PREFERRED REASONS IN SELECTING TEACHING PROFESSION AS A LIFE CAREER: A CASE STUDY OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Commitment and efficiency of teachers have an important input in the successful accomplishment of educational objectives of any nation; thus, highly motivated teachers are vital for an effective educational approach. By using a quantitative method, this study examined why teachers select the teaching as a profession for their life career. Through the purposive sampling, pre-service teachers from the University of Loralai were chosen in which 147 students participated in this research. Researchers collected the data through questionnaires and analyzed it by using descriptive and inferential statistical tests. The findings point out that majority of pre-service teachers choose the teaching profession as their life career due to the altruistic-intrinsic reasons because it received the highest mean as compared to the other reasons (i.e., extrinsic and reasons influenced by others). The extrinsic reasons and reasons influenced by others followed by in order of preference respectively. Regarding the gender variable, male and female pre-service teachers showed significant differences in altruistic-intrinsic reasons. Contrary to this, age, teaching experience and professional qualifications showed no significant differences with the altruistic-intrinsic reasons. Based on the findings, this study suggests that education policy should set standards for teacher education programs to elevate the status of teachers for attracting bright students before and after completing the programs.

Determinants of Implementation of County Bursary Regulations in Kirinyaga County, Kenya

Kirinyaga County bursary scheme was introduced in the 2013/14 financial year. Bursary for secondary schools and higher level institutions being a National government function, the county sought advice from the then cabinet to offer state support to enhance access, ensure retention and reduce corruption in the provision of school education. Poor vetting criterion and compliance of guidelines have resulted in cronyism and nepotism which have plagued the bursary award process for decades. Poor monitoring & evaluation has piled up grievances with no follow up system. Lack of clear regulations on funding allocation has allowed political interference on budget cycles. The County bursary targets were students from poor households and the vulnerable. This study sought to examine the determinants of implementation of county bursary regulations in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives; To establish the extent to which compliance of guidelines determines the implementation of County Bursary in Kirinyaga County, to explore the extent to which vetting criteria determines the implementation of County Bursary in Kirinyaga County, to examine the extent to which funding allocation determines the implementation of County Bursary in Kirinyaga County and to examine the extent to which monitoring of utilization of the bursary fund determines the implementation of County Bursary in Kirinyaga County. The new public administration theory that captures the concept of equity and fairness was adopted to explore the gaps during implementation of county bursary regulations in Kirinyaga County. The study sourced requisite data from 70 parents whose students benefited from bursary and 31 principals, both samples having been picked from the PTAs membership. The respondents were drawn using a combination of random and purposive sampling procedures. The study adopted descriptive design which was used to analyze primary data. Data was presented, interpreted and analyzed using frequency & percentage distributions, cross tabulations with STATA. Qualitative data in form of first hand experiences, informed opinions and suggestions, were analyzed using qualitative procedures and were used to strengthen quantitative findings. The results of the study indicated that majority of beneficiaries allocation by need were from poor households 51% followed by bright students at 29%. Similarly, orphans and special needs students both received 9.7%.

Cultural values and students’ intentions of choosing accounting career

Purpose This paper aims to explore whether cultural values identified by Hofstede (1980) are relevant with respect to the relationship between career drivers and students’ intentions of pursuing a career in accounting. Design/methodology/approach A total of 266 Turkish, East African, West African, Iranian and Arabic business-related students studying at Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus have participated in this study. To test the hypotheses, a t-statistic at the univariate level and a discriminant analysis at the multivariate level have been performed. Findings The results reveal that collectivism and/or large power distance are associated with the statistically significant relationship between parental and peers’ influence and students’ intentions of choosing an accounting career. The results further demonstrate that collectivism and/or strong uncertainty avoidance is/are relevant to insignificant relationship between beliefs factors and students’ career aspirations into accounting profession. Research limitations/implications The main implication derived from this study states that the accounting educators and professional accounting firms should mostly target parents and convince them of the positive aspects of accounting study and profession to attract more students from cultures characterized by collectivism and large power distance. Parallel to this, the results suggest that universities and professional accounting firms should use their current students to attract more students into their accounting-related programs. Practical implications Given evidence that cost of education is an important issue for the students opting to pursue a career in accounting, educators could attract more students into their accounting programs by providing scholarships to bright students intending to study accounting. They could also increase attractiveness by offering reductions in tuition fees to the students for obtaining good grades in accounting courses. Originality/value This study is unique in the sense that it takes a new step to investigate the influence of career-choice factors by using multiple dimensions of cultural values. In addition, this could be the first study exploring the factors that may influence decision of the students studying in North Cyprus in choosing accounting career.

The Effectiveness of English Teaching Module at Middle Schools in West Aceh

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of English Teaching Module at middle schools in West Aceh. The students of middle school studying in Government public school were the population of study. The control group, as well as the experimental group, was of equal size, each has 30 students of 8th class. The significance of the difference between the scores of groups at 0.05 levels was tested by applying t-test. The result of the study showed the difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control group was found to be highly significant. The p- value was found 0. 000 (P< 0.05). The study also proved that the material designed, which was useful for slow as well as of bright students, enabled the students to comprehend difficult concepts, and kept them on the track.

Challenges in strengthening the Communication and Behavioral skills for greater employability of engineering students: A study of NCR Delhi (India)

Engineering education in the last few decades, has been growng incredibly in importance and reputation due to certain skills, technical knowledge and proficiencies that are imparted to the passed out graduates for their employability. It is an accepted fact that India has an immense potential to be a global technology leader. Since independence, the initial focus of government policy was to develop good engineering institutes and provide engineers required for developing the economy. The setting up of the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Regional Engineering Colleges (and their subsequent conversion to the National Institutes of Technology),were targeted at achieving this objective. Indian engineers established their reputation for advanced engineering and design skills. Engineering in India isalso a preferred option for bright students at the 10+2 level. This has resulted in a spurt in the students intake of engineering colleges primarily in the private sector. Despite this, industry leaders whine about the absence of quality engineers for their industry. Also accompanied by major unemployment rates amongst graduating engineers. Curiouslyenough, graduates are ready for taking up their jobs, but according to the industry, who will providethememployment for their skills, knowledge and the composite professional values that they bring with them, and in fact they are not considered‘job-ready’ at all.The lowemployabilityis on account of several factors, out of which poor communication and behavioural skills are identified to be two of the mostcritical skill attributes. An in-depthanalysis has beencarried out by developing two detailed structured questionnaires administered on 55 HR Heads from the industry to confirm and ascertain the industry‘sperspectivesabout these skills and on 20 TPOs/Directorsto find out engineering colleges‘ understanding about these skills includingthe challenges and barriersthey face in this process and also to identifypossible solutions.The results clearly indicate mis-match between industry's and institutes perspective on soft skills.The important finding of the study is to develop conducive environment and follow practical/ activities based approach to impart soft skills to engineering graduates

Mathematics learning organization problems, when we teach children generation Z

Taking into account the specific features of Z-generation children, the article is the proposed model of learning mathematics and developed problems hindering its realization. The main problems are: lack of students mathematical text reading skills; lack of self-control specifically designed electronic instruments; lack of bright students or programs differentiation.

In2scienceUK helps students get into university

With student fees increasing and with degrees at top research-intensive universities being overrepresented by students from private schools, bright students from low income backgrounds face a number of barriers when pursuing their interests in science. This is reflected in a report by the Sutton trust in 2010 stating that 18% of pupils on free school meals progressed to higher education compared with 36% on non-free school meals and 96% at independent schools.