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  Crises impacting South African men’s participation in early socio-education development of children and possible useful interventions.

  The objective of this study was to establish the factors that hinder men from actively participating in the early socio-education development of their children. An exploratory sequential design and semistructured interviews were used to engage 25 purposively sampled fathers who live in through analytic induction and grounded theorising and presented descriptively. Coleman’s social capital theory provided the theoretical lenses that enabled an understanding of men’s crises that impacted the rationale for the nature of the interventions suggested in this article. Findings indicate that participants experienced extreme crises that impeded their ability to genuinely participate in early socio-education development of their children. Fathers reported experiencing huge crises, some of which appeared self-imposed. The social system that immensely stereotypes men appeared to further deepen their crises, which resulted in their inability to contribute to children’s socio-education development. Most current explanatory models on men’s participatory experiences in children’s early social development are largely deficient, derogatory, and recriminatory. The author suggests that such interpretive models may be counterproductive. If fathers are to genuinely contribute to children’s socio-education development, father-specific support programmes must be put in place. Some helpful interventions have been suggested.
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  COVID-19 and retirement counselling: Parents who retired early with little children‘s perspective and implications for inclusive policies.

  Life after the world of work has been consistently reported to be unpleasant. Upon this, COVID-19 became a huge threat to people, especially older citizens who are seen as atrisk population. Given this, the present researchers reviewed related literature to explore and understand COVID-19 pressures on retirees and draw inferences about possible retirement counselling services. Related extant studies on COVID-19, retirement counselling, and policies were reviewed. The review shows common perspective that COVID-19 pressures were more on older population compared to others. It also indicated that retirement counsellors could provide information, persona-social, counselling, career services and among others to the retirees to cushion the adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic. Retirement comes with a slew of obstacles both before (pre-retirement), after (post-retirement) and notably during COVID-19. Hence, it recommends that would-be retirees should plan ahead and make suitable adjustments to cope with this unavoidable stage of life and its upheaval. Retirees should consult social welfare officers and counsellors for professional assistance. In conclusion, this paper encourages support service providers to educate, re-orient, re-direct, and re-channel these senior retirees, a professional retirement counsellor is desperately needed to help them acquire better tactics and adjustment abilities so they can fit in correctly.
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  Correlating demographic variables with occupational stress and coping strategies of pre-school educators: A literature review.

  The present study draws from an on-going study on the effects of demographic variables on work stimulated stressors and coping strategies among pre-school educators. The initial findings suggested that no study was found to have jointly taken-up the relationship between the demographic variables and work-related stressors. Findings also suggested that no attention is being given to the events of stress among pre-school educators in South Africa. The researchers contend that without jointly investigating the association between stress and teachers’ race, age, marital status, gender, qualifications and location of school, discussions on how these variables impact the psychosocial wellbeing of teachers would remain speculative. The current research expected to obtain empirical evidences relevant to impact policies on the psychosocial wellbeing of preschool educators in South Africa.
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  Constraints inhibiting Zimbabwean parents’ active involvement in their children’s preschool education in the Bubi district.

  Poor paternal participation in parenting children aged 0 to 6 has been demonstrated in considerable studies. Such absence of paternal roles during the early development could adversely affect general development of the children at later years. Given these reasons, this study explored the constraints inhibiting Zimbabwean parents’ active involvement in their children’s preschool education in the Bubi district of Zimbabwe. The study is based on the principles of interconnectedness within settings and the linkages between settings that affect individual development. The study focused on the immediate, being the microsystems. The interpretive paradigm and the qualitative approach were employed to explore the constraints inhibiting Zimbabwean parents’ active involvement in their children’s preschool education in the Bubi District. Purposive sampling was used to select a small sample of two Heads of schools, four Early Childhood Development teachers and sixteen parents; these were from two schools in the Bubi district of Matabeleland, North Province of Zimbabwe. The results showed that low socio-economic factors, lack of awareness, values and attitude among others are attributed to non-participation of fathers in the development of zero to six aged children. We therefore recommend that there should be provision of statutory instruments that clearly state the role of the parents.
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  Conceptual analysis of the implications of black fathers’ lifestyles and their involvement in their children’s early development.

