This Woman…

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This woman… words cannot describe her worth for she is a treasure, so gorgeous, extraordinary, strong-willed, assertive and attractive to many.

• Labelled ‘an iron lady’, she’s a go-getter but her gender orientation stifles her determination to pursue a career in politics and other male-dominated areas. For this woman, many conclude that she is ‘unmarriageable’.

When she luckily gets a job, earns her money and invests in herself, she is termed to be ‘tough headed’ and must be funded by a certain man. They also insist that she must have some connections.

This woman, a force to reckon who stands strong before her children covering all the wounds inflicted on her. She has to cover up for their loving dad so as to put everything together.

This woman who tearfully recalls promises the love of her life made during that day before she said yes. All the goodies were so real, so near, exciting and easy to believe, this cemented her trust.

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This beautiful woman has a big heart that is always forgiving, loving, sacrificing and always keeps her children in mind.

This woman who is to naturally bear all the troubles through the nine months of pregnancy; the sleepless nights, morning sickness, urinary tract infection, the emotional stability just to have a beautiful event.

• The disturbing part is that she has to reproduce according to the societal expectation, she must give birth to a certain gender. She is subjected to emotional drain after childbirth of wondering how she will be received by the family.

This woman who must ‘determine’ the stability of a relationship, when it is on the rocks, fingers are all pointed to her, it varies from infertility claims to inability to keep her husband home. Even when the source of the problem is well known, she is silenced to maintain the stature of her beloved.

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This woman’s birth rate is none negotiable but is determined by her in-laws and loving husband. If she cannot meet the demand, another is quickly engaged to fill up the gap for her who is sleeping on the job.

This woman has to continue giving birth as long as she has not borne a boy child, it does not matter how many beautiful and intelligent baby girls she has given birth to. I salute this woman, she has to the 15th child without a son and is now pregnant hoping to get a boy to keep her marriage.

Election in Africa is a Culture

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Culture is that which is passed down from one generation to another. One thing that makes the masses stop thinking with their brains and start reacting with their emotions, is the election. It is with closeness that you would discover the following trends in Africa:

1. The nation comes to a stand still 2 years before the elections a few events to say the least.
2. Investors keep off from banking into the economy. In the banking sector, customers literally stop taking loans because of the unpredictability of the economy.
3. The times are usually characterized by high emotional voltage that many relocate to their native homes where they are accepted and safe.
4. A cloud of uncertainty and fear hovers upon these nations leading to irrational suspicion of among.
   

   Electoral culture in Africa is a mindset from external factors that the masses can regulate

   Various narratives are set by influential entities such as leaders and to some extent the media which the masses believe and take every step as led. This I can like to the ‘Sheep being led to the slaughter without questioning’ This is the gullibility of the African masses during the election period.
   These entities set agendas of tribal, political or religious intolerance, peace or violence  verbally thereby leading to spontaneous reactions from the masses. It is after the interacial, interreligious, inter-tribal existence that we’re usually and repeatedly reminded of the ‘otherness’ amongst us.

   After the elections it is a tradition that the losing and the winning team come and dine together leaving the masses more confused and emotionally unstable

I know this time tomorrow will for sure come when:

• We have awakened nationalists that are able to dictate their reaction without any influence despite what the media and leaders say
• People will vote and go home to wait for results later to accept the results
• The common citizne will go about their daily businesses in search of daily bread during the campaign and after
• Learn from historical events which have occurred and endeavoring to make better experiences
• The leaders we chose will be our own decision and not the opinions of our informants

When the masses are led in the right way, they never depart from them. We are a reflection of our leaders. The most that matters to a citizen is what they will eat!

Just Read it Aloud

Reading is essential for a child’s success in language development because it is a way through which language is acquired, communication occurs and sharing of information and ideas is experienced. Reading as a concept of language is shaped by learner’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language. Learning to read is progressive as it builds on skills like speaking which later develop to listening and writing skills. For example, a learner is able to read best when he/she has developed in speaking and listening skills.

Why should we read aloud?

• Although reading is a cognitive ability which is an individual activity, there is need to read aloud for the benefit of the listeners, this is to enhance cluster reading during interactive learning
• Reading aloud enhances the listening skills of listeners. Listeners with sharpened phonemic awareness are able to recognize the correct or wrong pronunciation of a reader
• When learners read aloud they comprehend the text better as it is a form of intrapersonal communication
• When a language teacher or instructor reads aloud to the children, he/she instills the art of language and expression which promotes text comprehension
• Reading aloud aims at building the learner’s confidence in speech and reading
• It gives the teacher a chance to identify learners with reading difficulties

How can a teacher tell whether one is a good reader?

