Relationship between Educational and Occupational Status of Parents and their involvement in Adolescents’ Academic Achievements in Agona West Municipality

The study was conducted to know whether education level and occupational status of parents in the Agona West Municipality of Ghana have any significant relationship with parental involvement in adolescent academic achievement. The cross-sectional survey and correlational research designs were employed and data were collected with the use of a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was self-administered to the 310 basics 8 pupils that were purposively sampled from the 6 randomly selected schools. Findings revealed that, in the Agona West Municipality, education level of both mothers and fathers had a significant relationship with parent’s ability to engage in school based activities of pupils as well as encouraging the pupils with respect to their academic achievement. However, occupational status of only fathers had a significant relationship with parent’s ability to involve in school based activities. Additionally, no significant relationship between a parent’s occupational status and their ability to encourage pupils with respect to their academic achievement was found. The authors provide guidance implications and recommendations based on the findings from the study.

Impact of Human Resource Management on Teachers’ Productivity in Colleges of Education in North Central Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria

Colleges of education are established to train teachers for the education sector. This paper assesses the impact of human resource management on teachers’ productivity in colleges of education in the North-central geo-political zone of Nigeria. The researchers adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised of all the 11 colleges of education in North-central, with a staff strength of 4,914. The stratified and purposive random sampling techniques were used to select a sample of 495 staff, stratified along academic and non-academic, who participated in the research. A 15-item researcher-developed questionnaire titled “Impact of Human Resource Management on Teachers Productivity Questionnaire (IHRMTPQ)” was used as an instrument for data collection. Three research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. Data collected were analysed using mean, standard deviation and percentage scores. The chi-square statistic was used to test the null hypothesis at the 0.05 level of probability. The findings revealed that recruitment processes, training and development and staff welfare have a significant impact on teachers’ productivity in colleges of education. The conclusion was drawn and it was recommended, among others that administrators of colleges of education in the zone should follow stipulated due process in recruitment, increase staff training and development, and improve on staff welfare so as to motivate teachers to greater performance, which will in turn increase productivity.

Reforming the Public Universities Financing Scheme: The Case of Ghana’s Higher Education Transformation Agenda

Public higher education institutions in Ghana are confronted with unending financing constrains every academic year thus affecting the financial health of these institutions. The financial sustainability of these institutions has become increasingly critical due to the persistent reported funding gaps and the weak funding allocation regime. Countries the world over have begun implementing reform programmes to deal with issues of financial sustainability of higher education. The study employed quantitative research methodology with a well-validated research instrument. This correlational study attempts to measure the relationship between the financing scheme variables and financial sustainability. The outcome of the study revealed that there was statistically significant relationship between the combined effects of the variables while three variables out of the seven were found to be significant in predicting best fit equation for financial sustainability. The study recommends to the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), a review of the funding policy direction with a precise focus on addressing Ghana’s higher education infrastructural deficit, skills gap, improving research, science and technology.

Students’ Perception of Difficulty Levels of Senior Secondary School Civic Education Curriculum Content in Osun State, Nigeria

The learnability of school curriculum has been attributed to students’ perception of different school subjects which also determines the level of students’ performance and ultimately the achievability of the intended curriculum objectives. Studies had been conducted in other subject areas. However, studies of that type are not common in Civic Education which is relatively new in the Nigerian Secondary School curriculum. This paper examines students’ perception of difficulty levels of the Nigerian Senior School Civic Education Syllabus (SSSCES) and the factors associated with their perception. The population for the study comprised all Civic Education students in Osun State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and a researcher-designed instrument titled Civic Education Syllabus Perception Questionnaire (CESPQ) was administered to 487 students drawn from 25 Senior Secondary Schools in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria. The three research questions raised for the study were answered using percentage, mean and standard deviation statistics. The results showed that the Senior Secondary School Civic Education Syllabus (SSSCES) topics are perceived by students to be of varying difficulty levels ranging from difficult to very simple with an absolute of them being predominantly very simple. The observed difficulty levels were associated with inadequate textbooks, teachers’ presentation of lessons and wide content coverage. These imply that Civic Education is learnable and curriculum objectives are achievable. Based on these findings, it was recommended that teachers should enhance the learnability of the few perceived difficult topics by students through the use of predominantly learner-centred strategies and more learner-friendly strategies to teach the subject.

Assessment of the availability of Facilities and Equipment Influencing the Implementation of Secondary School Physical Education Curriculum in Nigeria

Curriculum implementation in Secondary Schools in Nigeria focuses on the success of that process of putting curriculum in action for achieving the set goals. The purpose of this study was to assess the availability of facilities and equipment influencing secondary schools physical education curriculum in Nigeria. Survey research design (Ex- post facto) was used for this study. To achieve this, purposive sampling technique was used to select the samples from the Six {6} Geo-political zones and the respondents consisted of heads of Physical Education Teachers in the Public and Private Secondary Schools. The population of the study was all secondary schools comprising fifty four thousand Five hundred and twenty- one (54,521) students with sample size of Six hundred and fifty-six (656). The data collected were statistically analysed by using inferential statistics of One Sample t- test to test the hypothesis. The results of the findings showed that Physical Education facilities and equipment influence the implementation of secondary schools Physical Education curriculum in Nigeria with t- Cal of 3.170 and P val of 0.031. The researcher recommended that Federal Ministry of Education in conjunction with the States Ministry of Education should provide physical education facilities and equipment for the implementation of Physical Education curriculum in Secondary Schools in Nigeria.

Students’ Evaluation of the B.Ed. Accounting Programme in the University of Cape Coast

The thrust of this study was to assess students’ perceptions of the Bachelor of Education (Accounting) programme at the University of Cape Coast. The study adopted the descriptive survey design in which data were collected within the overarching framework of the Context Input Process Product evaluation model. A sample size of 349 Bachelor of Education (Accounting) students participated in the study. Multi-stage sampling, employing stratified sampling, proportionate random sampling and simple random techniques, was used in selecting the respondents for the study. Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test) were used to analyse the research questions / hypotheses. The study found that students perceived the Bachelor of Education (Accounting) programme to be satisfactory to the context rubric of the CIPP model. However, it was found that the programme was not satisfactory with respect to the input rubric of the CIPP model. It was also revealed that students were satisfied with the process rubric of the programme. The study recommended that the programme designers should include courses that will expose students to the use of current accounting software used in Ghana such as Tally Accounting, and the Head of the Department should ensure that departmental library resources and facilities, current journals in Accounting for the use of both students and lecturers, and teaching and learning materials are adequately available and in right conditions.