THE EXTENT TO WHICH INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES BY HEAD TEACHERS CONTRIBUTE TO STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN MACHAKOS COUNTY, KENYA

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which instructional leadership practices by head teachers contribute to students’ academic performance. Machakos County was chosen for this study due to its low performance by many students in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination in most secondary schools in the recent years (2009-2013). Instructional leadership practices chosen were included defining the school mission, managing the school instructional programme, providing a conducive working climate and providing incentives for teaching and learning. The study applied Survey design. From 176 public secondary schools, stratified sampling technique was used to select 38 head teachers, 190 teachers and 345 students from among high and low performing secondary schools. The study used the Head Teacher Questionnaire (reliability 0.78), Teachers Questionnaire (reliability 0.74) and the students Questionnaire (reliability 0.75). The response was 87.5%. Multiple regression analysis was done to test the extent to which head teachers instructional practices influences on students’ performance, while linear regression was used to determine the most influential leadership practice. It was established that the Bowman and Deal’s leadership theory is applicable to Kenyan schools, with the provision of incentives for learning and teaching being the most important leadership practice towards the teaching and learning process.  Article visualizations

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEAD TEACHERS’ INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AND THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN MACHAKOS COUNTY, KENYA

The performance of students in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination in Machakos County, Kenya has been low for the recent years. It is suspected that the head teachers may have ignored their instructional leadership practices which if put to consideration could help improve students’ performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between head teachers’ instructional leadership practices and students’ performance in KCSE examination. The study applied descriptive survey design. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 38 head teachers, 190 teachers and 345 students from 38 (42%) of target schools which were grouped as high performing and low performing categories. Pearson’s product moment correlation was used and the study found strong positive correlations between instructional leadership practices and the performance of students, where poorly performing schools are also rated low in the instructional leadership practice, and vice versa for schools performing well. The study therefore recommends in-service training on instructional leadership for head teachers to enhance balanced instructional leadership, for better academic performance.  Article visualizations

DETERMINATION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF HEAD TEACHERS’ LEADERSHIP PRACTICES INFLUENCING STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A CASE STUDY OF MACHAKOS COUNTY, KENYA

The purpose of this study was to assess the most important aspects of head teachers’ leadership practices influencing student academic achievement in secondary schools of Machakos County, Kenya. Performance by many students in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination in most secondary schools in Machakos County has been low in the recent past years (2009-2013), and a study was therefore necessary to establish whether in the execution of head teachers’ instructional leadership practices, the head teachers may have ignored important aspects which if put to consideration could help improve their instructional leadership practice, and subsequently the performance of pupils. The study applied Survey design. The target population was the head teachers, teachers and students of 176 public secondary schools in Machakos County. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 38 head teachers, 190 teachers and 345 students from among high and low performing secondary schools in Machakos County. The study used the Head Teacher Questionnaire (reliability 0.78), Teachers Questionnaire (reliability 0.74) and the students Questionnaire (reliability 0.75). The response was 87.5%. Factor analysis was then done to establish the most important indicators of the head teachers’ instructional leadership practices. The study found that most indicators used in the head teachers’ instructional leadership are reliable, with Cronbach’s alpha values higher than 0.5. The study recommends in-service training for head teachers and preparatory training for deputy head teachers and heads of departments on effective instructional leadership practices so as to enhance balanced instructional leadership in schools.  Article visualizations

Non-Invasive Sampling of Schistosomes from Humans Requires Correcting for Family Structure

For ethical and logistical reasons, population-genetic studies of parasites often rely on the non-invasive sampling of offspring shed from their definitive hosts. However, if the sampled offspring are naturally derived from a small number of parents, then the strong family structure can result in biased population-level estimates of genetic parameters, particularly if reproductive output is skewed. Here, we document and correct for the strong family structure present within schistosome offspring (miracidia) that were collected non-invasively from humans in western Kenya. By genotyping 2,424 miracidia from 12 patients at 12 microsatellite loci and using a sibship clustering program, we found that the samples contained large numbers of siblings. Furthermore, reproductive success of the breeding schistosomes was skewed, creating differential representation of each family in the offspring pool. After removing the family structure with an iterative jacknifing procedure, we demonstrated that the presence of relatives led to inflated estimates of genetic differentiation and linkage disequilibrium, and downwardly-biased estimates of inbreeding coefficients (F[subscript IS]). For example, correcting for family structure yielded estimates of F[[subscript ST] among patients that were 27 times lower than estimates from the uncorrected samples. These biased estimates would cause one to draw false conclusions regarding these parameters in the adult population. We also found from our analyses that estimates of the number of full sibling families and other genetic parameters of samples of miracidia were highly intercorrelated but are not correlated with estimates of worm burden obtained via egg counting (Kato-Katz). Whether genetic methods or the traditional Kato-Katz estimator provide a better estimate of actual number of adult worms remains to be seen. This study illustrates that family structure must be explicitly accounted for when using offspring samples to estimate the genetic parameters of adult parasite populations

