ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Factors associated with comorbidity of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections among children under five years in Ghana

Introduction Globally, childhood mortality is an important public health concern. In Ghana, both diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are among the top five causes of morbidity and mortality among children under five years old (CU5). Yet, there is a paucity of studies on the comorbidity of diarrhoea and ARIs in CU5 in Ghana. Aim This study sought to examine factors associated with comorbidity of diarrhoea and ARIs among CU5 in Ghana. Methods The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) 2014 was used for this study. A total of 932 CU5 who had at least one morbidity were included in the study. Binary logistic regression was used to predict the factors associated with comorbidity among CU5. Results The prevalence of comorbidity of diarrhoea and ARI among CU5 was 11%. Factors including unimproved source of water, unimproved main floor material, age of child, and initiation of breastmilk were significantly associated with comorbidity of diarrhea and ARI. Improved source of water (AOR = 0.42; 95% CI = 0.22�0.78; p = 0.01) reduces the likelihood of having comorbidity than unimproved source of water. Children aged 36�47 months were less likely (AOR = 0.36; 95% CI = 0.14�0.93; p = 0.04) to have comorbidity than those aged 48�59 months. Also, improved floor materials (AOR = 0.45; 95% CI = 0.22�0.95; p = 0.03) reduces the likelihood of having comorbidity than unimproved floor materials. Children breastfed within the first day of birth were more likely (AOR = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.01�0.2.72; p = 0.04) to have comorbidity than those breastfed immediately after birth.Conclusion Policymakers and health practitioners should consider risk factors such as age of child, initiation of breastfeeding, unimproved floor material, and unimproved water supply in the design of interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with comorbidity of diarrhoea and ARI among CU5. � 2022 Afrifa-Anane et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Source: UEW
Factors contributing to effective teaching and learning in the public senior high schools in Bantama sub metro in Kumasi metropolis

This research sought to investigate the factors that contribute to effective teaching and learning in the public senior high schools in Bantama Sub-Metro in the Kumasi Metropolis. The target population for this study comprised of all senior high school teachers in the study area. Out of 342 teachers, 118 of them were randomly selected to participate in the study. Out of this sample selected, 105 representing 89% participated in the study. The study was conducted with quantitative research approach executed through questionnaires. The study employed descriptive cross-sectional design. The reliability of the instruments was above 0.88 Cronbach alpha. The data collected were subjected to statistical analyses using frequency, percentages and mean. Findings indicated that head masters’ instructional supervision breeds good school environment that is conducive and therefore influence effective teaching and learning. Based on these findings, it was recommended that head masters should set time for instructional supervision in schools because it is one of the roles that positively influence effective teaching and learning

Source: UEW
Factors contributing to low parental involvement in education at Adventist Preparatory School, Aboso, Ghana.

This study investigated factors contributing to low parental involvement in education at Adventist Preparatory School, Aboso, Ghana. Descriptive research design with a purposive sampling size of 50 respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data, frequency units, and percentages were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that most parents are aware of various ways to be involved in their children’s education while some do not see the importance of parental involvement in education. Also, insufficient evaluation of parental involvement programs by the school, inadequate policies supporting parental involvement, Lack of education or knowledge about parental involvement, Limited time due to work schedules, ineffective communication from teachers and administrators to parents, and Lack of information about school activities were factors contributing to low parental involvement in education. Flexible meeting schedules by the school management, regular parentteacher communication, regular surveys of feedback from parents, creating parental group support for parents, Parental involvement in policy-making, regular parentteacher meetings, and building friendly parent-teacher relationships can help improve the effectiveness of parental involvement in education among parents at Adventist preparatory school. The study reveals that much responsibility by the school is to be played to enable these measures to work. It was recommended that administrators and management of the school should implement the measures.

