The Journey of Special Needs Education in Ethiopia: An overview

The purpose of this review is to map out the journey of special needs education in Ethiopia. This journey is from mountainous churches where students used to attend theology scattering under trees and small huts to fenced and relatively favorable classrooms. By that professionals in the field of special needs will have the opportunity to know how the delivery of special education for persons with disabilities was associated with early Christianity and compare the historical development of special needs education between Europe and ancient Ethiopia

Challenges to implement inclusive education in Ethiopia

The aims of the research were twofold, namely, investigate challenges that hindered the implementation of inclusive education in Ethiopia and develop a framework that can enhance the inclusion of children with disabilities (CwDs). The ecology of human development has served as the theoretical lens underpinning this study to discover challenges that hindered the implementation of inclusive education. These barriers were also investigated from micro, meso, exo, and macro perspectives in the system. With this, I employed qualitative approach under the hegemony of constructivism paradigm. The hermeneutic design of the study enabled me to build knowledge about the barriers that hindered the implementation of inclusive education. Subsequently, using semi-structured interview and focus group discussion as instrument, I listened to experts in education, school supervisors, professionals in SNE and education vice heads. Thereafter, the data analysis went by transcribing the recorded interview verbatim. Then, using the transcribed and chunked data, I mapped the range and nature of phenomena, created typologies and found out associations between themes with a view to provide explanations for the findings. The process of mapping and interpretation was also guided by the original research aims as well as by the themes that have emerged from the data themselves. The participants revealed that the challenges to implement inclusive education ranged from the absence of mandatory national inclusive policy to the low income of the families of CwDs. Therefore, lack of collaboration among stakeholders of education, misconception of inclusive education, shortage of trained teachers, poor allocation of finance, poor school infrastructure and lack of mandatory inclusive policy were the few identified barriers among others. Finally, I have recommended collaborative effort among stakeholders to ensure inclusion of CwDs.Inclusive EducationD. Phil

Diversity and Threats of Avifauna in Cheleleka Wetland, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

This study was conducted in Cheleleka Wetland, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia to assess Species diversity and threats of aviafuana from August to February 2019. Data were analysed by using Simpson’s and Shannon-Weiner Index in analysing biodiversity indices. One way ANOVA was applied for analysis of the effect of season on the composition and abundance of species. Questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussion were also used to determine the threats of avifauna in the study area. The result indicated that 49 avian species record under 21 families and 10 orders during both the wet and dry seasons. The Shannon-Weiner diversity index shown that highest bird species diversity (H’=3.42) was recorded during wet season. Over grazing, agricultural expansion, settlement and sand extraction were the major avifaunal threats in the wetland. The result suggests that the need to conserve the avifauna through the conservation of their habitats by creating awareness to the local people and it will enable to decrease biodiversity threats

School factors against co-curricular participation of students with mobility problem

The purpose of this study was to examine school factors that hinder the co-curricular participation of students with disabilities. The researcher has primarily used the survey method to investigate the co-curricular participation of students with disabilities in Weldeya primary schools. For this, 100 teachers were selected at random and two interviewees with disabilities were selected purposefully. Results indicated that mobility problems, teachers' misunderstanding about the benefit of co-curricular engagements for the personality development of children, and lack of interest among students with disabilities themselves to take part in non-academic works were all factors that inhibited the co-curricular participation of students with disabilities

EXPLORING GOVERNMENTAL COMMITMENT TO EXECUTE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN ETHIOPIA

Mainly, the aim of the research was to explore the absence of governmental commitment and find out the structural barriers that hindered the execution of inclusive education in Ethiopia. Exclusionary issues that Ethiopian schools face today are highly related to ignorance and lack of commitment that stem from education authorities and even from teachers of students with disabilities. Subsequently, I employed qualitative approach under the hegemony of constructivism paradigm to locate where the barriers of inclusive education stemmed from. The hermeneutic design of the study enabled me to build knowledge about the barriers that hindered the execution of inclusive education from governmental commitment perspective. Using semi-structured interview and focus group discussion as instrument, I listened to personnel in the education system. Thereafter, the data analysis went by transcribing the recorded interview verbatim. Then, using the transcribed and chunked data, I mapped the range and nature of phenomena, created typologies and found out associations between themes with a view to provide explanations for the findings. The process of mapping and interpretation was also guided by the original research aims as well as by the themes that have emerged from the data themselves. The participants’ account witnessed and construing the data, therefore, the challenges to implement inclusive education ranged from the absence of mandatory national inclusive policy to the inconsistent data about children with disabilities. Finally, I have recommended collaborative effort among stakeholders to ensure inclusion of children with disabilities