• A skilled reader has an individual ability to read both alphabetic and non alphabetic scripts
• A good reader is able to recognize sound structure (phonological awareness) in a text, that is recognize words and sentences
• Skilled readers break down words into their most basic sounds
• A learner’s ability to quickly name aloud objects, pictures, colors or symbols (letters or digits) qualifies him/her to be a good reader
• The learner should be able to have a good contrast between letters and background
• Verbal IQ is very key to determining users who are doing well in reading. This enables the teacher to identify learners with learning difficulties like Dyslexia so as to tailor make their reading lessons to address their different reading needs
• Skilled readers are active and confident during the Reading Comprehension lessons whereas the unskilled readers tend to be passive and don’t interact with the text

How to improve reading skills

• The learner should do more personal reading by creating more time to read story books
• Teacher should demonstrate how words are pronounced to enhance confidence in reading
• There should be more emphasis on interaction between the text and the reader, this is a practice that is led by the learner. This is because reading goes beyond just recognition of letters and words
• The teacher and the learner engaging in continuous reading practice will enhance development, and refinement in reading skills
• When there is a measure or observation of brain activity in young and older children then language instructors can predict future reading skills hence have affirmative measures to improve them.

Read aloud and give every learner a chance to sharpen their reading skills to build their language confidence.

The Solution is Not in New Curriculums

It is interesting to note that before any new curriculum is launched, the experts talk about moving from knowledge based approaches to competency based or skill based or even talk about aspects such as individualized learning, self paced learning among others. All these aspects are usually addressed by ALL curriculums.

A noteworthy point is that no curriculum is bad, because before any change is effected in curriculum, the following processes is followed: Need Analysis, Consulting the stakeholders, Curriculum Framework, Curriculum Design, Pilot, Analysis of the outcomes, Launching the curriculum, Measurement and Evaluation of the impact of the curriculum and outcomes.

Does it take more than 30 years to realize that a curriculum is not working? So ridiculous to realize that learners have different potential after a current curriculum produces unsatisfactory outcomes. For success to be realized, the curriculum planning, implementation and the measuring processes have to be on focus. In all these processes the focal points boil down to:

1. The Learner: For learning outcomes to be realized, the learner is usually at the core of the curriculum implementation and measurement. A few questions to ask:
   1. What role does the learner play in self learning?
   2. What contribution does the learner bring to the community.
   3. What measures of success must the learner exhibit for learning to have taken place?
      
      This is when we talk about the learner centered approach where the learner controls his/her learning. Just to ask: Are the learners joining schools prepared enough by parents to learn by themselves or learning will begin as soon as they are enrolled in the pre-school? The parents and the community have to be the vision bearers of the learner-centered approach working hand in hand with teachers.

2. The Teacher: For the curriculum to be realized through learners, the teacher is central: When he/she is not trained on how to nurture potential in learners, how will he/she do it?  If a teacher is not able to sew a table mat, how do you expect him or her to pass the same knowledge to a learner? First, there needs to be a continuous back and forth sessions with the teachers to make them understand the paradigm shift in the  learning approach of any new curriculum, this should be done before the curriculum is launched.

How can this work?

• Teacher Education Curriculum: The guidelines of teacher training must be skill based so that the teacher has the first hand experience of how it feels to be nurtured in potential. Teacher education content should clearly outline the processes starting from identifying learner differences, nurturing potential and letting the learner practice what they have learnt.
  Teacher training has to be intense with feedback sessions allocated more time so as to ensure there is desired outcome. Role plays, dramatization and scenario building have to be the backbone of the training. Let us put the lecture method aside, at least for now.The trainer should be the role model clearly showing the teacher how they need to handle the learner at every stage in different scenarios.

• The Learning Materials: Quality materials is paramount to the desired learning outcomes. For change to happen what the learners consume has to change. This means the learning materials have to be in line with the curriculum; the textbooks should be focusing on skills as opposed to knowledge.

• Testing and Evaluation: For learners to be graded as per their abilities, to articulate the competencies in specific stages, the continuous assessments have to be shifted from summative evaluation to formative evaluation. This is where learning milestones, competencies acquired are measured and not knowledge retention. The test items should focus more on practicals, skills and attitudes that grade learners individually outlining their learning abilities.

What can make a curriculum not give ‘desired’ results?

