Search results

The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the significance of various factors affecting maintenance costs of public school facilities.

Detailed literature review resulted in identifying 54 factors that were categorized under nine groups. This was followed by a questionnaire survey completed by 60 experienced professionals. The relative importance index was used to determine the in-group ranking, as well as the overall ranking of these factors.

The study established that the five most significant factors affecting the maintenance cost of public school facilities were “not providing operations and maintenance manuals to maintenance group” in the “construction phase” category, “ignoring maintainability studies in design” in the “design phase” category, “specification of low-quality materials” in the “design phase” category, “selection criteria of contractors” in the “regulations and contracting” category, and “lack of quality control during work execution” in the “construction phase” category.

The present research represents the first research covering the maintenance cost of public school facilities in Saudi Arabia. The study also presents the unique landscape of facility maintenance in the Saudi Arabian context. The outcome of this research has the potential to significantly cut down unnecessary costs rooted in expensive maintenance of public school facilities, enhancing the quality of these facilities. The findings also underscore the necessity of collaboration and coordination of the various key disciplines toward the realization of cost-effective school facilities.

The basic structure of Korea's formal education system is 6-3-3-4. This school system, which was established soon after its independence from Japan after World War II, has not been changed very much until recently. Primary education covers grades 1–6. Kindergarten has not been a part of the official school system until now, although making it a part of the pubic school system has been under discussion for some years. In the secondary education sector, there are two levels of schools: middle schools covering grades 7–9, and high schools covering grades 10–12. After 12 years of formal education, students advance to higher education. Typically, undergraduate degree (B.A. or B.S.) takes four years.

Tertiary education in Ghana has seen rapid advancement over the past two decades. This growth is the result of transformative policy reforms such as upgrading polytechnics into higher education status; the establishment of the University of Development Studies (UDS) in the northern part of the country; the amalgamation of existing Colleges of Education into degree awarding institutions; the creation of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to provide supplementary financial support for infrastructure, faculty research and development; expansion of distance education programs; modification of the student loan scheme; and a conducive regulatory environment that encourages private sector participation in higher education provision. In spite of these developments, the system continues to face several challenges such as limited funding to support academic programs; limited participation rates for low-income students, females, and minorities; difficulty recruiting and retaining young academic and research faculty; inadequate research capacities; limited ICT infrastructure to enhance instruction and curriculum delivery and inadequate facilities to support science and technology education; etc. This chapter focuses on the state of public higher education in Ghana with emphasis on current growth and challenges. The chapter offers descriptive analysis based on government policy reports and documents, enrollment data from universities in Ghana, and data from the Ministry of Education and the National Council for Tertiary Education in Ghana.

There were 398 bond referenda by Texas school districts from 1990-95. On average, these received a 58% voter approval rating and almost 75% of the referenda passed. A public choice model suggests many factors related to the voter percentage, including the amount of the bond issue per voter, percent of non-white population, and the amount of state and federal aid in the districts. Districts with Big Six auditors received higher voter percentages ceteris paribus, suggesting increased voter confidence in districts reviewed by brand name auditors. Districts with higher standardized test scores (TAAS) had more favorable votes, which can be interpreted that voters are willing to fund more infrastructure when output performance levels are adequate. A public choice model focusing on capital outlays was successful in explaining spending levels. A Big Six audit was associated with higher capital outlays, although TAAS was insignificant.

The paper aims to determine the thermal comfort perception of schoolchildren from a warm and humid environment. There is a concern about the effect of high temperature on the health and academic performance of schoolchildren.

Objective and subjective methodological approaches were adopted to collect data during the fieldwork in the selected primary schools. ASHRAE adaptive comfort model was adopted to analyze the data.

The paper provided empirical results about the comfort requirements of schoolchildren from the warm and humid environment. During the occupied school time, the studied schoolchildren were found to tolerate temperatures higher than the upper limit temperature recommended by ASHRAE Standard 55. The paper recommends that the studied children may not need any active ventilator to be thermally comfortable during the occupied school hours

The paper found the range of temperatures that schoolchildren from the warm and humid environment can adapt to. The information may be useful to architects, engineers and facility managers

This study aims to determine the extent school-based management committee (SBMC) participates in enhancing quality assurance in secondary school management in Enugu state, Nigeria.

A total of 1,305 people participated in the study, which included a sample of 843 comprising 281 principals in all the public secondary schools, 281 community representatives and 281 Parent Teachers Association (PTA) representatives were randomly selected form Enugu State, Nigeria. There were 17 local government areas in Enugu State where those public schools were located; a 29-item questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. In addition, the questionnaire was developed using simple English words to facilitate their understanding. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while analysis of variance was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings showed that SBMC enhanced quality assurance in public secondary schools in Enugu State to a low extent. The government should therefore educate the principals on the role of the SBMC to ensure quality in public secondary schools in Enugu State, Nigeria.