  A conceptual map of fathers’ lifestyles is adapted to provide an interconnected network of fathers’ lifestyles derived from social capital theory. The study explored fathers’ lifestyles and their impact on their children’s early development. The impact of lifestyle factors resulting from behaviour patterns like alcohol misuse, multiple partners, domestic violence, and absence from home among others, on South African fathers require extensive research to provide empirical evidence that may lead to meaningful interventions for affected fathers. The researcher’s university approved this study, and all ethical considerations were strictly adhered to. This was an exploratory multiple case study of 25 Black fathers who were purposively selected from a suburb in one rural Eastern Cape municipality in South Africa. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to obtain data, which was analysed thematically. Findings identified and provided evidence of father lifestyles that are incongruent with the kind of parental behaviour needed to support the healthy early development of children. Findings suggest that these negative lifestyles appear to incapacitate fathers, who fail to make a positive contribution to their children’s early development. To ensure that fathers make the expected contributions to their children’s early development, policies aiming to rehabilitate fathers who are involved in negative lifestyles should be put in place, while strategies to check proper implementation established.
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  Cognitive-behavioural reflective training for improving critical thinking disposition of nursing students.

  Background/Objective: The importance of critical thinking in improving treatment practices in, for instance, the nursing profession, cannot be overemphasized. Despite this importance, empirical studies have shown that helping strategies to train learners on critical thinking disposition are needed. Given this knowledge gap, this study investigated the impacts of cognitivebehavioral reflective training for improving the critical thinking disposition of nursing students. Method: Of all the students screened, a total of 167 participants were assigned to the treatment group and waitlisted control group. A researchers-developed training program aimed at improving critical thinking disposition was delivered in English language by therapists. Results: Repeated-measures ANOVA showed that there was no significant difference between the critical thinking disposition of nursing students in the treatment and control groups as measured by CTDI-M at the posttest. At the posttreatment and follow-up measures, there were consistently improved impacts of CBRT on the critical thinking disposition of nursing students in Nigeria as measured by CTDI-M. Conclusion: Following the results, we concluded that cognitive-behavioral reflective training was beneficial and had sustained improvement in enhancing the critical thinking disposition of nursing students. Abbreviations: CBRT = Cognitive-behavioral reflective training, CBRTP = Cognitive Behavioral Reflective Training Program, CBT = Cognitive behavioral therapy, CI = confidence interval, degree of freedom, CCTDI = California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, CT = Critical thinking, CTDI-M = Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory for Chinese medical college students, F = value from ANOVA test, Mean (SD) = Mean (Standard Deviation), DR2 = adjusted R2, Sig. = Significance, UMIN-CTR = UMIN Clinical Trials Registry, x2 = chi-square; t-test.
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  Cognitive-behavioral therapy for treating videogame dependence in school-aged children

  ABSTRACT: This study examined the effectiveness of cognitivebehaviour therapy on schoolchildren with videogame dependency in a sample of Nigerian schoolchildren. This study was conducted in Enugu metropolis Enugu State Nigeria. A randomized-controlled pretest and posttest design was adopted. Out of 86 schoolchildren that participated in the study, 43 children were exposed to the intervention while 43 did not receive treatment as usual (TAU). The treatment lasted for eight weeks with one session per week. During the study, the participants were assessed at three time points using videogame addiction scale for children. The data collected were statistically analyzed using the multivariate statistical tool. The multivariate statistical result showed that cognitive-behaviour therapy in reducing videogame dependency among schoolchildren. The practice implications, limitations, and conclusions were also drawn in line with the outcome of this study. This study is one among the few studies in Nigeria that have investigated videogame dependency. Another strength is that study tested the participants at three time points to ascertain the impacts of the intervention.
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  Coaching impact on work-family conflict and occupational stress among educational administrators in primary schools.

