scholarly journals The Academic Impacts of 2015 Nepal Earthquake: Evidence from Two Secondary Schools in Sindhupalchok District

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 371
Author(s):  
Jeet Bahadur Sapkota ◽  
Pramila Neupane
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
School Students ◽  
Rural Villages ◽  
Nepal Earthquake ◽  
Tragic Event ◽  
2015 Nepal Earthquake

How do natural disasters affect academic performance? Despite numerous studies having been conducted after the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the academic impacts of this tragic event have rarely been explored. Applying the OLS estimation on the microdata collected through a questionnaire survey among 189 secondary school students of two secondary schools in one of the hardest-hit rural villages, we found that students’ average annual test scores dropped by 7% after the earthquake. Human losses measured by the incidence of death or injury and economic losses proxied by the level of house damage in a respondent’s family were found to be significant in the decline in the annual test scores of the respondents. Because secondary schools are usually not very close for most of the students in rural mountainous communities, we controlled for time taken to reach school, which was also found to significantly increase the magnitude of the drop in the test score. However, students’ level of happiness measured using the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) and the mother’s level of education were found to be significant in reducing the magnitude of the drop in the test score of students. The findings suggest more support is needed for students who faced higher levels of human and economic loss in their family.

scholarly journals Fundamental Flaws in Academic, Employment and Professional Tests: Test Score Misuses Are Responsible for Ruined Student Health, Social Injustice and Diminished Competitiveness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianqing Wu
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Early Time ◽  
Test System ◽  
Student Health ◽  
School Students ◽  
Employment Practices ◽  
The U.S

In this research, I investigate inherent limitations in school tests and employment tests. I found there is no statistical distribution and no defined observation for test scores. One problem is that personal knowledge must have different substances, degrees and scopes notwithstanding contrary unproved hypotheses. No real test data support the claim that human knowledge follows a well known distribution. A related but more fatal problem is that points of individual questions are assigned arbitrarily, and different points for individual test questions represent things that differ in nature, scope and significance. There is no valid basis for adding points up to arrive at an objective test score. Those findings are strongly backed up by very poor test scores in published studies. Without understanding both flaws in near a century, test scores have been improperly used as ranking parameters and passing criteria. While grades ware kept as secret in early time, the letter grading system became the standard in the U.S. in the 1940’s. Without exploring deep flaws in GPAs, GPAs are improperly used as artificial impediments to student careers. A natural response to the abuse of GPAs is cheating in test to neutralize their unfair effects. Misuse of test scores and GPAs are responsible for the vicious competition, and cheating by some students must force others to do the same. A century of abuse of test scores and GPAs have fostered a cheating culture in the U.S., which fuels a huge international cheating service industry. Now cheating was found among nearly 70% U.S. college students, nearly 90% of high school students, and a good portion of job applicants. This cheating culture and score-based employment practices are about to ruin everything from social justice, fair employment opportunities, U.S. legal process legitimacy, student health, and U.S. competitiveness. Measures for rooting out this cancer must be to reform the test system, change employment practices and eliminate the motivation of cheating.

Fertiliser evenness - losses and costs: A study on the economic benefits of uniform applications of fertiliser

1999 ◽  
pp. 215-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Horrell ◽  
A.K. Metherell ◽  
S. Ford ◽  
C. Doscher
Keyword(s):  
Crop Yields ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Significant Loss ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Financial Return ◽  
Spread Pattern ◽  
Fertiliser Application ◽  
Seed Crops

