Factors influencing the drafting and implementation of strategic planning in schools in the Motheo district

Thesis (M. Ed. (Educational Management)) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2013The implementation of strategic planning in schools started in the United States of America (USA) in the 1980s. It is not clear when the concept was first used in South Africa, but its importance in the successful management of a school cannot be underestimated. Strategic planning basically includes a group of instruments, operations and concepts structured to help managers, leaders and planners to think and act strategically. The planning process comprises a definition of the goals, a valuation of the resources available for meeting the goals, and the definition of definite plans or initiatives that are intended to achieve the goals. The process usually includes a classification exercise that identifies the highest priority initiatives. The study addresses the management process and indicates how strategic management fits into this process. Strategic planning is the process of deciding on an organisation's goals, determining the policies and programmes necessary to achieve all specific objectives, and establishing the methods essential to assure that the policies and strategic programmes are implemented. Strategic planning ensures that the school is associated with the changing internal and external environment. This planning is formulated by top management and focuses on the entire organisation. A qualitative design was followed in which the opinions of principals and School Governing Body chairpersons were sought through the use of open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Method triangulation was incorporated by the use of afore-mentioned data collection methods. Another form of triangulation employed in this study is data source triangulation. This entails making use of more than one group of participants to gather data. This study obtained data from various groups of people as described in the sample. The findings of the study indicate that strategic planning does not occur in many schools in the Motheo district. If a form of strategic planning does occur, SGB chairpersons are often excluded in the drafting and implementation of these plans. Collaboration between School Management Teams and School Governing Bodies is needed to ensure the successful drafting and implementation of strategic plan

Strategic Planning as a Management Tool for School Principals in Rural Schools in the Motheo District

Published ArticleStrategic planning basically includes a group of instruments, operations and concepts structured to help managers, leaders and planners think and act strategically. The planning process comprises a definition of the goals, a valuation of the resources available for meeting the goals, and the definition of definite plans or initiatives that are intended to achieve the goals. The process usually includes a classification exercise that identifies the highest priority initiatives. The study indicates how strategic management fits into the management process. Strategic planning ensures that the school is associated with the changing internal and external environment. This planning is formulated by top management and focuses on the entire organization. A qualitative design was followed in which the opinions of principals were sought through the use of semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study indicate that strategic planning does not occur in many schools in the Motheo district. If a form of strategic planning does occur, School Governing Body (SGB) chairpersons are often excluded in the drafting and implementation of these plans. Collaboration between School Management Teams (SMTs) and SGBs is needed to ensure the successful drafting and implementation of strategic plans

The Role of Language in Mass Media Anti-HIV/AIDS Campaigns: A Case of a Patriarchal Community, Kenya

This paper examined how language used in mass media in HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns influenced social action towards ill-health behaviors based on the ethnographic data collected from 100 young people aged 19- 40 years over a period of nine months. The sample was selected using snowball and purposive sampling technique.  The sample size was determined through saturation method after taking into account diversities such as gender, marital status and level of formal education. Data was collected using themes guided in-depth conversational interviews. Augmentative data was collected from two purposively selected key informants. Data which was in form of narratives was transcribed ad verbatim and was thematically analyzed using the hermeneutics methodological framework. The study found that the language used by mass media in HIV/AIDS campaigns did not take into account language use contextually as it intersected with gender and gendered sexual practices in relation to HIV/AIDS. This created discrepancy in the interpretation of what was being communicated by mass media texts and expected action. As a result, the language used to sensitize and create awareness about HIV/AIDS risk was found to reinforce existing social practices which HIV/AIDS prevention mass media campaigns aim to change. Therefore, any health communication relying on mass media should take into account gendered use of language and sexual practices in relation to HIV/AIDS contextually for maximum effectiveness

Advances in honeycomb layered oxides: Part II -- Theoretical advances in the characterisation of honeycomb layered oxides with optimised lattices of cations

The quest for a successful condensed matter theory that incorporates diffusion of cations, whose trajectories are restricted to a honeycomb/hexagonal pattern prevalent in honeycomb layered materials is ongoing, with the recent progress discussed herein focusing on symmetries, topological aspects and phase transition descriptions of the theory. Such a theory is expected to differ both qualitatively and quantitatively from 2D electron theory on static carbon lattices, by virtue of the dynamical nature of diffusing cations within lattices in honeycomb layered materials. Herein, we have focused on recent theoretical progress in the characterisation of pnictogen- and chalcogen-based honeycomb layered oxides with emphasis on hexagonal/honeycomb lattices of cations. Particularly, we discuss the link between Liouville conformal field theory to expected experimental results characterising the optimal nature of the honeycomb/hexagonal lattices in congruent sphere packing problems. The diffusion and topological aspects are captured by an idealised model, which successfully incorporates the duality between the theory of cations and their vacancies. Moreover, the rather intriguing experimental result that a wide class of silver-based layered materials form stable Ag bilayers, each comprising a pair of triangular sub-lattices, suggests a bifurcation mechanism for the Ag triangular sub-lattices, which ultimately requires conformal symmetry breaking within the context of the idealised model, resulting in a cation monolayer-bilayer phase transition. Other relevant experimental, theoretical and computational techniques applicable to the characterisation of honeycomb layered materials have been availed for completeness.Comment: 93 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables, title updated, table of contents adde