  Background: Many workers in developing countries have complained about poor working conditions, unhappiness, and job insecurity. As a result, irrationality in employees judgments of the dissatisfactory status of Nigerian organizational environments has been linked to deviant public employee behavior. Apparently, workers in this work environment experience job-induced hazards and distorted feelings about their occupational well-being. With that in mind, we evaluated the impact of rational-emotive occupational health coaching on work-life quality and occupational stress management among educational administrators in Nigeria. Methods: This research employed a group-randomized trial design. A total number of 70 administrators were recruited, measured with 2 measurement tools during the study. Frequency, percentage, and Chi-square statistics were employed to describe the recruited sample, and inferential (mixed model ANOVA) statistics were utilized to examine the information gathered from the participants. Results: The result showed a significant effect of the rational-emotive occupational health coaching (REOHC) group in decreasing the perception of stress and work-family conflict management among educational administrators. Also, the study reported a significant effect of time on administrators’ occupational stress and work-family conflict management. The results also indicate that administrators’ occupational stress and work-family conflict coping skills had a significant influence due to group and time interaction effects. Conclusion: REOHC is a powerful and useful coaching strategy that improves perceptions of administrators about work-life and job stress in work environment. Based on these results, we recommend REOHC for practitioners in different works of life. Abbreviations: OSI = occupational stress inventory, REOHC = rational-emotive occupational health coaching, SD = standard deviation, W-FCQ = work-family conflict questionnaire.
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  Challenges impeding practitioners’ proper implementation of mathematical play practice environment: A qualitative phenomenological research approach.

  This research explored the challenges impeding practitioners’ proper implementation of mathematical play practice environment using a qualitative phenomenological research approach. This study was conducted in Motheo District which is in Mangaung Municipality in the Free State with ten females who had obtained matric certificate qualification at least have three years’ experience working in the ECCE setting as the sample. This sample was purposively chosen for this research. A structured interview guide was used as tool for data collection and its trustworthiness was properly ensured. After the data had been collected, the real processing, analysis, and interpretation of the data took place. We conducted a thematic analysis of the data. With the help of this technique, we were able to analyze the unstructured interview responses and find trends and themes. It was found that the challenges impeding practitioners’ proper mathematical play practice environment are constraints to proper mathematical play in relation to indoor and outdoor resources and infrastructure; constraints emanating from practitioners’ qualifications and constraints relating t support expected from the DSD and DBE, as custodians of ECCE. This finding has practical and policy implications in the sense that the practitioners cannot effectively implement mathematical play practice environment in the presence of the identified challenges unless adequate policy framework is designed to take care of such challenges. Thus, it is recommended that the appropriate authority should design an implementable policy guideline on the use of mathematical play practice environment.
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  Causal modelling of the influence of demographic variables on work-stimulated stress among early childhood educators in South Africa.

  Work-related stress has emerged as a pervasive global issue that needs to be investigated by specialists around the world. Work stress is a condition of pressure brought on by one's line of work and occurs when demands of the job are too great for an employee's abilities or resources. The study was undertaken to examine the direct and indirect causal effect of some demographic variables on workstimulated stress among early childhood educators in South Africa. Hence, the researchers developed and validated a model involving causal linkages between early childhood educators’ demographic variables such as age, gender, race, marital status, income and educational qualification, and workstimulated stress. The study adopted an ex-post-facto research design. The sample comprised one hundred and twenty (120) early childhood educators across twenty (20) Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select the early childhood educators for the study. One validated instrument on work-stimulated stress developed by the researchers on a four-point rating scale was used to collect the data for the study, while path analysis and multiple regression analysis were employed for data analysis. The findings of this study documented the more parsimonious model, which is effective in predicting the influence of demographic variables on work-stimulated stress among early childhood educators. The results further indicated that three (Age, Gender, and Marital Status) out of the six predictor variables caused early childhood educators’ work-stimulated stress more than the other variables. The implications of these findings for education policymakers, administrators, and teachers are discussed.
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  Bullying experience of pupils in Nigerian primary schools.

