Redressing the growing concern of the education sector in Nigeria

The status of the Nigerian educational system at the moment is unenviable. It is low in quality and standard, limited in its reach and disturbing in its future. There have been some deliberate attempt/efforts by government to redress the declining fortune of the educational system. Some International donor agencies, like UNICEF, the World Bank, UNESCO, and DFID are also collaborating with government at all levels with a view to coming up with a holistic approach in addressing educational concerns. The intention of this paper is to enhance debates on how to redress past mistakes and unintended failures within the Nigerian education policies, programmes and provisions. The paper is of the view that Nigeria requires a system that will insulate education from unnecessary politicization. Education formulation and policy consideration should be for the good of all. The paper is also of the view that there is need for a holistic reorientation, re-engineering and re-branding of education, especially teacher training and recruitments, if effective quality of education is to be achieved in Nigeria. Government should also ensure that all reports, pronouncements and positions canvassed by educational accreditation, visitations and probe panels are implemented. Key Words: Education, Minimum academic standard; Politicization of education; Quality, Teacher recruitment

Effect of seasonal drawdown variations on groundwater quality in Nigeria

Water samples from twenty (20) shallow wells in Akure were analyzed during the wet and dry seasons in 2009 to ascertain the effect of drawdown on their qualities. Twenty (20) parameters consisting of five physical, twelve chemical and three heavy metals were tested for in the samples. The parameters included dissolved and suspended solids, turbidity, the pH, alkalinity, calcium, sulphate, nitrate, magnesium, electrical conductivity, lead, iron and manganese, were determined using standard procedures. Preliminary findings showed that 40% of the wells had poor drainage system and water levels expectedly varied significantly with seasonal change. However, most of the analysis showed significantly negative and weak correlations for the observed parameters during the two seasons of study. The revealed water quality was independent on drawdown but dependent on other parameters such as hygiene, pollution due to usage, underlying rock formation materials and proximity to polluting sources peculiar to emerging African cities.Keywords: Shallow well, pollution, water level, seasonal change, parametersAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(30), pp. 4777-478

Breastfeeding in Nigeria: A systematic review

Breastfeeding confers numerous benefits on babies and mothers. Early initiation, ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ and breastfeeding for at least two years post-delivery are the recommended practices. This study aims to examine the trends of breastfeeding practice in Nigeria by reviewing available published studies. The online databases of PubMed, Science Direct and the Web of Knowledge were searched using relevant terms. Studies identified were screened for eligibility and those that met the inclusion criteria were included in this review. Graphs and regression equations were generated using Microsoft Excel® to illustrate the duration of and trends in, breastfeeding practices in Nigeria. This review adopts the WHO standard definitions for breastfeeding categories. A total of 24 studies met the inclusion criteria but only two of these adopted the standard WHO breastfeeding categories in estimating the rates of breastfeeding. The regression equations and graphs generated show a declining trend in the rates of ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ and an increasing trend in the mean duration of breastfeeding. The rate of ‘any breastfeeding’ was high. Breastfeeding duration varies across Nigeria, a possible reflection of differences in sociocultural practices. Various reasons were cited for discontinuation of breastfeeding, the commonest of these were maternal health problems and the demands of work.Breastfeeding is commonly practiced in Nigeria. However, the rate of ‘exclusive breastfeeding’ is low and declining. It is recommended that future studies on breastfeeding in Nigeria adopt the standard WHO definitions

Climate change and malaria control: The importance of mitigation and a call to action

Malaria has remained an important target for global disease control efforts for decades. The streams of funds and, consequently, availability of effective interventions for the disease have resulted in considerable reduction in its burden, globally. Despite the relative success of such global efforts, malaria remains a significant threat in over a hundred countries, worldwide, leading to about one million deaths and hundreds of millions of hospital visits, annually. Many researchers and health commentators have argued that global warming, a consequence of climate change, could be linked – directly or indirectly – to the persistence as well as the re-emergence of malaria epidemics. Although the association between climate change and malaria spread is complex and remains a subject of controversy and debates, this paper argues that the spread and severity of malaria in several places and the increased incidences of the disease in some regions could indeed be associated with the effects and consequences of climate change. The paper maintains that the biology of the Plasmodium spp, the ecology of mosquitoes, and even the susceptibility of humans to malaria could all be affected directly/indirectly by extreme climatic events. Based on the growing body of evidence on this subject, this paper makes a call for all stakeholders to come to a consensus on the significance of climate change mitigation to malaria control, and offers some recommendations on the way forward

Platformisation of Education: An Analysis of South African Universities’ Learning Management Systems

Several studies have focused attention on the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on the traditional face-to-face teaching and learning activities across the globe. There is, however, little research regarding the platformisation of education with the aid of the learning management systems (LMSs) in the contexts of South African universities. With a thematic content analysis of the extant literature and a systematic review of universities’ websites, this study explored and unearthed various LMS platforms which public universities in South Africa adopted and utilized before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the lockdown period. The findings revealed that the majority (46%) of South Africa’s public universities used the Blackboard LMS while another 34 percent of the 26 universities used the Moodle LMS. The rest of the public universities in South Africa used one of the following LMS platforms: the Vula, Efundi, ClickUp, RUConnected, Sakai, SunLearn, Canvas, and D2LBrightspace. Furthermore, the study found that a few South African universities had moved from one LMS platform to another, especially during the period of lockdown precipitated by the pandemic; beginning from the year 2020. The LMS platforms serve the pedagogical needs of the universities in terms of facilitation of online interaction between instructors and students, dissemination of course materials, announcements, submissions, assessments, and grading of student assignments electronically. It is recommended that future studies should investigate the challenging factors responsible for the switch from one LMS platform to another across the public universities in South Africa

Pathophysiological changes that affect drug disposition in protein-energy malnourished children

Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) is a major public health problem affecting a high proportion of infants and older children world-wide and accounts for a high childhood morbidity and mortality in the developing countries. The epidemiology of PEM has been extensively studied globally and management guidelines formulated by the World Health Organization (WHO). A wide spectrum of infections such as measles, malaria, acute respiratory tract infection, intestinal parasitosis, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS may complicate PEM with two or more infections co-existing. Thus, numerous drugs may be required to treat the patients. In-spite of abundant literature on the epidemiology and management of PEM, focus on metabolism and therapeutic drug monitoring is lacking. A sound knowledge of pathophysiology of PEM and pharmacology of the drugs frequently used for their treatment is required for safe and rational treatment. In this review, we discuss the pathophysiological changes in children with PEM that may affect the disposition of drugs frequently used for their treatment. This review has established abnormal disposition of drugs in children with PEM that may require dosage modification. However, the relevance of these abnormalities to the clinical management of PEM remains inconclusive. At present, there are no good indications for drug dosage modification in PEM; but for drug safety purposes, further studies are required to accurately determine dosages of drugs frequently used for children with PEM

A Note on “Malaria at Parturition in Nigeria: Current Status and Delivery Outcome”

We read the recent article by (Mokuolu et al. 2009) with keen interest and would like to congratulate them for a job well done. However, we would like to raise a few points relating to the limitations of the study

Wear and hardness properties of surface modification of copper alloy processed by friction stir process

Abstract: In this work, FSP was used to refine the microstructure of copper alloy using various parameters. The influence of the tool rotation and traverse speeds on the microstructural and wear of the processed copper alloy was analyzed. Dry sliding tests were conducted to compare the wear behavior of the as-received copper alloy and the copper alloy processed using FSP