ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Critical Analysis on the Viability of Using Community Based Surveillance Volunteers in Health Service Delivery

The use of Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) to support health delivery systems in Ghana has been employed since the implementation of the Primary Heath Care in 1978. Ironically most of the previous CHV schemes could not be sustained. Nonetheless, the success of any community health programme depends very much on the extent to which the community participates. Invariably the non-viability of CHVs could undermine the success of any community programmes. Thus knowing how viable the present community health volunteer's schemes are would be useful to health planners and/ or health managers. The main objective of the study was to ascertain the viability of using Community-Based Surveillance Volunteers (CBSVs) in health delivery systems. « A descriptive cross-sectional study using both quantitative and qualitative methods was employed. A total of 132 CBSVs were randomly selected using a table of random numbers. Records of CBS volunteers at the North and South district health directorates, health facilities and in the communities were also updated and reviewed. Community leaders and health workers directly involved in CBS volunteers were interviewed as key informants. History of previous village or community volunteers were also elicited using the snowball technique. Majority of the respondents, 118 (89.4%) intended to work as volunteers for good. Besides, the level of satisfaction and motivation and morale among the CBSVs were found to be high. Volunteers expected financial and material gains from both the community leaders and the health workers. Nevertheless whilst the health workers have significantly supported the CBSV in terms of money, Wellington Boots, rain coats, etc. the community leaders were yet to support the volunteers. The present scheme was found to be an improvement over the pervious ones in areas of supervision, communication, training and capacity building; there were positive features which could make the scheme viable. However the spirit of volunteerism where people use their time, effort and energy to help their communities without asking for financial gains are found to be at the lowest in the study area which is a threat to the viability of the scheme. It is recommended among other things that the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, District Assemblies for Nkoranza North and South district as well as other stakeholders should mobilize financial resources to support the CBS volunteers regularly.

Source: KNUST
Crew Route Scheduling Using the Multiple Traveling Salesman Problems

Most of the coverage of maintenance operations of the technical men of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is unplanned. They have to move from one substation to the other to work on faults and cables as well as perform routine maintenance of which the maintenance schedule needs planning. This thesis uses the multiple traveling salesman problem model to plan the routes of a given number of maintenance crew so as to reduce the cost of traveling. Data used was distances of cities from ECG map of substations and transformers location in the Makola district from period 2003 to date. An algorithm was used to input the distances in Matlab. The algorithm was run ten different times varying the number of maintenance crew from two to five. The maintenance crew of two after all the tours covered the distance of 21.8100km being the minimized distance and routes for each of the maintenance crew was modeled with the two maintenance crew being the best.

Source: KNUST
A critical appraisal of contemporary monumental sculptures in public education in Ghana (a Kumasi case study)

The research seeks to identify, appraise, assess, and document the educational values of public monumental sculptures in the Kumasi Metropolis. The research is undertaken against the background that monumental sculptures form part of the environment and can make meaningful educational impact on the public. This can only be realised when the quality of the works are enhanced and are made accessible to all by locating them at the numerous empty public places in the environment, The descriptive and analytical methods were used in this research, and the monumental sculptures understudied consist of those erected at the various points in Kumasi. For the purpose of easy comprehension, the research has been organised and presented in five chapters. Each chapter deals with a particular topic into details. The first chapter provides a general introduction to the problem and its setting. Chapter two reviews relevant literature, related to the problem under investigation. The third chapter critically identifies, appraises, and assesses the historical monumental sculptures in public education. Chapter four deals with the identification, appraisal and assessment of monumental sculptures for aesthetical education. Finally, chapter five summarises the research findings and offers practical recommendations that could make monumental sculptures more relevant to the public. Information for this thesis was obtained through personal interviews of artists, lecturers, students, and the general public. Books, journals and unpublished theses related to the problem were also consulted.