Over two million tonnes of fertiliser are applied to New Zealand pastures and crops annually and there is an increasing desire by farmers to ensure that the best possible economic return is gained from this investment. Spreading distribution measurements undertaken by Lincoln Ventures Ltd (LVL) have identified large variations in the evenness of fertiliser application by spreading machines which could lead to a failure to achieve optimum potential in some crop yields and to significant associated economic losses. To quantify these losses, a study was undertaken to calculate the effect of uneven fertiliser application on crop yield. From LVL's spreader database, spread patterns from many machines were categorised by spread pattern type and by coefficient of variation (CV). These patterns were then used to calculate yield losses when they were combined with the response data from five representative cropping and pastoral situations. Nitrogen fertiliser on ryegrass seed crops shows significant production losses at a spread pattern CV between 30% and 40%. For P and S on pasture, the cumulative effect of uneven spreading accrues, until there is significant economic loss occurring by year 3 for both the Waikato dairy and Southland sheep and beef systems at CV values between 30% and 40%. For nitrogen on pasture, significant loss in a dairy system occurs at a CV of approximately 40% whereas for a sheep and beef system it is at a CV of 50%, where the financial return from nitrogen application has been calculated at the average gross revenue of the farming system. The conclusion of this study is that the current Spreadmark standards are a satisfactory basis for defining the evenness requirements of fertiliser applications in most circumstances. On the basis of Spreadmark testing to date, more than 50% of the national commercial spreading fleet fails to meet the standard for nitrogenous fertilisers and 40% fails to meet the standard for phosphatic fertilisers.Keywords: aerial spreading, crop response, economic loss, fertiliser, ground spreading, striping, uneven application, uneven spreading, yield loss

Management of indiscipline among secondary school students in Ilembe District, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 139-156
Author(s):  
Ntombizandile Gcelu ◽  
◽  
Amy Sarah Padayachee ◽  
Sekitla Daniel Makhasane
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
South African ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
School Students ◽  
Whole School ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Whole School Approach ◽  
Meaningful Relationships

South African schools are faced with a serious problem of indiscipline. The available literature reveals that despite the efforts of school administrators and teachers to instil discipline among learners, indiscipline still abounds to the extent of getting out of hand. Based on the intention of this study, a qualitative study was adopted. A qualitative-based study underpinned by the interpretive research paradigm was employed to explore the perspectives of educators in their collaborative roles in managing discipline. The sample comprised twelve educators who were purposively selected from four secondary schools in the Ilembe District, KwaZulu-Natal. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect the data. The findings revealed that educators should apply the school code of conduct as a whole-school approach to managing discipline to create meaningful relationships with parents as stakeholders and communicate expected behaviours with learners. It is recommended that in implementing strategies to manage discipline, learners, educators, school managers and the school governing boards of all schools should take a collaborative approach to the management of discipline in secondary schools

scholarly journals Quantification of PV Power and Economic Losses Due to Soiling in Qatar

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3364
Author(s):  
Amr Zeedan ◽  
Abdulaziz Barakeh ◽  
Khaled Al-Fakhroo ◽  
Farid Touati ◽  
Antonio S. P. Gonzales
Keyword(s):  
Output Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Energy Yield ◽  
Solar Pv ◽  
Financial Loss ◽  
Grid Systems ◽  
Dust Density

Soiling losses of photovoltaic (PV) panels due to dust lead to a significant decrease in solar energy yield and result in economic losses; this hence poses critical challenges to the viability of PV in smart grid systems. In this paper, these losses are quantified under Qatar’s harsh environment. This quantification is based on experimental data from long-term measurements of various climatic parameters and the output power of PV panels located in Qatar University’s Solar facility in Doha, Qatar, using a customized measurement and monitoring setup. A data processing algorithm was deliberately developed and applied, which aimed to correlate output power to ambient dust density in the vicinity of PV panels. It was found that, without cleaning, soiling reduced the output power by 43% after six months of exposure to an average ambient dust density of 0.7 mg/m3. The power and economic loss that would result from this power reduction for Qatar’s ongoing solar PV projects has also been estimated. For example, for the Al-Kharasaah project power plant, similar soiling loss would result in about a 10% power decrease after six months for typical ranges of dust density in Qatar’s environment; this, in turn, would result in an 11,000 QAR/h financial loss. This would pose a pressing need to mitigate soiling effects in PV power plants.

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