Teacher expectations of parental involvement in learner education : perceptions of primary school teachers in Mpumalanga Province.

Master of Social Science in Counselling Psychology. University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban, 2017.There is a need to improve communication between teachers and parents regarding their respective roles in assisting learners to perform well academically. When these roles are not communicated clearly between the two stakeholders, often they blame one another especially when the learner does not perform as expected. Likewise, literature has shown that when parents and teachers are aware of their roles in the learners‟ education, they tend to behave in ways that promote learners‟ educational attainment. It is against this background that this qualitative study on teachers‟ perceptions on parental involvement was conducted to mitigate the possible undesirable effects of blame shifting when learners perform poorly. The study also seeks to pinpoint ways in which teachers expect parents to be involved in their children‟s education so that these expectations could be communicated with parents. Six semi-structured interviews (three from each school) were conducted with teachers from the two selected schools in Bohlabela District of Mpumalanga province. The findings of the study have shown that although not all parents are fully committed in partnering with the schools, the teachers admitted that parents are important partners in the learning of their children because they are equally equipped to assist with schoolwork when learners are at home. In addition, the study explored ways in which the roles that parents are expected to play are communicated to them. It was found that teachers use both verbal and written modes to engage with parents. The factors that contribute to poor parental involvement in learners‟ education were also explored in this study. These factors need to be addressed so that measures could be taken to overcome them. Lastly, recommendations were made for the schools understudy as well policy makers, to consider when formulating policies for the governance of schools

Centennial Remembrance Weekend: Coalition to Remember the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot

Program of events held on September 21-24, 2006 at several locations around Atlanta, Ga. Including: Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, Ebeneezer Baptist Church, The King Center, Spruill Gallery, Eyedrum Gallery, Agnes Scott College, Georgia State University, Atlanta University Cente

On the numerical solution of the Lane-Emden, Bratu and Troesch equations.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Many engineering and physics problems are modelled using differential equations, which may be highly nonlinear and difficult to solve analytically. Numerical techniques are often used to obtain approximate solutions. In this study, we consider the solution of three nonlinear ordinary differential equations; namely, the initial value Lane-Emden equation, the boundary value Bratu equation, and the boundary value Troesch problem. For the Lane- Emden equation, a comparison is made between the accuracy of solutions using the finite difference method and the multi-domain spectral quasilinearization method along with the exact solution. We found that the multi-domain spectral quasilinearization method gave a better solution. For the Bratu problem, a comparison is made between the spectral quasilinearization method and the higher-order spectral quasilinearization method. The higher-order spectral quasilinearization method gave more accurate results. The Troesch problem is solved using the higher-order spectral quasilinearization method and the finite difference method. The solutions obtained are compared in terms of accuracy. Overall, the higher-order spectral quasilinearization method and multi-domain spectral quasilinearization method gave the accurate solutions, making these two methods to be the most reliable for these three problems

Constructing a conception of childhood in Africa

The thesis argues that there is a common core conception of childhood in traditional African communities and that this understanding of childhood is different from the image of childhood in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Children‟s Charter. In order to successfully implement children‟s rights in Africa care must be taken to ensure that the cultural norms and values that inform the conception of childhood in Africa is accommodated. Failure to do this is problematic on at least two grounds. First, it increases the economic and social costs of implementing children‟s rights in many African communities. Second, implementing children‟s rights norms that are considered by some communities in Africa as alien without adopting those norms to the African context will continue to increase the resistance of local communities to children‟s rights. Such an approach will be seen as replacing local cultural values with alien cultural norms. This could result in multiple-lived experience for children, weakened family structures and support and, possibly, compromised cultural identities of children. To minimise these consequences, the thesis recommends the application of the norms in these two children‟s rights treaties in a context-and child-specific manner. It is further argued that a „universal pluralistic‟ theoretical framework will facilitate reasonable deference to local contexts that further the cause of children‟s rights and.Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2014.Centre for Human RightsLLDUnrestricte

Techno-economic comparative analysis of renewable energy systems: Case study in Zimbabwe

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Fluctuations in fossil fuel prices significantly affect the economies of countries, especially oil-importing countries, hence these countries are thoroughly investigating the increase in the utilization of renewable energy resources as it is abundant and locally available in all the countries despite challenges. Renewable energy systems (RES) such as solar and wind systems offer suitable alternatives for fossil fuels and could ensure the energy security of countries in a feasible way. Zimbabwe is one of the African countries that import a significant portion of its energy needs which endanger the energy security of the country. Several studies in the literature discussed the feasibility of different standalone and hybrid RES either with or without energy storage systems to either maximize the technical feasibility or the economic feasibility; however, none of the studies considered maximizing both feasibilities at the same time. Therefore, we present a techno-economic comparison of standalone wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) in addition to hybrid PV/wind systems based on maximizing the RES fraction with levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) being less than or equal to the local grid tariff where Gwanda, Zimbabwe, is the case study. The methodology suggested in this study could increase the utilization of renewable energy resources feasibly and at the same time increase the energy security of the country by decreasing dependency on imported energy. The results indicate that the PV/wind hybrid system does not only have the best economic benefits represented by the net present value (NPV) and the payback period (PBP), but also the best technical performance; where the maximum feasible size of the hybrid system-2 MW wind and 1 MW PV-has RES fraction of 65.07%, LCOE of 0.1 USD/kWh, PBP of 3.94 years, internal rate of return of 14.04% and NPV of 3.06 × 106 USD. Having similar systems for different cities in Zimbabwe will decrease the energy bill significantly and contribute toward the energy security of the country

