Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences

Reclaiming African ecologies: A postcolonial ecocritical reading of Things Fall Apart and Petals of Blood

Ashenafi Belay Adugna — 2025-01-09

While much of the scholarship on African literary counter-discursive voices to colonial representations of Africa has primarily focused on the social and cultural dimensions, the ecological aspects have often been overlooked. This study addresses this gap by examining the ecological counter-discourses in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood, emphasizing the interconnectedness of social and environmental concerns. Utilizing close textual analysis and grounded in postcolonial ecocriticism, the study explores how both novels highlight the significance of indigenous environmental knowledge and practices, portraying the Igbo and Gikuyu traditions of environmental stewardship. The findings reveal that these ecological counter-discourses challenge colonial narratives that sought to naturalize the exploitation of Africa’s environment by depicting it as a wild and uncivilized wilderness in need of taming and control. Moreover, the novels expose how colonialism disrupted sustainable indigenous practices, resulting in environmental degradation and ecological crises. The study concludes that African literary counter-discursive voices play a critical role in addressing the ecological implications of colonialism, advocating for a more sustainable and equitable relationship with the environment. The insights gleaned from these novels contribute to broader discussions on the role of literature in addressing pressing environmental challenges and promoting environmental justice.

Third refinement Generalized Jacobi iterative method for solving linear system of equations

Tesfaye Kebede Eneyew — 2025-01-09

The Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel algorithms are among the stationary iterative methods for solving linear system of equations. Obtaining an approximation for the majority of sparse linear systems found in engineering and applied sciences requires efficient iteration approaches. Solving such linear systems using iterative techniques is possible, but the number of iterations is high. To acquire approximate solutions with rapid convergence, the need arises to redesign or make changes to the current approaches. In this study, a modified approach, termed the "third refinement Generalized" of the Jacobi algorithm, for solving linear systems is proposed. The primary objective of this research is to optimize for convergence speed by reducing the number of iterations and the spectral radius. Decomposing the coefficient matrix using a standard splitting strategy and performing an interpolation operation on the resulting simpler matrices led to the development of the proposed method. The study points out that, using the third refinement generalized of Jacobi method, we obtain a solution of a problem with a minimum number of iteration and obtain a greater rate of convergence than other previous methods like Jacobi, refinement Jacobi, refinement generalized Jacobi and second refinement generalized Jacobi.

Exploring the contribution of External School Quality Assurance in improving teaching and learning in primary schools in Tanzania

Stanley Leo — 2025-01-09

In an era where educational quality is paramount to national development, understanding the mechanisms that enhance teaching and learning is crucial. The purpose of this study was to explore the contribution of External School Quality Assurance (ESQA) in improving teaching and learning in primary schools in Buhigwe District in Tanzania. The study employed a qualitative methodology with a phenomenological research design. It involved a total of 34 participants, i.e., 1 District Education Officer (DEO), 1 District Chief School Quality Assurance Officer (DCSQAO), 3 District School Quality Assurers, 1 Ward Education Officer (WEO), 4 head teachers, 03 District School Quality (DSQ) assurers and 24 teachers. Open-ended questionnaires, interviews, and documentary review were the data collection methods. Data was analysed through thematic and content analysis. The findings reveal that the ESQA played a crucial role in monitoring and evaluating the teaching and learning and it enhanced the teachers' accountability and commitment to the provision of quality education. Teachers noted that ESQA practices helped them towards the improvement of the schemes of work, lesson plans, and correction of the mistakes observed in teaching and learning. The findings indicated further that that ESQ assures provided the feedback through their reports and recommendations based on aspects that required improvements. However, challenges such as limited resources and insufficient staffing hindered the full potential of the ESQA system in school monitoring. It is argued in this study that ESQA significantly contributes to educational quality. For ESQA to be more effective, the government has to increase the number of qualified ESQ assurers and the provision of adequate funding and a means of transport for the ESQA department is equally imperative.

Postgraduate students’ and instructors’ satisfaction and challenges encounter in the implementation of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) programs at selected Ethiopian public research universities

Temesgen Mereba — 2025-01-09

Service provider institutions must understand their customers' needs and challenges to gather effective feedback and improve their services. This is true for higher learning institutions, as well. Thus, the current study aimed at assessing postgraduate students’ and their instructors’ level of satisfaction with the implementation of postgraduate programs in teaching English as a foreign language and the challenges they encounter in randomly sampled four Ethiopian public research universities. A descriptive design was used to carry out the study and 82 students and 48 instructors (a total of 126) were selected as participants of the study using availability sampling technique. The required data were obtained via both closed and open-ended items of questionnaires (one questionnaire for students and another for instructors) and the data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The study identified the level of satisfaction of instructors and post graduate students in the implementation of Teaching English as a Foreign Language program. It showed that instructors’ satisfaction in relation to monitoring the implementation of the postgraduate programs was found to be at a medium level. The majority of the students were less satisfied with the administrative services in the area of infrastructure, material and financial resources. The serious challenges identified were found to be problems of infrastructure, facilities and financial resource limitations. Finally, finding solutions for the identified limitations in the area of availing appropriate infrastructure, providing adequate and accessible resource centers and addressing participants’ payement requests are recommended.

