Knowing Process of Rural Secondary School Science Teachers: A Case of Rakai District in Uganda

The study was an investigation of the Knowing Process of rural secondary science teachers in Uganda. The problem of the study was the poor performance of students in sciences in the rural secondary schools in Ugandan Certificate Examinations (UCE). The central point was to find out the beliefs of the rural secondary science teachers about how the educators come to know anything. A non-experimental research design was employed in the study. The research was carried using a purposive sampling technique. Regarding data collection, the researcher administered fifty (50) questionnaires to fifty (50) teachers; interviewed ten teachers and carried out classroom observations often live lessons. The findings of the study revealed that teacher’s conceptions about the mode of knowing to fall under three sources of knowledge, namely, authority, sense-perceptual experience, and reason. It was clear that teachers assume that learners do not have knowledge; hence the Bucket theory of mind is central in their teaching-learning process. Many teachers appeared to do things the way they were taught; in other words, a number of rural science teachers tended to be doing activities whose underlying assumptions they were not clear of. A functional approach to the teaching of Philosophy in Educational programs is recommended.

An Investigation on Spatiotemporal Variability of Drought Events under Different Climate Change Scenarios, Case Study: Rakai District

Drought occurrences in Rakai district take a strange model and it has been rampantly increasing causing reduced income levels for farmers, reduced farm yields, increased food insecurity and migration, wetland degradation, illness and loss of livestock. The purpose of this study was to investigate past and future characteristics of drought due to climate change in Rakai district. Datasets used include dynamically downscaled daily precipitation and temperature data from Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) at 0.44°×0.44° resolution over the Africa domain. R software (Climpact2 package), was used to generate SPI values, Mann Kendall trend test and Inverse Distance Weighting methods were used to examine temporal and spatial drought characteristics respectively. Results depicted more extreme and severe drought conditions for SPI12 under historical compared to SPI3,Kakuto, Kibanda and Lwanda sub counties were the most drought hot spot areas, positive trends of drought patterns for both time scales were observed, though only significant under SPI12. Projected results revealed extreme and severe drought conditions will be observed under RCP8.5 SPI12, and the least will be under RCP8.5 SPI3 and SPI12. Results further reveal that Kakuto, Kibanda, Kiziba, Kacheera, Kyalulangira, Ddwaniro and Lwanda sub counties will be the most drought hot spot sub counties across all time scales. Generally projected results reveals that the district will experience more drought conditions under RCP8.5 compared to RCP4.5 for time scale SPI12 and therefore urgent actions are needed.

Cross-sectional comparative study of risky sexual behaviours among HIV-infected persons initiated and waiting to start antiretroviral therapy in rural Rakai, Uganda

ObjectivesTo compare risky sexual behaviours between HIV-positive persons initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART) (ART-experienced) and persons waiting to start on ART (ART-naive) and assess predictors of risky sexual behaviours among HIV-infected patients in rural Rakai district, Uganda.Study designThis is a cross-sectional study that used data from the Rakai Community Cohort Study (RCCS) database between 2013 and 2014. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. We used stepwise logistic regression as an index to estimate the adjusted ORs for the association between risky sexual behaviours and ART treatment status.Study settingThis study was conducted in Rakai district, located in south-western Uganda. The data for this study were extracted from the RCCS. RCCS is an open prospective cohort of approximately 15 000 consenting participants aged 15–49 years.ParticipantsHIV-positive participants aged 18–49 years who had sex at least once a month with any partner prior to the start of the study.Main outcome measuresInconsistent/no condom use in the last 12 months, alcohol use at last sexual encounter, and two or more sexual partners.ResultsART-naive participants were more likely to report inconsistent condom use (OR=1.74, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.73) and more likely to drink alcohol at last sexual encounter (OR=1.65, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.46), compared with ART-experienced patients. ART treatment status (p<0.001) was a significant predictor of risky sexual behaviours. Both marital status (p=0.016) and occupation level (p=0.009) were positively associated with inconsistent condom use, while sex (p<0.001) correlated with alcohol use at last sexual encounter.ConclusionART-naive participants were more likely to exhibit risky sexual behaviours than the ART-experienced participants. The intensity of risk reduction counselling should be increased for HIV-positive persons waiting to start ART but already in HIV care.