Inconsistencies. These occurs when curriculum implementers are not able to continuously supply the curriculum needs to ensure it yields the desired outcomes. For example, when the teacher and the learners do not access the teaching and learning aids – materials needed for practical lessons, they get frustrated. What is likely to happen is that few teachers will improvise teaching aids just for a while, others will resort to only passing knowledge, hence taking us back to this knowledge-based curriculum that we are running away from.

Follow up: When the trainers in collaboration with Curriculum Quality Assurance personnels walk with the teachers by observing them through the actual instruction delivery period while giving constructive and specific feedback, for sure we shall have tremendously positive results. This should be a continuous activity that will ensure the maintenance of the desired standards of teaching and learning activities.

The same way there should be identification of the potential in learners and nurturing, let educationists take time to understand the language of the curriculum, identify the potentialities and nurture the diverse potential in each curriculum, for sure, not only shall we change the naming of our class levels but change and explore the best methods and approaches to learning as well.

 

Treasures in old age

 

Life unfolds as a book being read. We get so engrossed with the issues of life that sometimes time catches up with us. With the anti-aging medicines and beauty cosmetics, we are left to think of lots of time that we still have before clocking the age bracket regarded as advanced.  

As we were very resourceful in our 30s so can we be in our late 50s and later years. There are different areas that the advanced in age can get involved with the help of the different people across all age levels. Sometimes I sit down and wonder why one would think they won’t get old. This is not a threat but a reality that needs to be embraced for early preparation and to having a better life. Many of the young people would shy away from the aged because of the perception that they are ‘old fashioned’. On major focus for the youths is a proper retirement plan to ensure that your old age treasures are exploited.

Aging gracefully starts with you: Key pointers: As an elderly person there needs to be self motivated to be active so as to avoid idleness that affects the mental operation of an individual.

Life modification program: Lifestyle in terms of feeding habits and living healthy. Turnabout activities have to be engaged includes: taking a lot of water, moving around for the purpose of flexibility. Keeping check of the blood pressure by having proper emotional management skills.  This is for healthy living to avoid diseases that are a danger to the aged. As a preventive measure of the vision impairment that affects the aged, the elderly need to take a specific formula of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

Financial Budget: Wise financial expenditure for them that depend on pension only: Start a business that would be income generating to cater for your day to day bills.

A Sustainable medical insurance that takes one through their lifetime to ensure the medical costs are catered for or made lower: remember some experience low incomes.

Piling up the elderly in environments with deteriorating hygienic conditions sends them faster to their graves. Keeping the elderly in enclosed places with no activities makes them think they are not helpful to the society thereby making them psychologically draw out their death pattern.

Take care of your aging years by investing in your future today.

The outside world is the place for the aged only when the other members of the society embrace them using their strength to keep them active. Take care of your aging years by investing in your future today. For those living around the elderly, take care of them by entirely supporting them.

 

 

Inclusive Learning: Children with albinism

Children with albinism receive different treatment allover the world. There are measure put in place in ensuring that the children, especially children with albinism, have access to qualitative education. Learning for the persons with albinism can only be streamlined upon proper placement of infrastructure in education. There are many ways through which persons with albinism can be empowered: Have access to grants and scholarships that will enable them attain whatever level of quality education they desire. Formulate policies that would incorporate albinism education into the school curriculum to ensure that it became a subject to be taught. This is to ensure the stereotypes and perceptions are cleared out to ensure these persons are fully integrated and accepted in our communities.

When their confidence is founded from their early years from home and conducive environment in school, they will excel and succeed in whatever they want to do.

Teachers as Key players: The teacher or curriculum instructor or adult plays a major role to ensure they are fully integrated into the learning activities. For the teacher to be equipped with the skill of how to attend to the persons with albinism, one has to be educated about the condition so that they feel comfortable with the condition. To equip teachers with the knowledge to handle persons with albinism, they have to undergo a special education training so as to meet their needs.

To help the children with albinism quickly adjust to the classroom environment, correct terms must be used when referring to them- refer to the child as a person with albinism so as to be an example to other children when referring to their peer (s).

When preparing learning materials such as teaching aids, it is important to consider this group of people. When there are reading materials to be used, ensure the font size is visible enough to them as some usually have visual impairment.

Learning environment cuts across regular classrooms to educational platforms using technological devices or ICT to spread education. Like other students persons will only benefit when the platforms are developed to incorporate audio and audiovisuals learning materials. This is to ensure that some students benefit from using recorded materials and recorded books or lessons.

Knowing that teachers would undoubtedly be overwhelmed with handling the students using the mainstream curriculum, it is important to assign teachers to handle these types of learners so as to give attention to them by close monitoring.