Interactions between Natural Populations of Human and Rodent Schistosomes in the Lake Victoria Region of Kenya: A Molecular Epidemiological Approach

One of the world's most prevalent neglected diseases is schistosomiasis, which infects approximately 200 million people worldwide. Schistosoma mansoni is transmitted to humans by skin penetration by free-living larvae that develop in freshwater snails. The origin of this species is East Africa, where it coexists with its sister species, S. rodhaini. Interactions between these species potentially influence their epidemiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, because they infect the same species of hosts and can hybridize. Over two years, we examined their distribution in Kenya to determine their degree of overlap geographically, within snail hosts, and in the water column as infective stages. Both species were spatially and temporally patchy, although S. mansoni was eight times more common than S. rodhaini. Both species overlap in the time of day they were present in the water column, which increases the potential for the species to coinfect the same host and interbreed. Peak infective time for S. mansoni was midday and dawn and dusk for S. rodhaini. Three snails were coinfected, which was more common than expected by chance. These findings indicate a lack of obvious isolating mechanisms to prevent hybridization, raising the intriguing question of how the two species retain separate identities

Bulinus snails in the Lake Victoria Basin in Kenya: Systematics and their role as hosts for schistosomes.

The planorbid gastropod genus Bulinus consists of 38 species that vary in their ability to vector Schistosoma haematobium (the causative agent of human urogenital schistosomiasis), other Schistosoma species, and non-schistosome trematodes. Relying on sequence-based identifications of bulinids (partial cox1 and 16S) and Schistosoma (cox1 and ITS), we examined Bulinus species in the Lake Victoria Basin in Kenya for naturally acquired infections with Schistosoma species. We collected 6,133 bulinids from 11 sites between 2014-2021, 226 (3.7%) of which harbored Schistosoma infections. We found 4 Bulinus taxa from Lake Victoria (B. truncatus, B. tropicus, B. ugandae, and B. cf. transversalis), and an additional 4 from other habitats (B. globosus, B. productus, B. forskalii, and B. scalaris). S. haematobium infections were found in B. globosus and B. productus (with infections in the former predominating) whereas S. bovis infections were identified in B. globosus, B. productus, B. forskalii, and B. ugandae. No nuclear/mitochondrial discordance potentially indicative of S. haematobium/S. bovis hybridization was detected. We highlight the presence of Bulinus ugandae as a distinct lake-dwelling taxon closely related to B. globosus yet, unlike all other members of the B. africanus species group, is likely not a vector for S. haematobium, though it does exhibit susceptibility to S. bovis. Other lake-dwelling bulinids also lacked S. haematobium infections, supporting the possibility that they all lack compatibility with local S. haematobium, thereby preventing widespread transmission of urogenital schistosomiasis in the lake's waters. We support B. productus as a distinct species from B. nasutus, B. scalaris as distinct from B. forskalii, and add further evidence for a B. globosus species complex with three lineages represented in Kenya alone. This study serves as an essential prelude for investigating why these patterns in compatibility exist and whether the underlying biological mechanisms may be exploited for the purpose of limiting schistosome transmission

Development of a Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification for Diagnosis of Ascaris lumbricoides in Fecal Samples

Ascaris lumbricoides is a nematode parasite that causes the common tropical infection ascariasis in humans. It is also considered among the neglected tropical diseases. Diagnosis relies mainly on microscopy-based methods which are laborious, are limited by low sensitivity, and require high expertise. We have developed a loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) for diagnosis of ascariasis in fecal samples, based on the first internal transcribed (ITS-1) spacer region of the ribosomal DNA. We used Primer Explorer V4 software to design primers. Ascaris adult and ova were obtained from naturally infected school children, whose parents/guardians gave consent for their participation in the study. Genomic DNA was extracted using alkaline lysis method and amplified by LAMP at 63°C for 45 minutes. LAMP products were visualized by naked eyes after adding SYBR Green dye and also on agarose gel. LAMP successfully and reliably detected Ascaris DNA from a single egg and in fecal samples. The assay specifically detected Ascaris DNA without amplifying DNA from ova of other parasites which commonly coexist with A. lumbricoides in feces. The developed LAMP assay has great potential for use in ascariasis diagnosis at the point of care and in low infection intensity situation that characterize control and elimination campaigns

Percentage of snails infected with 1–9 genotypes of schistosome parasites from this study and previous studies (n indicates snail sample size).

<p>Kenya SM refers to <i>S. mansoni</i> and Kenya SR to <i>S. rodhaini</i> from this study.</p

Results of the Fisher's Exact tests to determine if the proportions of genotypes of <i>S. mansoni</i> released from snails are consistent over timed replicates.

<p>P indicates the probability of significance, n indicates the number of worms sampled, R is the number of replicates tested, and G is the number of genotypes present in a snail. Mode indicates whether the proportions remained constant over replicates, followed a replacement pattern, or was variable.</p