Impact of Dupoto-e-Maa education project on dropout rate and academic performance

Background: A study conducted in the Kajiado Central District of Kenya in 2006 showed that there was a high dropout rate among primary schoolgoing children and that their academic performance was poor. The Dupoto-e-Maa education project was implemented in 2007 to address issues related to drop out rate and academic performance. Objectives: The evaluation therefore investigated the extent to which the project had influenced dropout rate and academic performance in the public primary schools in Kajiado Central District. Method: The evaluation adopted a mixed methods approach: cross-sectional survey and case study designs. The benefit of the approach is the richness of information obtained through triangulation. The respondents included head teachers, school management committees, teachers, pupils, quality assurance and standards officer and project staff. A sample size of 183 respondents was selected using purposive sampling and stratified random sampling procedures. Head teachers of the sampled schools participated as key informants. The instruments of data collection included questionnaires, an interview guide, a document analysis guide, a focus group discussion guide and an observation guide. Results: The findings indicate that the Dupoto-e-Maa education project had influenced dropout rates. The direction of the findings seems to suggest that academic performance trends are unpredictable since fluctuations are evident, though the programme could have encountered some challenges that may have limited its achievement on this variable. Conclusion: The study recommended that there is need to increase the number of non-governmental organisations modelled around the Dupoto-e-Maa education project so as to reduce dropout rate and improve pupil academic performance. The findings could also inform government policy in terms of recruitment and placement of teachers in schools in arid and semi-arid lands. Project funding could be increased to improve visibility and sustainability of project activities

Rare predicted loss-of-function variants of type I IFN immunity genes are associated with life-threatening COVID-19

BackgroundWe previously reported that impaired type I IFN activity, due to inborn errors of TLR3- and TLR7-dependent type I interferon (IFN) immunity or to autoantibodies against type I IFN, account for 15-20% of cases of life-threatening COVID-19 in unvaccinated patients. Therefore, the determinants of life-threatening COVID-19 remain to be identified in similar to 80% of cases.MethodsWe report here a genome-wide rare variant burden association analysis in 3269 unvaccinated patients with life-threatening COVID-19, and 1373 unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals without pneumonia. Among the 928 patients tested for autoantibodies against type I IFN, a quarter (234) were positive and were excluded.ResultsNo gene reached genome-wide significance. Under a recessive model, the most significant gene with at-risk variants was TLR7, with an OR of 27.68 (95%CI 1.5-528.7, P=1.1x10(-4)) for biochemically loss-of-function (bLOF) variants. We replicated the enrichment in rare predicted LOF (pLOF) variants at 13 influenza susceptibility loci involved in TLR3-dependent type I IFN immunity (OR=3.70[95%CI 1.3-8.2], P=2.1x10(-4)). This enrichment was further strengthened by (1) adding the recently reported TYK2 and TLR7 COVID-19 loci, particularly under a recessive model (OR=19.65[95%CI 2.1-2635.4], P=3.4x10(-3)), and (2) considering as pLOF branchpoint variants with potentially strong impacts on splicing among the 15 loci (OR=4.40[9%CI 2.3-8.4], P=7.7x10(-8)). Finally, the patients with pLOF/bLOF variants at these 15 loci were significantly younger (mean age [SD]=43.3 [20.3] years) than the other patients (56.0 [17.3] years; P=1.68x10(-5)).ConclusionsRare variants of TLR3- and TLR7-dependent type I IFN immunity genes can underlie life-threatening COVID-19, particularly with recessive inheritance, in patients under 60 years old