Source: UEW
Factors contributing to poor academic performance in mathematics among Junior High School pupils in the Hohoe Municipality, Ghana

Poor academic performance in Mathematics among public basic school pupils has attracted a lot of attention among stakeholders in education in Ghana including Hohoe Municipality. Therefore, this pragmatist study sought to investigate factors contributing to poor academic performance in Mathematics among junior high school (JHS) pupils in the Hohoe Municipality. The study adopted sequential explanatory mixed methods design within mixed methods approach. A sample of 311 (291 pupils, 10 Mathematic teachers and 10 parents) was be selected for the study. Systematic random and convenience sampling techniques were used to selected respondents in this study. Questionnaire and interview guide were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data while the qualitative data were analysed using themes and direct quotes. It was found that pupil negative attitudes towards the studying of Mathematics contributed to their poor academic performance. Also, Mathematics teachers’ negative attitudes towards teaching contributed to poor academic performance of JHS pupils. However, home factors did not contribute to the poor academic performance of JHS pupils. Again, school factors did not contributeto the poor academic performance of JHS pupils. It was concluded that poor academic performance of JHS pupils in Mathematics was as a result of mathophobia. Again, it was concluded that the way and manner Mathematics teachers teach the subject contributed to poor academic performance of JHS pupils. Additionally, parents provided the necessary home support for their children’s education in Mathematics. Finally, the school created a conducive learning environment for JHS pupils to improve their learning in Mathematics. It was recommended that in-service training on factors contributing to poor academic performance of pupils should be given to all Mathematics teachers in the Hohoe Municipality by the personnel in-charge of training and supervision at the Municipal Education Directorate, Hohoe.

Source: UEW
Factors contributing to sports injuries among senior high athletes in competition in Akuapem Municipality

Sports injuries among student athletes in high schools has become prevalent in most developing countries. The study explores the risk factors influencing sports injuries and identifies those who sustained injuries in high schools‟ competitions in the Akuapem Municipality. Drawing on literature from sports injuries, 610 student athletes were used to understand how they sustained various injuries during schools‟ sports and games. Using cross-sectional survey, the study reveals how wounds, knee injury, muscle cramps and thigh injury are common injuries often sustained in their sports and games in the municipality competition. Physiological factor was the most contributive resulting from the number of games played by student athletes which significantly influenced sprain, strain, dislocation and nose bleeding injuries among them. Results recorded low correlation accounting for 9% occurrence of sports injuries in the Akuapem Municipality. Further research is recommended in other districts to have a general approach to remedy some of these sports injuries noticed in their sport competitions.

Source: UEW
Factors enhancing motivation of Kumasi senior high school teachers in Asokwa Municipality

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors enhancing teacher motivation in Kumasi Senior High School in Asokwa Municipality in Ashanti Region. Specifically, the study was to determine the extent to which head teacher fairness enhance motivation of teachers, the extent to which remuneration enhance motivational level of teacher and to determine the extent to which students discipline behaviour affects the motivational level of teachers in Kumasi Senior High School in the Asokwa Municipality. The study population comprised 252 of teachers, out of which 200 teachers were selected to participate in the study. The Descriptive Research Design was used for the study. Closed-ended questionnaires (Likert Scale) were used to collect data for the study. The data analysis used statistical tools of frequency, percentages and mean. Findings from the study indicated teachers agreed that the head teachers’ fairness affect their motivational level. Again, it was revealed that majority of the teachers agreed that remuneration affect their motivational level. Based on these findings, it was recommended that headmasters should be open in their supervisory roles, and not be biased in dealing with teachers. The Ghana Education Service (GES) should organize workshops for head teachers on effective supervision. Lastly, government should improve upon the retirement packages available to teachers at the end of their service.

Source: UEW
Factors enhancing motivation of public Junior High School teachers in Suame municipality

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors enhancing teacher motivation in public junior high schools in Suame Municipality in Ashanti Region. Specifically, the study was to determine the extent to which head teacher fairness enhance motivation of teachers, the extent to which remuneration enhance motivational level of teachers and to determine the extent to which students discipline behaviour affects the motivational level of teachers in Suame municipality. The study population comprised of all 120 teachers, out of which 60 teachers were selected to participate in the study. The descriptive research design was used for the study. Closed-ended questionnaire (Likert Scale) was used to collect data for the study. The data analysis used statistical tools of frequency, percentages and mean. Findings from the study indicated that teachers agreed that the head teachers’ fairness affect their motivational level. Again, it was revealed that majority of the teachers agreed that remuneration affect their motivational level and lastly, teachers indicated that the students’ discipline behaviours affect their motivational level. Based on these findings, it was recommended that head teachers should be opened in their supervisory roles and not be biased in dealing with teachers. In addition, Ghana Education Service (GES) should organise workshops for head teachers on effective supervision. Again, government should improve upon the retirement package available to teachers at the end of their service. Lastly, head teachers and teachers should educate students on the importance of taking care of school property.

