The Relevance of Al-Ghazali’s Educational Views on the Contemporary System of Muslim Education: Focus on Islamic Education in Uganda

Imam Al-Ghazali used a combination of the wisdom, exposure and experience he had acquired while running the Nizamiyyah colleges to contribute to the core of the theory knowledge, education and Islamic sciences. His ideas suggest that God is the primary source of knowledge and sense alone cannot deliver one to the ultimate truth. He categorised knowledge according to the needs of the society. Knowledge according to him should shape an individual and help him/her to interact with the creator and with the other existents. Knowledge should affect body and soul, mind and heart and ultimately deliver one to happiness here and in the hereafter. His views on the core values of Islam affecting both individuals and society can be employed in determining and redefining the philosophy of knowledge in our contemporary world. The brief on the philosophy of knowledge reflected in here as well as the method of teaching and instruction especially in the Islamic institutions is drawn from Al-Ghazali’s rich reservoir of experience. This literature can be used to develop teaching and learning models and polices in developing Islamic academic institutions especially in Uganda.

Performance Appraisal Practices and Teachers' Job Performance in Private Universal Secondary Schools in Manafwa District, Uganda

The study examined the effect of performance appraisal practices on teachers’ job performance, and sought to investigate the effect of 1) target setting 2) performance monitoring and 3) employee feedback on teachers’ job performance. A cross-sectional survey design with a mixed-method approach was adopted. The target population of the study was composed of 211 respondents spread across four private universal secondary schools; 207 teachers and four head teachers; and a sample size of 189 respondents with 185 teachers and four head teachers selected using a simple random sampling approach coupled with a fish-bowl technique, while census inquiry was adopted to select head teachers. A self-designed closed-ended questionnaire was administered to collect data from teachers while an interview guide was adopted to collect data from head teachers. The CVI obtained for the instrument was .90 and a reliability index of 931 Cronbach alpha co-efficient. Data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, and simple regression. Findings indicate that target setting (β = 0.375, p< 0.05), performance monitoring (β = 0.435, p< 0.05) and employee feedback (β = 0.375, p< 0.05) had very strong significant effect on teachers’ job performance. The study concludes that performance appraisal practices can significantly aid teachers’ job performance in private USE schools if well handled in terms of comprehensiveness, clarity and timeliness. It recommends that target setting should involve teachers and their individual differences be reflected; academic meetings should be held monthly and performance support should be extended to teachers; whilst feedback given to teachers ought to be timely, comprehensive and interactive.

Parents' Attendance of School Meetings and Pupils' Academic Performance in Selected Primary Schools in Kyotera Town Council, Uganda

The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between parents’ attendance of school meetings and pupils’ academic performance in selected primary schools in Kyotera Town Council. The researchers adopted a cross-sectional survey design where both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. Census and purposive sampling technique were used to select a sample of 71 teachers, 8 Members of the PTA, and 8 SMC members of the selected schools. The major instruments used in the study were a Likert scale type questionnaire which was filled by teachers as well as an interview guide for head teachers, PTA executives and SMC members. Validity of the research instruments was computed and results were found to be .86 while the reliabilityobtained was .948. The research utilized descriptive statistics to analyze data was which presented in form of tables with frequencies and percentages. Equally, a Pearson Product Moment correlation was used to establish the relationship between variables. From the findings, the correlation between attendance of meetings and academic performance was found to be moderate (r = .433, p< 0.01). Thus, the study recommends that the parents and teachers associations (PTA) should ensure that parents attend school meetings regularly, parents should also be sensitized about their role as guidance and counselling providers to their children and government should set in motion adequate measures and policies to enable the parents provide their children with basic school requirements.

Evaluation of the Primary School Component of Universal Basic Education in Lagos East Senatorial District of Nigeria

The study evaluated Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme at the primary school level in Lagos East Senatorial District of Nigeria. It used the descriptive design of survey type and CIPP evaluation model. The sample comprised 450 teachers and 45 head teachers using multistage sampling technique. Educational Resources Inventory Scale (ERIS) (r = 0.78) and Learning Resources Utilization Scale (LERUS) (0.69) were used in data collection. Frequency counts, simple percentages, median, mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. Results of analysis showed that writing materials, multimedia learning aids, good and conducive classroom, measuring instruments like ruler, compass and instructional materials were the adequate (Median = 3.00) educational resources in primary schools located in the District. The result further showed a progressive increase (Mean > 58.04) in enrolment of pupils. Teachers were found to be adequate (Mean = 10.62) in number when compared to the national standard of 1:40 teacher-pupil ratio. However, funds for the smooth running of the schools were grossly inadequate (Mean = 1.00). Lastly, the finding revealed that teachers adequately utilized (Median = 3.00) the available educational resources in the schools. The conclusion was that resource and fund gap still widely exist among primary schools in the District. It was therefore recommended that government should be more alive to its responsibility of providing requisite educational resources in all public primary schools supported with an initiative to make funds available.

Primary and Secondary Education in Uganda: Challenges and Prospects

The education system of Uganda has gone through a number of changes since the colonial period. After attaining her independence in 1962 from Britain, several commissions and committees were formed to look into the education system and recommendations from time to time were reached for purposes of ensuring the achievement of educational goals. The implementation of these recommendations has greatly influenced the education system’s implementation in Uganda. This paper provides a critical analysis of the educational challenges of the operating education system at the primary and secondary levels, and the policies under it with a view of highlighting the prospects. Lastly the writer makes recommendations and a conclusion.