Application of piecewise mathematical modeling to analyse the effect of HIV/AIDS on working class: The case of Ethiopia

Abdulsamad Engida Sado — 2025-01-09

In this study, we employed a novel combination of piecewise models to investigate the impact of IV/AIDS on the working class in Ethiopia. The piecewise model was changed from deterministic to stochastic, from fractal-fractional to a random, and from deterministic to fractal-fractional, then to stochastic. This innovative piecewise model takes into account data fitting for working-class HIV/AIDS cases for the period 2000–2022. According to numerical simulation, fractional model-follow stochastic models are more reliable than deterministic model-follow stochastic models. Numerical simulations show that decreasing the contact rate decreases the number of individuals infected with HIV/AIDS infection, decreasing the contact rate to eradicate HIV/AIDS infection before the estimated time, and increasing the contact rate prolongs the estimated time to end HIV/AIDS infection. According to the numerical simulation result, non-productivity increases the chance of being infected by HIV/AIDS. As the rate at which non-productive classes become productive increases, the productivity force of the population increases, and the non-productive class of the population decreases. This condition is used to quickly eradicate HIV/AIDS infection by decreasing the inequality due to the economic crisis.

Enhancing academic outcomes: The synergistic effects of emotional intelligence and achievement motivation

Dagne Tafa — 2025-01-09

The purpose of this study is to investigate the synergistic effects of emotional intelligence and achievement motivation on academic outcomes of university students. In order to address the research objectives, quantitative research design with the correlational approach was used. The data was collected from 126 students (with a response rate of 93.3%) using emotional intelligence and achievement motivation scales. The collected data were analyzed using both descriptive statistics (mean, frequency and percent) and inferential statistics (independent sample t-test, Pearson productmoment and multiple regressions). The findings revealed that students exhibited high levels of emotional intelligence, significantly exceeding the hypothesized mean, and demonstrated strong competencies across all emotional intelligence components. Additionally, students showed elevated achievement motivation, particularly in intrinsic motivation to know and extrinsic motivation identified, while amotivation was the least prevalent. Gender differences were evident, with female students outperforming males in both emotional intelligence and achievement motivation across all dimensions. Correlation analysis indicated a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and academic performance, particularly in managing one's own emotions and others' emotions, while achievement motivation also correlated strongly with academic performance. The coefficient of determination (R² = .338) suggests that approximately 33.8% of the variation in academic performance can be attributed to the combined effects of emotional intelligence and achievement motivation. These results underscore the importance of fostering both emotional intelligence and achievement motivation to improve academic success, suggesting that educational interventions should focus on developing these competencies among students.

Teachers involvement in enhancing students academic achievement at classroom level: The case of selected Ethiopian public secondary schools

Negesse Gemechu Chibsa — 2025-01-09

The study investigated teachers’ involvement in enhancing students’ academic achievement at classroom level in selected Ethiopian public secondary schools. To this end, 30 public secondary schools (top 10, middle 10 and lower 10 achievers) were purposefully selected based on the average results of three consecutive years of matriculation results. The data were collected through a questionnaires consisting of five lickert scales from a randomly selected 300 teacher respondents. The collected data were analysed quantitatively using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 29. Descriptive analysis shown that, 72.2%, 72% and 71.6% of teacher respondents revealed that teachers involvement in using structured teaching, teachers strength in evaluative potential of their students’ performance and teachers ability in giving opportunities for learners in practicing their own learning, respectively, were considered as the major roles expected of teachers to enhance the academic achievement of students. Similarly, 71.4% and 68.8% of teacher respondents indicated that teacher involvement in maintaining curriculum quality and setting high expectations for students’ achievement contributes for the enhancement of students’ academic achievement. Based on the findings, we recommend that Ethiopian curriculum designers and policy makers should improve secondary schools curriculum quality, and secondary school teachers should increase their efforts in setting high expectation of students’ achievement, using structured teaching, giving opportunities for their students to practice their learning and increasing their evaluative potential to assess students learning.