Source: UEW
Factors hindering in-service training for basic school teachers in Awutu Senya East Municipal

In-service training programmes build the capacity of teachers which positively affect their classroom teaching and learning. The research study aims to describe the factors that hinder in-service training among basic school teachers in Awutu Senya East Municipal. The study employed descriptive survey design. A stratified sampling technique was employed to select 120 of the basic school teachers for the research study. Structured questionnaire was employed to gather data from the respondents. The data were analysed by descriptive statistics in Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The findings revealed that basic school teachers in Awutu Senya East Municipal build their teaching competencies through distance education, sandwich education, regular education, seminar, conference and workshop. It also indicated that basic school teachers mostly engaged in in-service training programme every year , twice a year and at the end of the term. The research study depicted that basic school teachers in Awutu Senya faced challenging in relation to engaged in in-service training. The problems include inadequate financial support, poor regulation ,inadequate facilities to accommodate the training, inadequate training materials, poor regulation, and inadequate in-service training inspectors. The research findings disclosed the strategies the problem indicated earlier. Such problems can be mitigate through provision of adequate funds, adequate training materials, proper regulation ,recruitment of extra teachers and in-service training inspectors. It is recommended that proper supervision policy must be inculcated to education for ensuring proper regulation of effective in-service training at Municipal.

Source: UEW
Factors influencing absenteeism among junior high school teachers in Atimatim circuit in the Afigya Kwabre South district

The purpose of this study was to find out factors influencing absenteeism among Junior High Schools teachers in Atimatim Circuit in the Afigya Kwabre South District. Descriptive survey design using the mixed method approach was employed for the study. Census sampling technique was used for the study. In all a sample size of one hundred and twenty four (124) were used for the study comprising of 116 teachers and 8 heads. Questionnaire and interview guide were used as the data collection instruments. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data whilst the qualitative study was analysed using themes. The study revealed that personal factors influence teacher absenteeism, it was established that illness, low salary, engagement in other economic activities, further studies and bereavement among others constitute the personal challenges influencing teacher absenteeism .Again, the study found that poor leadership style which provides un-enabling working environment , poor staff welfare in the school and teachers who are given other administrative duties among others were school factors that affect teacher absenteeism. As to how environmental factors cause teacher absenteeism, the study established that assigning of non-teaching duties to teachers, being members of teachers’ union and teachers’ strike affects teacher absenteeism. The study further revealed that issuing of query letters to teachers’ who absent themselves will serve as deterrent while institution of recognition and reward systems for teacher attendance could be employed as motivating/incentive strategies to stop teacher absenteeism. The study recommended that Ghana Education Service (GES) should enforce regular supervision and monitoring of teachers’ by heads of institution. This can be done through encouraging all schools to have frequently updated teachers attendance registers, class attendance registers and teachers permission book/file.

Source: UEW
Factors influencing academic performance of pupils at Abirem RC J. H. S in Kwabre-East Municipal

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that are responsible for the academic performance of pupils in Abirem R/C Junior High School at Abirem in Kwabre- East Municipal. Based on this, a descriptive survey design was used to study 150 respondents comprising of 60 pupils, 30 teachers and 60 parents selected through systematic sampling technique. Separate questionnaires were designed for each category of respondents to collect data pertaining to factors influencing academic performance of pupils within the school. Statistical tools used to analyze the data collected included descriptive tools such as mean, median, frequencies and percentages, and the results were presented in tables. The study has been able to establish issues that are particular to Abirem R/C Junior High School. School factors, teachers, parents and the pupils were primarily responsible for the academic performance of Abirem R/C Junior High School pupils. The school factors identified include, inadequate teaching and learning materials, school location, bad odor from the environment, and class size. The teacher factors that were found to contribute to the academic performance were incidences of lateness and absenteeism to school, inability to complete the syllabi and inadequate homework assigned to pupils. Home conditions or parental support variables causing pupils to perform poorly academically were parent’s inability to provide textbooks and supplementary readers, low level of interaction with their ward’s teachers, and low involvement in the Parent Teacher Association. It was recommended that there is the need to improve parents’ attitudes towards their wards education, intensify supervision of teachers and institute incentive packages, sensitize and motivate the pupils, recognize individual differences in education and encourage guidance and counseling services for pupils

