Journal of Science and Sustainable Development

Safeguarding Adolescent Girls in Senior High Schools in Ghana to Enhance Human Resources for Sustainable Development

Chrysogonus Anab — 2024-10-20

In Ghana, cases of young girls being abused in schools have increased. This study has sought to establish the drivers for this development, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to collect and analyse data from five senior high schools (SHSs) located in five different administrative districts in Ghana, selected using the simple random sampling technique. The conclusion from the study is that 53 per cent of the adolescent girls in SHSs reported not being safe. The study has established that inadequate school infrastructure, parental neglect of responsibilities to provide basic needs to young girls, and weak enforcement of child safeguarding policies and protocols were responsible for girls’ feeling unsafe. It has been discovered that the Young Female Platform (YFP) established in some SHSs to provide reproductive health education and leadership skills is an empowering approach for girls to exercise the right to dignity. The need to expand the YFP concept to all SHSs in Ghana, the inclusion of dignity kits on the list of items provided under the Ghana Free Senior High School Programme (GFSHSP), and decentralising the sanctioning power of the Ghana Education Service (GES) were among the recommendations tabled to eliminate the abuse of girls in Ghana’s SHSs.

Legal Identification Documents

Milcah Abasabyona — 2024-10-13

This paper explores how a new hierarchy of legal Identification Documents (IDs) in Uganda, topped by the National Identification Document (NID), interchangeably referred to as the national identity card, Endanga-Muntu, or a national ID in this paper, has diminished the value of a wider range of forms of recognition. It also examines how this new hierarchy has generated structural discrimination and escalated selective inequalities among differentiated citizens, leading to disenfranchisement. Using a case of the ghetto youths in Kampala slums of Kamwokya and Bwaise, this paper argues that the range of legal IDs within Uganda’s overall national registration ecosystem over time have included multiple and overlapping identification mechanisms, such as birth registration cards, local council village cards, residence IDs, baptism cards, voter’s card, tax payment slip, driver’s license, citizens’ passport, written A4 paper letters, marriage certificates, and others, acceptable in various formal and informal spaces until the recent introduction of a NID which manifests both as a threat and an opportunity to the ghetto youths.

An Assessment of Students’ Perceptions of the Quality of Teaching in Public Universities in Uganda

Gonzaga Katongole — 2022-08-31

This paper examines students’ perceptions of the quality of teaching at Makerere University. It is derived from a broader study that examined accountability and service delivery in public universities in Uganda. Specifically, this paper sought to assess students’ satisfaction with the study content and coverage, teaching methods, and lecturers’ attendance and punctuality. Being the oldest public university in Uganda, the researcher believed that Makerere University represented all other public universities in Uganda. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and collect data from 397 students out of the total population of 13,203. The findings largely suggested that students were satisfied with the quality of teaching. In relation to course content and coverage, 68% were satisfied, 73% were satisfied with the teaching methods, while 79% were satisfied with teachers’ attendance and punctuality. However, the unsatisfied minority revealed that the study content was too theoretical, and that teaching methods were teacher centred. Students stated that some academics were usually late for lectures, and sometimes they missed lectures without communicating in time one of the reasons being that they had to seek for meals outside the university. The study recommended that to further improve quality teaching, Makerere University should admit students she can adequately provide for, hire more academics, facilitate lecturers to conduct more research, and provide tea and lunch to lecturers while at the university among others. This research carries value to education policy makers and university authorities. The findings can be used by institutions of higher learning to further improve the delivery of quality teaching and learning.

Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Process Model and Students’ Attitudes towards Fees Payment Policies in Public Universities in Uganda

Hilary Mukwenda — 2022-08-31

This study aimed at exploring the attitudes students in three public universities in Uganda hold towards tuition fees policies. It also investigated the relationship between Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Process Model and these attitudes. Data was collected from 360 students drawn from Busitema University, Kyambogo University, and Makerere University. These were selected using stratified and cluster sampling. Data was collected using questionnaires and subjected to regression analysis. The findings show that many students have a low opinion of, and are opposed to, their universities’ tuition policies. However, most of the steps in Kotter’s Model were significantly (positively) related to the students’ attitudes towards the policies. It was concluded that the model can guide efforts to enhance the effectiveness of tuition fees policies in the universities. Hence, the universities are urged to orientate enforcement of their fees policies towards the steps in the model.

Economic Empowerment of the Elderly and Social Protection Policy

Isaac Aliowaku — 2023-01-06

This study interrogated the resourcing component of social protection for the economic empowerment of the elderly in Koboko District; with critical attention to the sources of funding, factors determining the accessibility of the available schemes, and possible strategies for their access. The study employed a qualitative approach anchored on interpretive phenomenology as the main overriding design. A total of 18 participants were engaged in the study and they were selected using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Data were collected using in-depth interviews, focused group discussion, and observation; and analyzed using ATLAS.ti Version 8 based on the thematic, narrative and content analysis. Findings indicated that those who benefited from the scheme perceived the social protection programme positively and those who did not perceived social protection as a political programme based on government and political interests. Accessibility of the programme was also marred by delays and limited funding as well as technical hiccups. It was recommended that the social protection programmes should be redesigned to favour all the vulnerable elderly. Government, under the Office of the Prime Minister, should strengthen coordination and implementation mechanisms of the social protection programmes to support the elderly, and also pursue a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement so as to support the existing government social protection programmes and boost the resourcing component.