Source: KNUST
A critical appraisal of the vocational skills programme in the U. S .T, Ayeduase and Weweso Junior Secondary Schools

Any educational system must of necessity have valuation as an integral part. Without periodic evaluation educational goals may be lost sight of and programmes may tend to fall into purposeless, unchanging patterns and the use of inappropriate methods. Education in the Vocational Skills programme is an integral part of the Junior Secondary School curriculum under the current Educational Reforms in Ghana. The aim of this research is therefore to assess the effectiveness of the Vocational Skills programme as it is being handled in three selected schools, identify problems end suggest solutions to them. The schools are U.S.T., Ayeduse and Weweso Junior Secondary Schools, all in Kumasi metropolis. U.S.T. J.S.S. is situated on the University campus. Ayeduas J.S.S. is sited In Ayeduase, a village about two kilometres from U.S.T. campus. Weweso J.S.S. is situated near the Kumasi-Ejisu road about two and a half kilometres from the U.S.T. Junction, For this research Information was obtained from the Regional Education Office, Kumasi, Art Education Department, U.S.T. as well as personal visits and interviews involving both students and members of staff of the three schools. Literature on the topic was obtained from libraries. The purpose of the illustration is to provide a picture of some of the things being done under the Vocational skills in the schools.

Source: KNUST
A critical appraisal of the first tear foundation course in the College of Art, U.S.T. — Kumasi

The First Year Foundation Course in the College of Art, U.S.T. — Kumasi; serves as the bedrock or basis, for the Bachelor of Art degree programme. It is a one-year common course in the foundation, aimed at giving the student, a broad-based education in art. Even though the students are supposed to carry the acquired knowledge in the first year, through the rest of the four-year B.A. Art degree programme, it is becoming apparent that this objective is not being fully realized. Also, no critical appraisal has ever been done on the course since it was established in the 1969-70 academic year to see whether it is serving its intended purpose or not. This lack of appraisal and evaluation has therefore become an educational problem. - The objective the research therefore stated as follows: 1. To evaluate the structure and content of the first year foundation course in the college of Art 2. To identify missing links between the foundation class and the rest of the B. A. Art Degree programme

Source: KNUST
“A critical appraisal of traditional pottery in Ghana - a look at the cultural environment”

Fragments of pottery have been associated with sites of human settlements from the very early times, in fact, these shards have been one of the chief aids to archaeologists in the assignments of cultural levels among most cultures of the world. The types of products and motifs put on the wares, their sizes and uses, together form a strong basis in determining the lives of those people - their beliefs and practices. It is true that the habits of a people over a period of time become their TRADITIONS; and the collection of various traditions of these people (with regards to the habits of eating, dressing, religions, etc, etc,) form what is known as their CULTURE. Culture, therefore, is the totality of the lives - beliefs, ideas and practices - of a people within a specific geographical area.

Source: KNUST
A critical evaluation of quality management-a case study of Aninwah Medical Centre

Hospitals across the country are searching for ways to improve quality of care and promote effective quality improvement strategies. Competitiveness and search for profits have called more attention towards customer's satisfaction and increased researchers' interest on the topic of hospital service quality. In this context, this study applies to SERVQUAL for critically evaluating service quality management in hospitals. The main objective is to find out the motivation and hindrances to hospital quality to both managers ? and employees and finally to assess quality service dimensions that are delivered through the perspectives of employees and customers. • This work was performed at Aninwah Medical Centre (AMC) a private hospital located at Emena in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The studied hospital runs mainstream hospital activities in medicine and surgery. A questionnaire was developed based on the motivations, hindrances and quality dimensions on hospital quality and sent to the Top Managers, employees and customers for gathering data, from which results were analyzed. The results of this study showed that Top Managers perceive protection from unsafe care, employee satisfaction and to gain competitive advantage as the highest motivators to Quality Management. What serves as motivation to employees is first monetary reward reinforced by customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and then to gain recognition. Almost all respondents asserted that the following obstacles hinder Quality Management: resistance to change, inadequate tools, and poor internal communication. Under the quality dimensions that call managerial attention, assurance was found the most relevant to both employees and customers. The relative order of importance of the service dimensions to internal customers was found to have: Assurance being the first, followed by Responsiveness, Empathy, Tangibles, and lastly followed by Reliability. To external customers the relative order of importance of the service dimensions was found to also have: Assurance being the first, followed by Empathy, Reliability, Responsiveness and lastly by Tangibles. The paper concludes that there are differences among the relative perspectives of service quality between employees and customers with regard to quality dimensions and suggests further work to continue this research.