A Model of the Relationships Among Emotional Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, and Holistic Individual Characteristics Among Malaysian Adolescents

Adolescents are the future, yet they are faced with many challenges in navigating their life. The present cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the relationship of Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual Intelligence to Holistic Individual Characteristics among Malaysian adolescents. A sample of 395 Form Four students were selected using the stratified random sampling method. Two survey questionnaires adopted and adapted from established scales were used to collect data. A pilot study was done to test the reliability and validity of the resultant adapted scales. Data from the main study was analysed for descriptive statistics using IBM SPSS version 27. The data were also analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) methodology with IBM Amos version 27 as the tool. All measurement models were validated through the pooled confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A second order CFA done confirmed that Emotional Intelligence and Spiritual Intelligence were important component factors of Holistic Individual Characteristics. The fitness indices achieved the required level, specifically, the value of RMSEA= 0.041, GFI=0.982, CFI=0.980, TLI=0.970, CMIN/DF=1.645 and P= 0.037; while the b values showed that the most important component factor was Emotional Intelligence (b= 0.794) as compared to Spiritual Intelligence (b= 0.774). This study findings lend evidence to the importance of these constructs in shaping the holistic individual among Malaysian adolescents. It can help relevant authorities and parents to actually focus their efforts in developing the younger generation. Besides that, this study finding also helps to fill in the gap of theoretical knowledge in the area of emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence in relation to holistic individual development as well as in terms of its methodology of analysis.

Privatizaion of Higher Education and Excellence Without a Soul

Privatization of education in both developed and developing countries over the last century has registered a positive trend in the field of education. With the rise of capitalism and privatization of higher education by the government of Uganda, there is an increasing attempt to privatize public services, including education, so that citizens will have to buy them at market value rather than have them provided by the government. The department of higher education in Uganda concentrates strongly on the role of education in servicing the economy through taxation to the neglect of its social and developmental responsibilities. The vision of the university as a place for the education of the elite and for elite education has had a powerful historical precedent in Plato’s Academy. To what extent the Platonic view of education still dominates our thinking about the role and purposes of universities is arguable. Commercialization is normalized and its operational values and purposes have been encoded in the systems of all types of universities. Correlatively, what is happening in the universities is that they are being asked to produce commercially oriented professionals rather than public-interest professionals. While this may seem like merely a change in form rather than substance, the danger with this advancing marketised individualism is that it will further weaken public interest values among those who are being educated in private universities. In this paper, the writer presents an examination on the impact of privatization of higher education on the original purpose and values of education to the individual, the society and the Ugandan nation as a whole hence promoting privatization of higher education and excellence without soul.

Contemporary Secular Approaches to the Origin and Study of Man: An Islamic Critique

This paper critically analyses contemporary secular psychological approaches to the origin and methodological study of man from an Islamic perspective. The paper argues that the contemporary theories on human existence and behaviour emerged from secularism which has taken a philosophical view that the world and all that it contains is a result of evolution. Both the ontology and epistemology of research have been influenced by this view point. Thus, the behaviour of man is defined and studied to exclude his spiritual dimension, a direct conflict with the Islamic view point which links every creature and its behaviour to the creation and guidance of Allah. It is recommended that an integrative methodological approach be adopted to cater for both the materialistic and spiritual aspects of man.

The Intellectual and Scholarly Activities of Sayyida Rahmatullahi: A Tijaniyya Female Scholar, Preacher, Poet and Housewife, 1966-2014

Sayyida Rahmatullahi a traditional female Tijaniyya Muslim scholar in Dandume, Katsina State of Northern Nigeria, never attended any Western education but was blessed with encyclopaedic knowledge. She was an amazing and reputed woman intellectual who dedicated her life to dissemination of Islamic knowledge in teaching of married women, teenage girls, widows and divorcee women, by establishing Islamiyya schools for them in the villages and town of Dandume. She committed herself in delivering many lectures aimed at educating women about the religion of Islam. It is against this background that this paper explores and examines the core values of Sayyida's intellectual activities of lectures and the organization of tafsir (Qur'an exegesis) as being one of the first females to organize such kind of male-dominated activities in Dandume. The paper adopted the theory of Gender and Development (GAD), which explains the active participation of Muslim women in revitalising of the Islamic religious teachings, and used a historical methodology which relying on primary and secondary sources. The objective of this paper is to show the relevance of the historical development and emergence of female scholars preaching in a patriarchal society. This paper brings out some of the aspects of Sayyida Rahmatullahi's intellectual scholarly contributions in the field of women Islamic scholarship.

Financial Resources and Teachers' Job Involvement in Public Secondary Schools in Imo State, Nigeria

This study examined the relationship between financial resources and teachers' job involvement in public secondary schools in Imo State, Nigeria. One research question was raised and one hypothesis was formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population of the study comprised of 5363 teachers in public secondary schools in all the six education zones in the state. A multistage sampling procedure was used to draw a sample size of 580 participants for the study. Two researcher-made instruments titled 'Financial Resource Capacity Questionnaire' (FRCQ) and 'Teachers' Job Involvement Questionnaire' (TJIQ) were used to collect relevant data for the study. The research question was analysed using means and percentages, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed a significant relationship between financial resources and the job involvement of teachers. Based on the findings, the study concluded that financial resources are vital means for the acquisition, remuneration and maintenance of other resources in the school. The study recommended among others that the provision of financial resources should be all inclusive and not left to the government alone and school administrators should effectively utilize available financial resources as this will be helpful in boosting teachers' job involvement in secondary schools.