  Abstract: Childhood bullying leads to life-long scars and hinders adult development. Schoolchildren involved in bullying are at risk of developing behavioural difficulties, physical health problems and suicidal ideation. This research aimed to evaluate the bullying experience of pupils in Nigerian primary schools. The study is a cross-sectional analytic survey conducted from June to November 2019. A total of 1080 pupils in participated in the study. A self-report questionnaire containing 3 questions was used for collecting data. Analysis of the collected data was done using percentage and Chi-Squared at 0.05 probability level. Results indicate that 51.4% of the male pupils and 50.8% of females reported being victims of bullying. 51.8% of the males and 49.5% of females were found to be perpetrators of bullying. 39.6% of the males and 42.9% of the females were bystanders of bullying. 35.1% of the males and 34.1% of females have experienced any 2 of the categories while 11.2% of the males and 12.4% of the females have experienced all the categories of bullying. Results show a non-significant difference between male and female pupils on bullying victimization (x2=.036, P=.849), bullying perpetration (x2=.589, P=.443), and bullying bystander problem (x2=1.194, P=.275). In conclusion, school bullying is an increasing problem among Nigerian schoolchildren. Initiatives must, therefore, be taken by the Nigerian government to further prevent and counter bullying problem in Nigerian primary schools. Interventions aimed at helping schools to develop effective policies to reduce bullying behaviour among pupils should be initiated. Abbreviations: x2 = Chi-Squared, BEQ = bullying experience questionnaire.
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  Bricolising retired teachers in South Africa: Challenges and opportunities.

  This paper interrogates the challenges and opportunities related to re-engaging retired teachers in mainstream curriculum practice in South Africa. Some rural schools report poor performance, whereas retired teachers in their locality could help to mitigate this challenge. The paper used bricolage as a theoretical lens, because of its emphasis on using available resources to address ambivalence. The qualitative paper responds to two questions: What are the challenges facing integration of retired teachers? and How could retired teachers assist to mitigate poor performance? The paper found that many retired teachers are still active and can assist with mentoring and teaching and learning; however, there is no policy framework to guide their re-engagement. The paper argues that South Africa should tap into best practices of retired teachers through formulation of a policy framework that ensures the knowledge of retired teachers is not wasted, but harvested to address various trajectories, including poor performance.
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  Black fathers and their participation in early childhood development in South Africa: What do we know?

  This paper draws from an ongoing exploratory qualitative study, which uses semi-structured interviews to investigate the views of fathers about strategies to encourage men’s participation in early childhood education in one of the townships in the Eastern Cape Province. The study aims to contribute to knowledge about fathers’ participation in early childhood education in general and on the participation of black fathers in particular. Informed by Uriel Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, the literature review explores the current state of fathers’ participation during the early beginning of the child; barriers to sustained fathers’ participation; and current strategies in place to encourage sustainable and meaningful father participation in the early education of their children. This paper argues that what is currently known about black fathers’ participation in the early education of their children is grossly inadequate. Given limited information on Black fathers’ participation in the education of their children in South Africa, this paper concludes that more research on Black fathers and their participation in early education of children is therefore required. Some implications for research and policy are also discussed.
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  Assessment of level of information and communication technology competency of preschool teachers for the adoption of online learning.

  The twenty-first century classrooms coupled with the demands of the new normal at the face of the Covid-19 pandemic have necessitated effective use of online teaching platforms for adequate teaching and learning to occur. This raises the question of how well-versed preschool teachers in Nigeria are in information and communication technology (ICT). This is for the fact that there is a dearth of research on the subject matter. Thus, the researchers were poised to ascertain or assess the level of ICT competency of preschool teachers for the adoption of online teaching during and after Covid-19 pandemic. This research was based on the scientific research paradigm and quantitative research approach, utilising descriptive survey research design. A sample of 165 preschool teachers in Nsukka Education zone of Enugu state, Nigeria participated in the study. An ICT competency questionnaire which was properly validated, and trail tested was used for data collection. The internal consistency reliability index of the questionnaire was estimated to be 0.87 using Cronbach Alpha reliability method. Mean statistical tool was used to analyse the data to provide answer to the research question. It was found that preschool teachers had low level of ICT competency for the adoption of online teaching. It was also revealed that age had no significant influence on preschool teachers’ level of ICT competency. This implies that effective online teaching cannot be achieved if the teachers are not subjected to inservice training on the use of ICT in teaching. Thus, it was recommended that Local Government Education Authority should provide in-service ICT training opportunities for the teachers to ensure proper utilization of ICT in teaching.
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  Assessment of awareness level of e-learning classroom strategies of University lecturers: Implication for evaluation of library and information science resources.