Raltegravir: first in class HIV integrase inhibitor

On October 16, 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved raltegravir for treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection in combination with other antiretroviral agents in treatment-experienced adult patients who have evidence of viral replication and HIV-1 strains resistant to multiple antiretroviral agents. Raltegravir is first in a novel class of antiretroviral drugs known as integrase inhibitors. It has demonstrated potent anti HIV activity in both antiretroviral treatment-naïve and experienced patients. The most common adverse events reported with raltegravir during phase 2 and 3 clinical trials were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. Laboratory abnormalities include mild elevations in liver transaminases and creatine phosphokinase

Effect of analogy approach on the concepts of rates of chemical reactions on students’ achievement and attitude

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of analogical instruction as compared to the lecture approach on concepts of rates of chemical reactions on grade 11 students’ achievement and attitude. A quasi-experimental posttest only control group design setting was utilized, to compare the effectiveness of two teaching methods, with 72 students in the fall semesters of two consecutive academic years. Two existing classrooms  students, taught by the same teacher at a government school (Yehibret Fire Preparatory School) in Wolliso Zone, Oromiya region in Ethiopia, were categorized as a control group (n=35) in 2017/18 and an experimental group (n=37) in 2018/19 academic years. In control group (CG), students were taught in lecture/ usual way of teaching chemistry while the experimental group (EG) students were received the treatment based on the six steps in ‘Teaching With Analogy’ (TWA) model with ‘Focus–Action-Reflection’ (FAR) guide and during the analogical instruction fourteen analogies were used. An equal amount of instruction was given over a period of five weeks (two hours per week, total 10 hours) for both groups and the concepts of rate of reaction involving definition of reaction rate, effects of nature of reactants, surface area, concentration, temperature and catalyst on the rate of reaction have been studied. In both groups, rate of reaction concepts test (RRCT) consisted of 20 two-tier multiple choice questions  administered as a post-test after each instruction. A semi-structured interview was also conducted to six EG and six CG students (who selected using stratified sampling technique) to have detail information on their conceptual understanding of rates of reactions, however, six EG students were also interviewed to assess the effect of the analogy approach on students’ attitude towards the concepts of rates of reactions. Only the experimental group students were performed the students’ generated analogy worksheet. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 software was used to analyze the quantitative data of the study. The independent samples t-test analysis of the post-tests scores of both groups and students’ interviews showed that the analogy-based learning was effective means in enhancing students’ achievement and attitude towards the concepts of rate of reaction. Therefore, it can be said that high school chemistry teachers can often use analogical instruction to improve  students’ conceptual understanding and attitude towards the concepts of rates of reactions

Layer 3 Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Network

Layer 3 Multiprotocol Label Switching Virtual Private Networks (L3 MPLS VPNs) is becoming a key technology of Service Providers' Services for corporations who desire to use remote connectivity. It is getting more popularity by customers for its significant advantages over the prior VPN technologies such as Frame relay and ATM. The main purpose of this thesis project was to develop an understanding of L3 MPLS VPNs in theory and practice. It is targeting to explain the technology briefly and demonstrate how it works to prepare a learning material for Data Network Services course given at VAMK, University of Applied Sciences. The practical part of this project took place in the Technobothnia Research Center using Cisco technology. Four Cisco 2801 routers, laboratory computers and Ethernet and serial media links were used to build the network and accomplish connectivity. There are also software tools used such as HyperTerminal to configure the routers and WireShark packet analyzer to examine the communication protocols used for connectivity

Precision medicine and public health interventions: tuberculosis as a model?

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Multi-stakeholder Innovation Platforms and knowledge management: Africa RISING science, innovations and technologies with scaling potential from the Ethiopian Highlands

United States Agency for International Developmen