Tuberculosis (TB) is now a global public health problem that has been exacerbated by the emergence of multiand extensively-drug resistant (MDR and XDR, respectively) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. There have been claims in the region by Traditional Medicine Practitioners (TMPs) about being able to treat the symptoms of TB, but their work lacked proper documentation. A structured questionnaire was used to test the ability of (TMPs) to diagnose and treat symptoms of TB; the medicinal plants used treat TB symptoms, as well as the influence of socio-economic and cultural factors on the indigenous communities' choice of treatment. A total of 99 TMPs and 22 TB patients were interviewed. Over 30 medicinal plants were mentioned as being used to treat symptoms of TB, an indication of wide knowledge on management of TB in the region. Treatment costs were found to influence the patients' choice of TB treatment and a large proportion of the TMPs were found to be of advanced age (60-80 years of age). The conclusion was that TMPs have reasonable knowledge about TB and its management. There is urgent need to tap the indigenous knowledge from the custodians and scientifically validate it for future drug development.
This paper provides a comparative perspective of two of the three East African Countries policies for expanding access to education, particularly with regard to equity and quality of basic education in Kenya and Tanzania. Against the background of the fast approaching deadline of 2015 for attaining Education for All (EFA), the paper provides a brief review of the policies in light of countries own stated goals alongside the broader international agendas set by the World Forum on EFA. It is concerned with two questions: What were the politics and underpinning philosophy surrounding the formulation of the policies in Kenya and Tanzania and have the policies changed over time, and if so why? What are the critical emerging challenges inhibiting the attainment of equity and quality of education in the two countries? The source of data for the paper was a combination of secondary data through desk literature review and primary data from studies conducted in some regions in the two countries, particularly in North Eastern Province of Kenya and Shinyanga Region in Tanzania. The major finding is that tremendous quantitative growth has occurred in access to primary and secondary education in the two countries. Nonetheless, education in these countries have been fraught with nearly similar unique multifarious and intertwined challenges of providing education, resulting in marked and severe regional and gender disparities in access to, and low quality of education. The two countries have put in place a series of educational interventions and drives including free primary education and subsidized secondary education, as well as bursaries for the poor needy learners that are yielding slow but positive progress towards the attainment of EFA goals. It is recommended that in order to attain EFA goals by 2015, these efforts should be accelerated and intensified with a view to reversing regional and gender disparities keeping in mind the fact that the deadline for the attainment of EFA goals is fast approaching and therefore making it urgent to translate the education policies into practice rather that the current rhetoric chimera.
Abstract:The thrust of this paper was to examine determinants of job satisfaction and retention of special education teachers in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study was prompted by the fact that literature on job satisfaction shows that teachers are increasingly dissatisfied with their work. The study was premised on researches done on labour turn-over theory by Meyer et.al.(2003) and later by Barrington and Franco (2010)
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