  The emergence of information technology has brought a drastic change in the role of university libraries. University Libraries play key role in supporting e-learning implying that Library and information science personnel can significantly assist in the integration of information resources in the process of electronic learning. Thus, this study investigated lecturers’ level of awareness of e-learning classroom strategies. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The sample comprised 149 lecturers teaching integrated science courses. Instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire titled Lecturers’ Awareness Level of E-learning Strategies (LALES). LALES was validated and the reliability index of the items was estimated at 0.897 using Cronbach’s Alpha method. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using ttest. Findings revealed among others, that the lecturers were partially aware of strategies to facilitate e-learning. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the Nigerian government should provide e-learning facilities through proper evaluation of Library and information science resources.
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  Assessing the efficacy of rational emotive behavior intervention for visually impaired upper basic school children with negative self‑belief/personal value system.

  School children living with blindness have been reported to struggle with value system and an unrealistic decision-making process. This study examined the efficacy of rational emotive behavior intervention (REBT) in reducing the negative self-belief/personal of upper basic school children living with blindness. A group-randomized trial design was adopted using 56 primary school children who are living with blindness. The participants received a value-based rational emotive behavior program and were assessed at three points using PVS and ABS-2-AV. Analysis utilizing ANCOVA showed that there was no signifcant diference between the treatment and control groups in initial negative self-belief/maladaptive value using ABS-2-AV and PVS. At post-treatment, the efect of V-REBP was signifIcant in changing negative self-belief/maladaptive value and follow-up assessment respectively, in favor of the treatment group. The result of this study was further supported by previous studies (e.g. Ejekwu in J Emot Dev 1(1):23–35, 2017) which argue that REBT is signifcantly efective in reducing maladaptive personal value systems, erroneously conceived school goals among the visually impaired population. Given the signifcant impact of the rational emotive behavior intervention, rational-emotive experts practicing in special schools can use REBT techniques to alter the maladaptive value systems in individuals living with blindness.
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  Appraisal of the implementation of the universal basic education programme in Ogoja Education Zone: Implication for curriculum implementation.

  After several years of existence of universal basic education programme in Nigeria, young children are still roaming about on the streets begging and hawking during school hours and school drop-out cases appear to remain intractable. Based on this premise, the study applied a descriptive survey to assess the perceptions of teachers on the implementation of the universal basic education programme in Ogoja Education Zone of Kogi State, Nigeria. This study was based on the theoretical framework of Dewey theory of the necessity of life which states that to live a successful life, the young ones need to be formally educated on the prevailing realities of their environment. The study population was 1800 teachers with a sample size of 360 teachers. The instruments for data collection were a questionnaire and checklist. It was found that materials for the implementation of the UBE programme are inadequate,and teachers differ in their perceptions on the supervision of instruction for the implementation UBE programme. These findings implicate curriculum implementation in the sense that there will not be effective curriculum implementation without adequate instructional materials. It is recommended that provision for all the materials needed for the implementation of the UBE programme in Ogoja Education zone should be made.
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  Absent fathers’ socio-economic status and perceptions of fatherhood as related to developmental challenges faced by children in South Africa

  Background: There has been increased attention to the problem of fathers’ absenteeism and fathers’ participation in the socio-educational development of children among scholars in South Africa in the last decade. Studies have been carried out on extent, causes and possible interventions for fathering in the country. The majority of these studies have adopted a qualitative research approach, which has limited their ability to determine scientifically the cause–effect relationships that exist among several factors identified as the causes and the problems generated by fathers’ absenteeism, hence this study. Aim: The aim is to determine which of the socio-economic factors as well as the fathers’ perception would significantly determine the challenges faced by the children. Setting: The study was carried out in one of the universities that have Foundation Phase teacher education programmes in Eastern Cape Province. Methods: Ex post facto research design was adopted to carry out this study. The sample of the study is 300 participants, out of which 43% are male and 57% are female participants; 78% of the teachers are black, 13% are white, 7% are mixed race and 2% are Indian. Results: There is a significant composite contribution of socio-economic factors and fathers’ perception on developmental challenges faced by the children (F(6, 293) = 3.74; p < 0.05) among other findings. Conclusion: Inculcation of fathering skills in secondary schools for boys and establishment of a government agency that will ensure equal opportunities for socio-economic status of South African fathers irrespective of their race were recommended.
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  A randomised controlled trial of a cognitive behaviourally informed intervention for changing violent sexual attitudes among adult sexual offenders in prison.

