Books

The Export Processing Zone Strategy and SocioEconomic Development in Nigeria

This study examined the contribution of Export Processing Zones to the socio-economic development of Nigeria. The country adopted the EPZ strategy in 1992 with the establishment of Calabar Free Trade Zone to diversify the economy, accelerate industrialization, acquire modern technologies, create jobs, and attract FDIs. Since then 25 zones have been registered out of which 11 are operational, 9 under construction and 5 merely declared. In this study, the endogenous growth theory was adopted as the theoretical framework of analysis. It focuses on the institution of a knowledge-based human capital accumulation system and structures through learning by doing externalities, investment in research and development (R and D) activities that will generate new ideas enhance technological progress and improve quality of products via the zones. Four zones, (Calabar, Oil and Gas, Snake Island and ALSCON) were randomly selected. Two hundred and ninety (290) copies of questionnaires were administered on 290 respondents selected from 54 FZEs and 4 Zonal Management Boards. Out of this number 242 properly completed questionnaires served as the sample size for the data analysis. Primary and secondary data were used in the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage distribution. Views on the research assumptions were presented and discussed exhaustively. The study revealed that EPZs have not substantially contributed to Nigeria’s socio-economic development. This is because the zones have not significantly enhanced the industrialization process, economic diversification, technology transfer, employment generation, etc. It concluded that for the EPZs to contribute meaningfully to Nigeria’s socio-economic development they must accelerate the industrialization and diversification, increase export of manufactured goods, and create jobs. Some of the recommendations are that value addition should be made compulsory in the production processes; R and D must be made central to EPZ’s operations and that deliberate efforts must be made to increase the exports of manufactured goods and government should endeavour to stabilize the power situation at the zones.

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Intensification De L’agriculture Dans Le Plateau Central Du Burkina Faso: Une Analyse Des Possibilités À Partir Des Nouvelles Technologies

Au Burkina, la production agricole est encore tributaire de la pluviométrie. C’est ainsi que des années de déficit alimentaire alternent avec celles des excédents en fonction des aléas climatiques. D’une manière générale le pays est de temps en temps déficitaire depuis la grande sécheresse des années 1973. Les populations sont soumises à des famines saisonnières. Régulièrement, 500 à 600 mille personnes sont menacées par la famine entre 1995 et 1997. Ce chiffre est passé à 800 mille pour l’année 1998. D’importantes percées ont pourtant été réalisées dans le domaine de la sécurité alimentaire. La production agricole par habitant (selon la FAO, 1996) serait passée de 180 kg dans les années 1960 à 300 kg dans les années 1990.

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Funding and Academic Performance in Universal Primary Education Schools in Aboke Subcounty Kole District, Uganda

Study findings on the effects of education funding on student performance have been inconsistent. Some have indicated that it is how money is spent and not how much is available that determine academic outcomes. In Uganda, poor performance of Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools has partly been blamed on ineffectively utilization of UPE funds disbursed by government. This study aimed at establishing the relationship between funding and academic performance of such schools in Aboke sub-county, Kole District, northern Uganda. A cross-sectional study design was adopted where both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. Six schools out of 13 and a total of 165 respondents were sampled purposively or randomly to constitute study samples. Questionnaire, interview and documentary review methods were used to collect primary and secondary data. Tool validity was ensured through pre-testing while reliability was tested using Cronbach’s alpha test of reliability. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) while content analysis was used for the qualitative data. A total of 85.7% agreed on the availability of instructional materials. The role of the SMC in academic performance was established as not being clear (48.7%) while on average, majority of the respondents (53.5%) supported the statements about PTA. The Pearson Correlation findings indicate positive strong and statistically significant relationships between the size of financial disbursement and academic performance; timing of disbursement and academic performance; accountability and academic performance; and between accountability and funding. The regression analysis indicated that the funds size, disbursement timing and funds utilization have a significant combined effect on academic performance of UPE schools. It was concluded that low level of funding leads to poor performance of schools and that the size of funding greatly affects the academic performance compared to the timing of disbursement. It was recommended that the Government should improve UPE funding so as to improve academic performance of UPE schools.

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A Threshold Experience

Although the most noteworthy development in the area of Victorian studies over the past two decades has been rethinking on its relation to modernity, scholars have not sufficiently acknowledged the correspondences between women’s poetry of the late Victorian epoch and Modernism. However, the late Victorian women’s poetry seems to participate noticeably in the Modernist experimental writing of the period as the 1880s was a time of new ideal for women because they fight for “suffrage, marriage rights, economic equality, and bodily rights” (Hetherington 12). Owing to these ideals, the late Victorian women poets take the pen to develop a much more critical attitude towards the identity that focuses on sexual attributes and gender. They represent gender boundaries and identities in new artistic ways relevant to Modernism. Nevertheless, the contribution of the late Victorian women’s poetry into Modernism has been neglected since as Lisa Rado writes in her book Rereading Modernism, male advocates of Modernism rejected the inclusion of many late Victorian women writers into the canon of Modernism. For Rado, a group of early male writers including Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Wyndham Lewis created a “Modernist manifesto set against the Romantic and the feminine of writing, and their repudiation of the feminine influenced the way publishers and agents received women-authored text” (18). In that respect, it seems that early male Modernist writers see themselves as the creator of literary Modernism but associate women poets of the period with the Romantic tradition of personal and confessional writing. Thus, they exclude female writing of the late nineteenth century from canon. Moreover, their flagrant disregard for the experimental writing by the late nineteenth century women influences the way the critics and publishers respond to the late Victorian women’s writing. As such, many women writers of the period remain overlooked until literary theorists start to revise the history of literary Modernism and rediscover the forgotten women Modernist writers from 1980s onwards.