Pseudo-spin model of argentophilicity in honeycomb bilayered materials

We introduce a pseudo-spin model for the argentophilic bond expected in silver-based bilayered materials arising from a spontaneous pseudo-magnetic field interacting with pseudo-spins of two unconventional Ag ions, namely $\rm Ag^{2+}$ and $\rm Ag^{1-}$ electronically distinct from (albeit energetically degenerate to) the conventional $\rm Ag^{1+}$ cation typically observed in monolayered materials. This model suggests the possibility of tuning the dimensionality and hence the conductor-semiconductor-insulator properties of honeycomb bilayered materials by application of external fields, analogous to driving a superconducting or Coulomb blockade system to the normal regime by critical magnetic or electric fields respectively.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Predictors of Food Insecurity in Mathare Valley Slum in Nairobi County, Kenya

The right to food is recognized in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of the right to an adequate standard of living, and it is enshrined in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This paper looks at predictors of food Mathare Valley in Nairobi County Kenya. The study site was sampled purposively; cluster sampling was done to identify the villagers that were to be included in the study, from each cluster one village was selected using simple random sampling, Sampling of households was done based on random numbers after which a systematic random sampling was done. Lastly, purposive sampling was done to draw a sample of key informants for in-depth interviews. Data that was collected was and analyzed using quantitative as well as qualitative approaches. Two thirds of the populations were under 45 years, engaged in casual jobs that pay less than Ksh.5000/= per month that is so little for them and the families in which the majority have household with 4-6 people who have various and different needs that need to be satisfied. A regression analysis was done to establish the predictors of food insecurity. These were being enrolled in food aid programme, being young and low incomes. The study concluded that there was food insecurity in Mathare Valley, which is mainly attributed to low incomes, unemployment high cost of living. The paper recommends that community economic empowerment be undertaken as the underlying cause of food insecurity in Mathare is the economic marginalization of residents. Efforts should also be put by all stakeholders to initiate community economic empowerment initiatives so as to ensure that the economic fortunes of the community are enhanced. Keywords: Food security; informal settlements, Community empowerment; nutrition trainin

Effective recruitment strategies for a sickle cell patient registry across sites from the Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium (SCDIC)

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic disorder predominantly affecting people of African descent and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. To improve SCD outcomes, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute funded eight centers to participate in the SCD Implementation Consortium. Sites were required to each recruit 300 individuals with SCD, over 20 months. We aim to describe recruitment strategies and challenges encountered. Participants aged 15-45 years with confirmed diagnosis of SCD were eligible. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the effectiveness of each recruitment strategy. A total of 2432 participants were recruited. Majority (95.3%) were African American. Successful strategies were recruitment from clinics (68.1%) and affiliated sites (15.6%). Recruitment at community events, emergency departments and pain centers had the lowest yield. Challenges included saturation of strategies and time constraints. Effective recruitment of participants in multi-site studies requires multiple strategies to achieve adequate sample sizes

Assessment of pollution impacts on the ecological integrity of the Kisian and Kisat rivers in Lake Victoria drainage basin, Kenya

Macro-invertebrate assemblages were used as bioindicators to assess the ecological integrity of Rivers Kisat (influenced by urban development) and Kisian (influenced by agriculture) using community attributes and the Index of Biotic Integrity. Six stations, three per river, were selected to correspond to different impact types and intensities along the rivers. Physico-chemical parameters and nutrients were determined for each station on a monthly basis from November 2007 to April 2008. Two-way analysis of variance was used to compare water quality and nutrient parameters, and macro invertebrate community attributes between the two rivers, with the river and station as the main factors. Significant differences were accepted at 95% confidence level. There were inconsistencies in the variation of physico-chemical parameters along the two rivers. However, River Kisat recorded higher values for all physico-chemical parameters considered, except pH and DO. Different indices and metrics representing the structural and functional organization of macro invertebrates were computed and evaluated for responsiveness to physico-chemical parameters and nutrient levels. Macro invertebrate diversity, richness and evenness values failed to delineate stations according to the different levels of degradation they were experiencing. However, the differences were captured by the index of biotic integrity, which separated stations into different classes of quality. River Kisat stations in urban areas scored lowest index values, less than 15 out of 25, while two river Kisian stations scored the highest value, more than 19. The index provided evidence of response to changes in ecosystem integrity exhibited by resident macro invertebrate assemblages to pollution arising from both point and nonpoint sources.Key words: Urban rivers, water quality, physico-chemical parameters, macro invertebrates