A few intervention measures to the school environment to enhance high academic input from the persons with albinism: Allowing the persons with albinism to put on hats, have them have their own books even if the rest of the classmates are sharing and enlightening the rest of the school community of their condition.

It is only when we learn and understand albinism that we will be able to create a learning friendly environment.

 

Go Green, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…

Livelihood at stake, technology the way to go and environment at risk. It does not affect us directly, that is how we perceive this concept’environmental conservation’ until when our loved ones are swept away by floods as a retaliation from mother nature. The call to embrace urbanization is getting louder at the expense of the biophysical environment. The telecommunication lines have to be dug under the roots of mugumo tree without a second thought of the environmental consequences of tree cutting to the next generation.

Industrialization another challenge to the environment with high production of non decomposing components like plastic hence breaking the hydrological cycle without a proper waste management strategy. Global warming is real proven by the high temperatures experienced on the earth’s surface.  One would think that the the earth is a hundred meters from the sun. Danger crops in when the carbon dioxide and other pollutants collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface. This is because we have prioritized human activities at the expense of the environment. For instance we have allowed encroachment of human settlement into forests hence endangering the flora and fauna, focused more on technology, industrialization and urbanization. For the next generation to find trees, fresh air, good rains, flood free rain season, lets guard the environment like our babies. Simple steps to ensure this:

Reduce engaging in activities that would expose the environment to danger like tree cutting and increase tree planting. Keep the principle of ‘Cut one tree plant a million trees’. Reduce littering allover chocking tree seedlings thwarting the efforts of the municipal council to conserve our environment. Reduction would also apply to reducing unnecessary packaging of manufactured goods.

Reuse for the purpose of saving the environment. There is little or no processing to keep material out of the waste stream by passing the goods to others for using. It entails buying what has already been used, it does not mean you cannot afford a new product but for the sake of conserving resources. Reusing needs fewer resources, less energy, and less labor. It reduces air, water and land pollution, limits the need for new natural resources, like timber, petroleum, fibers and other materials.

Recycle resources like plastic, glass or aluminium to conserves resources. When used materials are recycled, they are converted into new products. This reduces the need to consume more natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting fresh, raw material from the Earth, through mining and forestry which threatens sustainability of the environment. Every material does not need disposing but be recycled. When we recycle paper we save trees. For example, one ton of paper would save 17 trees, save more trees by recycling and reusing paper.

For a greener generation we must be reducers, reusers and recyclers at whatever level in our communities. Go green reduce, reduce, recycle for sustainable environmental conservation.

 

 

 

Meticulous attention to detail…

As a teacher of English, I cannot avoid getting into trouble of looking out for errors in written and even spoken pieces. I unconsciously edit whatever I set my eyes on and give free feedback for correction. Keenness and attention to detail while reading through and between every sentence out rightly qualifies me as one to assure quality of content. It begins with the passion to have quality content not only to the readers as general audience but to the target group of learners. This is to nurture a generation that can articulate their issues confidently as a result of writing and speaking. What I enjoy doing is  to check that whatever the child gets as learning material is suitable, appropriate and relevant. I must to be guided by educational standards that have been laid down to enhance quality education.

Keenness and attention to detail while reading through and between every sentence out rightly qualifies me as one to assure quality of content

Daily checks and fine-tuning occurs by incorporating the gate keepers in the educational space as the curriculum developers, implementers and users who include other quality assurers, teachers as content creators and learners as consumers respectively. Back and forth feedback session between education players poses a challenge but is the backbone for constant improvement of the quality of content. Assurance in quality focuses more on prevention rather than curation of issues that reduce the credibility of educational content. The quality that is to be achieved is determined by the consumers who are readers, to be more specific learners.  A few questions that drive my daily engagements are: Does the content meet the specific educational set standards? Does the content achieve the learning objectives?  How does content quality shape the entire life of a learner?

Back and forth feedback session between education players poses a challenge but is the backbone for constant improvement of the quality of content

Some of you might wonder why this must to be done, I have these to clear your doubt: For the 2nd Millenium goal to be fully and comprehensively achieved, learners have to receive quality material that is incomparable to increase confidence in the content providers.

For the products of education to be of high yields, then the ingredients that make educational food have to be raised above the bar. To make the management of learning materials efficient then we have to make sure that the educational outcomes tally with the set expectations so as to increase credibility of content suppliers. It is beyond skimming and scanning but digging deeper into issues.