Techno-Economic Comparative Analysis of Renewable Energy Systems: Case Study in Zimbabwe

Fluctuations in fossil fuel prices significantly affect the economies of countries, especially oil-importing countries, hence these countries are thoroughly investigating the increase in the utilization of renewable energy resources as it is abundant and locally available in all the countries despite challenges. Renewable energy systems (RES) such as solar and wind systems offer suitable alternatives for fossil fuels and could ensure the energy security of countries in a feasible way. Zimbabwe is one of the African countries that import a significant portion of its energy needs which endanger the energy security of the country. Several studies in the literature discussed the feasibility of different standalone and hybrid RES either with or without energy storage systems to either maximize the technical feasibility or the economic feasibility; however, none of the studies considered maximizing both feasibilities at the same time. Therefore, we present a techno-economic comparison of standalone wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) in addition to hybrid PV/wind systems based on maximizing the RES fraction with levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) being less than or equal to the local grid tariff where Gwanda, Zimbabwe, is the case study. The methodology suggested in this study could increase the utilization of renewable energy resources feasibly and at the same time increase the energy security of the country by decreasing dependency on imported energy. The results indicate that the PV/wind hybrid system does not only have the best economic benefits represented by the net present value (NPV) and the payback period (PBP), but also the best technical performance; where the maximum feasible size of the hybrid system-2 MW wind and 1 MW PV-has RES fraction of 65.07%, LCOE of 0.1 USD/kWh, PBP of 3.94 years, internal rate of return of 14.04% and NPV of 3.06 × 106 USD. Having similar systems for different cities in Zimbabwe will decrease the energy bill significantly and contribute toward the energy security of the country

Energy Policy Decision in the Light of Energy Consumption Forecast by 2030 in Zimbabwe

Sustainable energy, environmental protection, and global warming are the most discussed topics in today’s world. Demand forecasting is paramount for the design of energy generation systems to meet the increasing energy demand. In this chapter, an examination of the causal nexus between energy consumption, total population, greenhouse gas emissions, and per capita GDP was carried out to forecast Zimbabwe’s energy consumption by 2030. A time series data from 1980 to 2012 were employed alongside econometric techniques to explore the causal relationship among the variables under review. The stationary test revealed the integration of all the data series of interest of order one ∼ I(1). The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model forecasted Zimbabwe’s 2030 energy demand around 0.183 quadrillion Btu as against the current 0.174 quadrillion Btu. The empirical finding is indicative for policy- and decision makers who design the energy policy framework geared towards achieving the universal access to modern energy technologies in Zimbabwe

Solar Irradiance Nowcasting System Trial and Evaluation for Islanded Microgrid Control Purposes

The rapid increase in solar photovoltaic (PV) integration into electricity networks introduces technical challenges due to varying PV outputs. Rapid ramp events due to cloud movements are of particular concern for the operation of remote islanded microgrids (IMGs) with high solar PV penetration. PV systems and optionally controllable distributed energy resources (DERs) in IMGs can be operated in an optimised way based on nowcasting (forecasting up to 60 min ahead). This study aims to evaluate the performance under Perth, Western Australian conditions, of an all-sky imager (ASI)-based nowcasting system, installed at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia (WA). Nowcast direct normal irradiance (DNI) and global horizontal irradiance (GHI) are inputted into a 5 kWp solar PV system with a direct current (DC) power rating/alternating current (AC) power rating ratio of 1.0. A newly developed classification method provided a simplified irradiance variability classification. The obtained nowcasting system evaluation results show that the nowcasting system’s accuracy decreases with an increase in lead time (LT). Additionally, the nowcasting system’s accuracy is higher when the weather is either mostly clear (with a recorded LT15 mean absolute deviation (MAD) of 0.38 kW) or overcast (with a recorded LT15 MAD of 0.19 kW) than when the weather is intermittently cloudy with varying cloud conditions (with a recorded LT15 MAD of 0.44 kW). With lower errors observed in lower LTs, overall, it might be possible to integrate the nowcasting system into the design of IMG controllers. The overall performance of the nowcasting system at Murdoch University was as expected as it is comparable to the previous evaluations in five other different sites, namely, PSA, La Africana, Evora, Oldenburg, and Julich