It was challenging for the researchers to help the principals understand the rationale and significance of the study. Thus, the researchers spent a great deal of time, explaining the parameters and goals of the study. Another limitation was that additional data from interview and focus group could have added more useful information. Therefore, future researchers should try as much as possible to add focus group discussion and interview in studies similar to this one.

The finding that there are major problems militating against the operation of the SBMC in public secondary schools in Enugu State Nigeria implies that if proper policy is not made to ease the implementation of SBMC, it would be difficult to maintain quality assurance in the secondary schools. In addition, the findings show indication that educational counseling is lacking in the secondary schools in Enugu state, especially on the part of principals, and PTA. Therefore, there is need for the government to make quality assurance counseling available for principal and PTA to ensure quality assurance.

The researchers originated that SBMC enhances quality assurance in public secondary schools.

Since 2014, “sport for all” has been promoted as a new national strategy in China, which injects powerful dynamism and vitality for its development in numerous aspects. However, there has been very little feedback on sport service provision in community, and the satisfaction level of community participants is largely unmeasured. To promote physical and mental health of residents and form a stronger foundation of sport culture, more attention should be directed to community sports. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of community-sport service provisions on participants’ satisfaction and, in turn, on their sport participation behavior.

Community-sport program participants in China (n=576) responded to a survey measuring the proposed concepts.

Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that community-sport services in the areas of sport facility, grassroots sport organizations and sport activity programs had strong influences on participant satisfaction and, in turn, their desire for participation, which highlighted the demand for high-quality sport service provision by community.

The study contributed to the literature by proposing two clear dimensions (core sport service and peripheral sport service) for the measurement of public sport service provision in community sports. A second theoretical contribution of the study relates to the clarification of the relationship between the two dimensions of community-sport service provision (both core and peripheral services) and community participants’ satisfaction levels.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not government health care spending reduces the poor‐rich differences in health status. Specifically, it aims to assess the health status of the poor vis‐à‐vis government health spending in Nigeria.

Regression analysis was carried out using the Ordinary Least Square method of estimation while secondary data was used.

It was found that despite the increase in most components of health care spending in Nigeria, the health status of the average Nigerian and the condition of health infrastructure has not improved appreciably. Also, the poor have significantly worse health status than the non‐poor and they (the poor) are more strongly affected by public spending on health care relative to the non‐poor. Thus, the difference in impact of spending between the poor and the non‐poor could be substantial.

This study provides information that will help reposition policies on government spending, especially on health care, so as to enhance and improve the heath status of the poor in Nigeria, thereby reducing the poor‐rich differences in health status.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a national survey of government primary school principals in Australia, investigating the purposes of education, in terms of the importance and level of enactment of those purposes in schools.

In 2009, an electronic survey was distributed to government primary school principals in Australia seeking their views on the purposes of education. The survey comprised 71 items of a closed format and three items of an open‐ended format. Respondents rated first the importance they ascribed to particular purposes of education, then second the degree to which they believed these purposes were actually enacted in their particular school. Factor analyses were conducted on the item responses. Differences between importance and enactment of purposes are discussed together with reasons for these differences.

The findings overwhelmingly point to tensions between what they, the principals, believe ought to be the purposes of education and what the strategies to achieve those purposes might be, and the realities of what is actually happening. It could be argued that the results indicate a major shift away from public purposes of education to those more aligned with private purposes. Many of the barriers to achieving a greater focus in schools on public purposes are seen to be related to external (to the school) issues, such as government policy decisions, differential funding and resourcing across school sectors and emerging community and societal factors.

This research complements other aspects of this project into the purposes of education in Australia. There are some limitations to the reported findings in so far as only government principals participated in the survey. Non‐government school principals were invited but declined to participate.

This is the only piece of research of its kind in Australia and provides unique insights – those of principals – into what schools are focusing on and what the leaders think they ought to be focusing on. There are clearly policy and practice implications of the research.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the determinants of malnutrition of primary school‐age (five to ten years) children in urban and slum areas. The ultimate objective is to frame policy proposals for children's nutritional welfare.

In this empirical study, logit model is applied to 882 observations of primary data. The composite index of anthropometric failure (CIAF) is constructed to use an indicator of malnutrition.

The probability for anthropometric failure increases by age, birth‐order, female sex and activity of the child (child labor or home‐care activity) other than schooling. The parents' education, specifically mothers' education, can play an important role for child's nutritional status. Malnutrition is positively related with congestion in the household (number of household members per room), while provision of electricity, safe drinking water and underground drainage turns out to be negatively affecting children's malnutrition. The children living in slums are more likely to experience anthropometric failure.

From the policy perspective awareness about gender equity of child, adult education, growth of household income specifically of slum areas and improvement in living conditions (through public health works program) may contribute to enhance children's nutritional status.

The slums need targeted policy for children welfare regarding their nutrition in the form of provision of public utilities and income support.

From the methodological point of view, CIAF has been estimated as a measure of malnutrition. The findings of study may support academicians, policy makers and social activists for human development programs.