Source: KNUST
Critical evaluation of the recruitment and selection processes in the Ghana Police Service

This study which examines the recruitment and selection processes employed in the Ghana Police Service was prompted by public criticisms on the services of the Police most especially after the 9th May, 2001 Accra Sports Stadium Disaster. This study investigated the reasons for some of the causes of the mal performance of the police service and to what extent had recruitment and selection processes contributed to this mal performance. An analysis of certain vital features of recruitment and selection were done. These are manpower planning, job analysis, recruitment policies induction process, probation and the influence of the external environment on recruitment. A sample of 100 respondents was interviewed consisting of fifty Police personnel of the Human Resource Development, and fifty personnel of Accra Region. The study revealed that the police service lacks most of the efficient and effective process of recruitment and selection and this has contributed to pressure from the external families during the processes; which have contributed to some of the dismal performance of the Service. In conclusion suggestions and recommendations have been made as to how to improve on the recruitment process and to enhance the performance of the Service.

Source: KNUST
Critical examination of the effect of e-marketing on the performance of shipping industries (a case study of msc. Gh. Ltd)

The study sought to examine the effect of e-marketing on the performance of shipping industries (a case study of msc. Gh. Ltd). The study employed descriptive analysis using frequency tables and charts to demonstrate the data collected. Also, regression analysis was carried out to establish the relationship between the adoption of electronic marketing tools by msc and the perceived performance of the msc company. The study discovered that the adoption of electronic marketing tools can have a significant positive impact on the overall performance of msc Ghana ltd. It was recommended that msc Ghana ltd should invest more time and resources in analyzing the outcomes of its marketing efforts to identify areas of improvement and refine marketing strategies for better results. Additionally, to fully capitalize on the potential of electronic marketing, the study recommended that msc Ghana ltd should invest in training and skill development programmes for its marketing team. This will ensure that the team possesses the necessary expertise to effectively use electronic marketing tools and platforms.

Source: KNUST
Critical path analysis: a case study of the construction of a resource centre at the Catholic University College Of Ghana.

The thesis looked at project scheduling (critical path analysis) for the building of the Resource Centre at the Catholic University College of Ghana, Fiapre. The Objective was to find the completion time of the entire project, the critical activities and the float for each activity. The method used was the Branch and Bound method of the integer programming to solve the problem at hand. A computer programme based on the Branch and Bound method was developed to solve the problem. The computer programme developed called Activity Scheduling Software was coded in VB.Net to obtain user friendly interfaces. The completion time of four hundred and twenty eight (428) days for building the Resource Centre was determined. Forty seven (47) critical activities that were used to obtain the completion time were determined and twenty one (21) activities with non-zero floats were also determined.

Source: KNUST
A Critical Investigation into the Succession Planning of Ghana Education Services (GES) at Managerial Level: a Case Study of Bosomtwe Kwanwoma Educational Directorate

The Bosomtwe Atwima Kwanwoma Educational Directorate (BAK) acknowledges the need to ensure a pipeline of leadership to man the affairs of the organization, as a leadership gap throws most otherwise laudable policies of GES out of gear. The underlying problem of brain drain, staff aspiration for higher qualification and increasing demand on the GES to sponsor staff for further studies however constitute enormous challenge. The researcher sought to probe into the leadership succession policies and methods of BAK and how the organization has instituted measures to mitigate the negative effect of the depletion of its human capital. The research was mainly conducted, using descriptive survey. The design involved collection of data, focused group discussion and face to face interview. The major findings yielded by the study" disclosed that management has instituted a number of measures to combat the problem. This includes the granting of Study Leave with pay, Quota System and regular In-Service Training. Lack of proper accommodation for personnel, inadequate budgetary allocation, over reliance on qualifications and unwillingness of staff to get training, nepotism and favouritism were however seen as main problems militating against smooth implementation of various succession planning policies of the Directorate. Although, there is still more work to be done, principally, the study recommends that job description should always be advertised and Succession Planning reviewed periodically to reflect the current state of affairs. This can of course be done concurrently with On-the-job training.