Source: UEW
Factors influencing academic performance of Social Studies students in selected senior high schools in the Wa Municipality

The focus of this study was on cross sectional stakeholder (students, parents & teachers’) perception on some determinants of students’ poor performance in Social studies. The design of this study was descriptive case study research design aimed at eliciting information from the respondents on factors that determine students’ poor performance in the selected secondary schools and the population of the study comprised 10 selected secondary school teachers who teach Social studies in Wa municipal education zone. Two hundred students, 10 parents and 2 GES officials also formed part of the study population. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire and data were analyzed using mean frequencies and charts for all research questions. The findings of the study revealed that school/government related factors, teachers’ related factors and students’ factors are some determinants of students’ performance in Social studies. The researcher recommended based on the findings that only competent and qualified Social studies teachers should be employ to teach the subject in secondary schools

Source: UEW
Factors influencing attitudes towards mathematics among junior high school students in Samreboi Circuit, Ghana

This study examined factors that influence the attitude of students towards the learning of Mathematics among Junior High Schools in Samreboi circuit. A quantitative study using the cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study with a population of 1200 second year Junior High School students. The simple sampling technique was used to select 180 respondents for the study. A structured questionnaire designed by the researcher on a 4-point Likert scale was used to collect the quantitative data. Mean and standard deviation was used to analyse research questions 1, 2 and 3 while independent sample t-test was used to analyse the fourth research question. The research instrument was validated through my supervisor who is expert in the field and pre-test was used to check the its reliability. The study revealed that the poor attitudes of students towards the study of mathematics is not associated with parental influence. The study also revealed that the positive attitudes of teachers towards teaching and learning positively influenced students‟ attitude towards the study of the subject. It was concluded that though the students disagreed that factors relating to the home or family as far as their parents are concerned do not influence their attitudes, several studies have established a positive correlation between family characteristics and students‟ attitude formation. The study also revealed a positive relationship between teacher factors and students‟ attitude formation towards Mathematics. It was recommended that the education directorate should organise a sensitisation workshop for parents/guardians to educate them on their influence on the attitude formation of their wards towards Mathematics.

Source: UEW
Factors influencing attrition and rentention of teachers in the senior high schools in the Asante Akim Central Municipality

The research was carried out to identify factors that contribute to teacher attrition and retention of Senior High School teachers in the Asante Akim Central Municipality. It was geared towards examining factors that affect the retention of teachers in the municipality and to find out the motivational packages available to retain teachers in the municipality. The descriptive research design was used for the study. The target population of the study was made up of all Senior High School Teachers in the Asante Akim Central Municipality, sixty (60) Senior High School teachers were randomly selected from three (3) senior High Schools for the study using the stratified sampling method. Closed-ended questionnaire (Likert-Scale) was used to collect the data for the study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data and among the factors that were identified as influencing attrition were lack of suitable accommodation, lack of teachers' involvement in decision making and low financial assistance from the schools. Respondents stated that motivational packages such as study leave with pay and accommodation facilities should be made available to all teachers to retain them. The findings suggested that the Municipal Assemblies should sponsor more indigenous women to return to the classroom and the extension of Ghana Education Service and Municipal motivational packages to meet large number of teachers. Teachers in the municipality should be encouraged by the municipal education directorate to take distance education programmes.

Source: UEW
Factors influencing career choice among senior high school students in the Nkoranza South District, Ghana

The research was set out to investigate factors that influence career choice among the senior high school students in the Nkoranza South District of Bono East Region, Ghana, and the extent to which those factors influence students’ choice. Survey design was used. The main instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. Simple random sample techniques were used to select 78 students from three public second cycle institutions in the district. Descriptive statistics was used in analysing data. The results show that, there are no laid down steps students follow in making career decisions and students don’t attend any career workshop in selecting their desire careers. Parents sometimes aid their wards in selecting the course of study when they go to the senior high schools hence, deciding what they should become in future. Government policies sometimes also affect career choice of students especially when the government becomes the sole medium of employment. It was recommended that Career Education and Guidance should be introduced in the primary school to enable children to explore the world of work as young people need to make a smooth transition from primary school to the initial years of senior high school and the Ministry of Education should allocate funds for a Guidance and Counselling activities in all basic and second cycle schools. It is also prudent for the District Educational Offices to organise career workshops to aid the students in the quest to make career selection.

Source: UEW