  Background: Predatory sexual acts by adults cause concern worldwide. Patterns of distorted thinking and weakened self-control are among the leading explanations. Amidst growing concerns about sexual offences in Nigeria, it might be that more psychologically informed interventions in prison could reduce the risks of further harm compared with the standard prison regime. Aims: To test the effectiveness of a cognitive behaviourally informed intervention (CBII) in reducing violent sexual attitudes among men in prison in Nigeria for a sexual offence. Methods: In a randomised controlled trial, men in two prisons who responded to in-prison advertising about the trial were screened for nature of offence and willingness to participate. Those nearing their sentence end or in other psychological therapy were excluded. Sample size was confirmed by power calculation. The Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Inventory (CSBI-22) and the Hypersexual Behaviour Inventory (HBI) were administered before, immediately after and 3 months after completion of a 12-session (18 h) Cognitive Behavioural Informed Intervention or equivalent periods of ‘treatment as usual’ (TAU) alone. The CBII was designed to change sexual attitudes, and delivered by trained cognitive therapists to the men, as a group, in one of the prisons while the controls received only TAU in the other. Results: Before the intervention, the 39 men in each group had similar psychosocial histories and sexual attitude scores. Following CBII, the intervention group showed a significant reduction in scale scores that was sustained, whereas the TAU group showed no significant change in scores. An ANCOVA analysis confirmed between-group differences immediately after the intervention and 3 months later. Conclusions: This randomised controlled trial adds to existing knowledge in the field because prior studies have been from high income countries, where interventions are generally delivered in more privacy and at greater length. Given that our study had to be limited to change in sexual attitudes as the main outcome, future research must focus on the extent to which such change maps on to changes in interpersonal behaviour among such men. If these findings can be extended in this way and replicated, this could pave the way for more cost-efficient interventions in higher income countries too.
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  A neglected impediment to true Africanisation of African higher education curricula: Same Agenda; different fee regimes.

  This paper focuses on various international fee regimes within African universities and aims to sensitize debates around this highly neglected issue. My primary goal is not only to challenge arbitrary policy, but also to produce a useful sociological framework capable of enabling Africans to participate in their own educational development wherever they may choose to study. This paper targets African curriculum policy-makers and stakeholders and by focusing on the differential fee regimes, it is possible to show how such policy impinges upon current discourse on the Africanisation of higher education curriculum in very complex and subtle ways. Without disregarding recent efforts, however, I want to suggest that promoting an all-inclusive higher education environment within Africa without a single unified tuition policy negates all efforts toward an African curriculum agenda. An example is drawn from the thinking of the Bologna Process and the challenges such development presents to the African continent. The paper concludes that until differential policy regimes within African tertiary institutons are included on the agenda of various efforts toward the harmonization of African higher education, the journey towards a true Africanised, decolonized and allinclusive education curricula for Africans may remain a mirage.
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  A Multimedia Instructional Package on for Enhancing Achievement in basic Science.

  This study ascertained the effectiveness of Multimedia instructional package in improving primary school pupils’ achievement in basic science at both post and follow-up measures. The design of the study was a randomized control trial experimental design. This design was apt since randomization of subjects was not done and intact classes were used. The sample size was 85 pupils from the two intact classes formed the participant for the study. Basic Science Achievement Test (BSAT) was used to collect data for the study. The internal consistency reliability index of BSAT was determined to be 0.87 using Kuder-Richardson formula 20 while the estimate of the temporal stability of the BSAT was 0.91 using person correlation. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) was used in testing the hypotheses at the 5% probability level. The use of multimedia projection in the form of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) significantly (p < .050) improved pupils’ achievement in basic science. The efficacy of the CAL in improving the pupils’ achievement in Basic science was retained at the follow-up measure. Multimedia projection package proved very effective in enhancing the achievement in basic science.