLS) with the Regular Teaching Method (RTM) to determine if there will be increase in both conceptual understanding of dietary knowledge and encouragement of healthy eating habits. Parental influence as well as their opinion about their children's conceptual understanding of healthy eating was also elicited via parent questionnaire. The findings from this study clearly indicated some fundamental flaws and misconceptions in participants' knowledge and understanding of balanced diet in both TLS and RTM groups before the intervention but after the intervention, there was a statistically significant improvement of the TLS group over the RTM group and participants opting for healthier snack (less sugar/fat snack). A high percentage of the sampled parents agreed that children should be encourage to cook at home though some considered it to be too risky. The conclusion and implication of this study is that the contexts in which students learn about healthy eating are key factors in determining how receptive they are to nutrition education. The policies that a school adopts, the physical and social environment it provides, the curriculum it chooses, and the quality and methods of instruction all have the potential to significantly affect nutrition education