Points of focus to get quality assured learning  materials borrow from the checklist:

1. Appropriateness of setting, theme development with reference to the growth level of the learner by the end of the learning session.
2. Accuracy of subject matter with accurate definition of concepts,  no factual and grammar errors.
3. Bloom’s taxonomy which focuses on presenting concepts from simple to complex, known to unknown and definition to application flow.
4. Clarity of objectives that result to specified outcomes, this is by matching the two to learning activities.
5. Ethical consideration: The societal orientation, ethics and codes of conduct have to be adhered to in content delivery to promote positive values and attitudes.
6. Organization of content: Coherence and cohesion in regard of logical thematic concerns throughout the subjects’coverage is paramount. There must be flow within topics or themes flows, information presented consistently throughout the subject coverage
7. Relevance of language that is suitable in vocabulary and structure to enhance language acquisition for learners . The learning experience has to identify with what the learner previously experienced.

Quality assurance cuts across offline and online content delivery avenues including typical classroom experience and digital content provision platforms

The Core of Exam Cheating

A valid test measures what is supposed to and the outcomes are similar to the objectives of that test. It is not about the validity and reliability of a test but other issues that affect administration of examinations.

As a learner, I have no option but to cram and get drilled for the sake of passing examinations if the products of education are based on academic qualifications. When academic achievement is tagged to best schools and courses, learners are forced to use every  means to capture these opportunities. Excellence based on recall as opposed to reasoning and skills attained by the end of a learning period has changed the end goal of curriculum to focus on information retention as opposed to skills.

Come to think of it, what I am I expected to give as responses when all that is set does not capture what we learnt or from the syllabus? This will gives one a headache during exam session and if the results begin with a D- or D, then candidates are sentenced to the jail of failures to join my inmates who are thought to have their future come to an end. This is not a licence to more cheating but just a deeper insight into the issues that drive the scholars into over speeding on the road of cheating.

Overcrowding and overpopulation have been witnessed in national schools because they are fought for. Form one selections have severally been cancelled out because of ‘cheating’ or ‘unfair’ allocations of admission opportunities-the ripple effects of exam cheating. The mighty secure places for their sons and daughters. This leaves out those who truly deserve opportunities but miss out because of their different financial statue.

 

More than 10 reasons why exam cheating is rampant

• I cheat because the examination body tests a wide range of content retention from class 4-8
• I cheat because the bodies mandated for education rank schools and individuals to see best performers countrywide for media coverage
• I cheat because we are given the same battle ground (Sit for the same test) despite the educational environment with reference to availability of resources as teachers, laboratories and even level of syllabus completion  as everyone is measured on the same scale
• I will cheat as long as teachers and parents assist by bringing foreign materials in schools form of leakages
• I do cheat because I am not prepared to handle any test in a subject because information was drilled into my brain for only one purpose-excelling in exams
• I cheat because the selected teachers to set exams have breached confidentiality as one of the codes of conduct so they share the exams six months before the exam time
• I cheat because the custodians of the exam papers have been tempted to reveal the content prior to the exam time
• I cheat so as to secure a place in a national high school which increases my chance of cheating myself into one of the top best universities to take the most prestigious courses
• It is the order of the day to cheat as the cheats get away with the exam irregularity. No arrests are done. The education bodies do not follow up to measure the reliability of that test. This makes people explore smarter ways of cheating by the help of the technological gadgets
• I cheat because academic achievements have been glorified or overrated at the expense of skills acquired. No one will prove that the grade scored is proportional to competence level
• I cheat because, the test items are repeated hence easy to predict of the forthcoming items
• Fear to miss a secondary school makes me freak out hence push/propel me to cheat in exams
• I cheat so as to qualify for the government sponsorship. The education bodies do not slot the learners below a cut off point into colleges hence leaving to parents and learners to struggle for the places by their own means. The population left out is more than 80 percent of those that sit for any national exam
• I cheat because other schools or classmates are cheating so as to belong

How to curb Exam Cheating

Testing of knowledge or information retention  and skills gained in every level as opposed to  wide range of testing from level 4-8 considering the bring capacity of  learners of ages 9-13 years

Equity in education: Balance distribution of educational resources across schools like teachers, opportunities and funds to avoid the schools experiencing scarcity hence struggle to be at per with the ‘exposed’ schools for good results

All stakeholders should be involved in coming up with scalable, viable and reasonable ways to curb the menace. Deal with real issues from the core of exam cheating

Every learner who has gone through the primary and secondary level should have a place in secondary and university respectively and be self reliant. No system should sieve learners focusing on achievement.