Source: KNUST
A Critical Study of Labour Turnover Situation of Public Universities in Ghana: a Case Study of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The human resource element of any institution is very essential to the growth of that institution. Universities worldwide are adopting various strategies to attract and retain its staff, especially in the face of increasing competition. Public universities in Ghana continue to experience problems with labour related issues like labour turnover. Labour turnover is one of the most important issues within any institutions. It occurs when employees leave the working place and need to be replaced by new recruits. Keeping valuable staff can be a source of competitive advantage. It cost money when an institution loses staff, and failing to deal with labour turnover can potentially affect the performance of any institution. Depending on the type of institution, a certain degree of labour turnover may be desirable, since it creates opportunity for new ideas. However, a persistent high level of labour turnover can be costly. Public universities in Ghana depend largely on government subvention. Inadequate funding of these institutions has seriously constrained their capacity to discharge fully their responsibilities. The staffing problems of these institutions cut across all angles; deterioration of infrastructure, low-level wages, poor conditions of service, inadequate supplies of office equipment and shortage of laboratory materials are all symptoms of the inadequate funding of these institutions. Various staff vacancies cannot be filled; whereas retired staffs are perpetually given post-retirement contract employment to fill vacancies temporally. The main objective of this study is to critically analyze the labour turnover situation of public universities in Ghana, with a case study of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The study was conducted entirely through questionnaire and surveys which gathered information on staff statistics, salaries and conditions of service, and the views of current and former staff of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with interviews with some principal officers of other public universities, namely; University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast, University of Education and University for Development Studies. This study cannot be complete without ascertaining the rates, causal factors and trend of labour turnover of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Several reasons for staff leaving were identified from the research conducted. Some of the reasons were, low salaries, delayed promotions, lack of training and development opportunities, deteriorating infrastructure etc. It is evident from the responses that, the study has provoked a considerable amount of thought within these institutions, and suggested ways of looking at the management of staff in these universities. This is encouraging, as it is evident that many universities do not routinely collect and analyze data on staffing trends. It appears that much of the data requested by this survey were difficult to obtain from existing management records.

Source: KNUST
Critical project implementation problems associated with urban water supply projects in Ghana

The Ghana Water Company Limited. (GWCL) is committed to the provision of potable water to urban communities in Ghana and the expansion of existing facilities to such communities. However the company is constrained by host problems, one of which reflected in the ineffective implementation of urban water supply projects. This problem is usually manifested in project time overruns and project cost overruns. The study sought to determine the extent of occurrence of project time and cost overruns, to determine the causes of time and cost overruns, and to identify the critical problem areas that require attention during the implementation of urban water supply projects in Ghana. This study focused on identifying the key/critical problem areas that result in time and cost overruns. This was achieved by using the Pareto Analysis (a problem-solving technique under total quality management). Results showed that 87.5% of projects studied have time overruns, 67.5% have encountered cost overruns and 40 issues were identified as also being the causes of time and cost overruns. From the study, the top six issues that were identified as the critical problem areas that require attention are: • Slow release of counterpart funding • Unsteady inflation rates • Political instability • Contractual disputes • Sourcing for funds • Variation orders Further studies should be done to find out the root cause why governments of developing countries face the problem of counterpart funding.

Source: KNUST
A critical assessment of the strategic response to competition in the banking industry (A case study of International Commercial bank, ICB)

The critical assessment of the strategic response to competition in the banking sector in respect of International Commercial Bank is one of the most dynamic and controversial issues within the management spectrum. The industrial competitiveness is continuously throwing in fresh challenges which allow customers and other stakeholders to respond in diverse ways. It is therefore not surprising that new competitive ideas and trends keep surfacing to meet the market challenges. Being competitive is to create, maintain and enhance strong values with customers including prospective ones and other stakeholders. The main objective of the study is to assess how strategically International Commercial Bank responds to competition in the banking sector by attracting, retaining, enhancing and developing a long term business relationship for profitability and other objective benefits in the industry. The study made use of primary and secondary data. A sample size of two hundred and fifty (250) made up of one hundred and eighty (180) customers and seventy (70) employees of ICBank was used in gathering the information. Questionnaire was the main instrument. The study revealed the importance of competition in the industry that can never be under estimated in the role of customer loyalty and development. Also, the study revealed that the current wave of competition that has swept through the industry in Ghana has brought about undue pressure on staff in order to retain customers. Furthermore, the study indicated that clients rated the level of customer satisfaction as keen, diverse and satisfactorily. However, there is room for improvement. In view of the research findings, the following recommendations are made in order to sustain efficiency in the competition. These are marketing research, innovative product development, employee quality skill development, determination to take the ownership of roles and responsibilities, innovative customer data base, visibility, broader accessibility and re - lunch.

Source: KNUST