The Impact of intake quality in student performance in science undergraduate program

The quality of intake in terms of Z score to a particular course to different universities differs vastly in Sri Lanka. The students who get higher Z scores go to established universities mostly under merit category and the students from educationally disadvantaged districts with less Z score enter to the newly established universities. The variation in quality of intake in these newly established universities is greater and there is a concept that students' performance in the undergraduate programme is associated with the quality of intake. In this study the relationship between Z score and the student performance in two study programmes was analyzed for 174 students studying at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. This study revealed that the quality of intake has some influence on the performance of the students at the beginning of the study programmes and it is lost gradually. The final performance of the students was not related to the intake quality of the students and this emphasizes that the current partial quota system of allocation should exist

Trends in paddy production in Sri Lanka

In recent years viability of the paddy production sector in Sri lutnka has been a question because of lack of net profit to the paddy-producing farmers. It has been well proved by the attitude of the young generation who diverge from the paddy cultivation. Even though the country could able to reach the self-sufficiency due to increased average yield and extent of cultivation it failed to satisfy the poor farmers. In this study an attempt is made to understand the past trends in paddy production in order to find out the reasons for the above discussed problems and to forecast the future requirements. Paddy production related variables such as extent sown, extent sown under different water sources, crop failure percentage, production, average yield, cost of production, standard of living of the farmers, rice consumption and imports of rice over the time have been analyzed using simple and complex time series analysis techniques and other statistical techniques. Future situations have been forecasted from the result of the analysis. During the last three decades cost of production increase is significantly higher than the increase of the selling price of paddy, which affected the standard of living of the farmers. At present in thefanner's point of view, still thex are cultivating paddy because of return to their own labor, lack of belter alternative jobs and the lowest investment for paddy. Therefore to uplift and keep viable the paddy production in Sri Lanka, the cost ofproduction, scale of cultivation and the market price have to be kept in control while keep on increasing the average yield. Results indicate that, a farmer to have a reasonable standard of living in 2006, at least 2.81 hectares to be cultivated by one farmer and the profit margin should he Rs. 2.32 per Kg paddy produced

Comparison of low birth weight prevalence in the Sainthamaruthu MOH division with national Prevalence

Prevalence of low birth weight (LBW) is the single most important social indicator of the socioeconomic and health condition of a country or community. Several factors are associated with the prevalence of LBW. The study of all the births in year 2009 and associated factors related to LB W in the Sainthamaruthu Medical Officer of Health (MOH) division provided an unusual very less LBW prevalence statistics of 9.98 % which is very small compared to the national prevalence of 18 0/0. Satisfactory socio economic condition, good maternity care service, less stress in life, nutritional and non vegetarian food habit, non smoking, no use of alcohol and drugs and altitude of living location could be the reasons for this less prevalence. This study also revealed that gestational duration and parity had significant association with LB W. Sex of the baby was not associated with LB W while maternal age and body mass index (BMI) had marginal association with LBW

The impact of students’ intake quality on the performance of engineering undergraduates

The quality of intake of students in terms of Z score to a particular course to different universities differs vastly in Sri Lanka. The students who get higher Z score goes to established universities mostly under merit category and the students from educationally disadvantaged districts with less Z score enter to the newly established universities. The variation in quality of intake in these newly established universities is greater and there is a concept that students‘ performance in the undergraduate program associated with the quality of intake. In this study the relationship between Z score and the student performance in the Engineering degree programme at the Faculty of Engineering, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka was analyzed for 92 students. This study revealed that the quality of intake has no influence on the performance of the students but gender has influence in the performance. This study emphasis the current partial quota system of allocation to different districts proportional to the population and educationally disadvantaged districts should exist