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Exploring the Delays in Construction Projects: An Empirical Study of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana

Delay has been one of the most prevalent challenges within church construction projects, especially in the orthodox churches. Despite construction challenges and project delays within most orthodox churches, there is still a lack of empirical evidence on unearthing the factors that lead to church construction delays. This quantitative study is aimed at exploring church construction delays within the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. After extensive literature and theoretical review, a proposed construct was generated with a structured questionnaire and distributed using the online survey tool, MikeCRM. Out of the 480 questionnaires distributed, 402 were completed and returned, representing a response rate of 84.8%. The questionnaires were completed by 39.3% Other Positions, 21.9% Resident Pastors/Agents, 18.9% Managers, 9.95% Project Managers, 5.90% Consultants, 1.99% Site superintendents (foreman), and 1.99% Electricians. The sample data were analysed statistically using Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha, Pearson correlations, and AMOS for reliability and validity and for measuring the suitability of the proposed constructs. The study confirmed six factors as being responsible for the church construction delay with Material-related being the highest influential factor and Client/Ownerrelated as the least. The other four factors include Project-related, Quality-related, External-related, and Church Organizational Structure. The findings will help academicians, building contractors and church stakeholders with awareness of church construction delays. Theoretically, the findings will contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the research area of church construction delay from the perspective of developing countries.

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All My Yesterdays A Professional Life In English Language Education

Roger Barnard was born in Brighton, and decided as a boy that he wanted to live and work abroad. Starting out as a high school teacher, he subsequently worked in English language education (ELE) and applied linguistics in Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand and Asia. Over a career spanning 50 years, he has been a language teacher, director of language institutes, curriculum adviser to ministries of education, prolific contributor to, and editor of, journals and books, and a professor of applied linguistics. This book is his personal history and the story he tells is intrinsically interesting, but it also constitutes a wide-ranging and critical review of the field of second language education over the past fifty years – how some aspects will continue to challenge academics and practitioners in future years. Such issues include: Communicative Language Teaching; English for young learners; the commercialisation of ELE; technological developments in ELE; the professional development of English language teachers; ‘nativespeakerism’; linguistic imperialism and language planning; and English as the medium of instruction. Many readers who are involved in language education will be able to relate these issues to their own context and career trajectories.

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Education of Youth in Sub-Saharan Nations Challenges and Opportunities

Education not rooted on disparity in culture and languages could leave outside the educational process a large part of the population. A minority is able to get education in a foreign language English, French or Portuguese not related to the local culture and environment. In 2020, 63.5 percent of children in Sub Saharan Africa are multi-dimensionally poor. Children’s malnutrition, child labor, children poverty, children’s brutality, and children’s illnesses forestall them to realize their maximum potential. Economic development relies upon the potential of youths. Poverty, malnutrition, forced labor, illnesses and physical as well as emotional abuse are obstacles to children education and economic development. We analyze in this book the conditions preventing from children in SSA to get education and propose a policy improve their chances to live their child and adolescent life in good conditions.

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Educação e Religião numa Cultura Organizacional Education and Religion in an Organizational Culture

The relationship in organizations between education and religion can be highly interwoven. This book highlights the interrelationship between the educational and shelter organization for disadvantaged female children and youth, Asilo de Infância Desvalida da Horta [Asylum of the Disadvantaged Children of Horta], Faial, the Azores, Portugal, and the entrance of the Religious Sisters of Congregação das Irmãs Franciscanas Hospitaleiras da Imaculada Conceição [Congregation of the Hospitaller Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception]. The book concludes with the presentation, in digital facsimile, of the 1933 Statutes and the Contract between the Asylum Board of Directors and the Religious Congregation established in 1932, which shaped a profound change in the organizational culture of the Asylum.

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Normative Framework in the Organization – Statutes and Regulation of Asilo de Infância Desvalida da Horta [Asylum for the Disadvantaged Childhood of Horta] in the Monarchy and the 1st Republic

Asilo da Infância Desvalida da Horta [Asylum for the Disadvantaged Childhood of Horta], located in the city of Horta, Faial island, in the Azores, Portugal, was established in 1858 and operated under this name until 1971. Its central goal was to assist female children and young women in a situation of extreme poverty and neglect. At the time of the monarchy in Portugal, the 1860 Statutes and the 1876 Regulation provided the normative guidelines for the functioning of Asilo de Infância Desvalida da Horta. After the republic was established in Portugal, in 1910, the 1912 Statutes started to normatively guide the institution’s operation. While it is interesting and useful to compare the different documents that, contrary to what might be expected by this transformation of the political regime, this legal framework does not demonstrate, however, a profound change in this formal dimension.

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