Mathematics is still considered as a subject that causes fear to Students in Rwandan schools. This study aimed at exploring the levels of Mathematics attitudes and anxiety manifested by secondary students in urban and rural secondary schools in MUSANZE District. Tapia & Marsh’s (2004) instrument was used to collect data and descriptive statistics was used to analyse data. The study showed the students’ attitudes were mostly high and female students were less anxious than their counterpart males in urban and in rural secondary schools.

The aim of this study was to explore students and lecturers’ attitudes and views towards active learning strategies (ALS) implemented at the Institutd’Enseignement Supérieur de Ruhengeri (INES-Ruhengeri), an Institute of applied sciences in Rwanda. Each class was taught in an active (non-traditional) manner for one course and in a passive (traditional) manner for another course. Several active learning methods (Think-Pair-Share, Card for Active Learning, Cooperative Learning, Supporting all the students, and Expert group) have been implemented during student teaching sessions. Questionnaires and interviews were administrated to students and lecturers, and then data were analysed. The results have shown that 78% of students learn better when the lesson involves ALS and it helps them to understand things better. 58% said that they enjoy lessons more if they involve ALS. It has also been reported (56%) that ALS helps students to communicate and to have better relationships with other classmates. The study has also found that over 82% of the lecturers agree that using ALS have a positive effect on students’ performance. This is very encouraging as it will help to improve the teaching and learning of students at INES. About 75% of the lecturers agreed that ALS methods ensure that total participation of students is achieved, integrate the learners’ experience and makes students interact in class. Some lecturers (15%) indicated that the class size of students and workload can affect the ability to use ALS. The different findings of this research will probably be useful for other institutes about the best ALS that the academic staff members in developing countries need for their teaching work, especially in the context of applied sciences.

Once known for its natural beauty and called as heaven on earth, Kashmir is torn between two nations of India and Pakistan. The verdant green forests, sweet springs, perennial rivers, picturesque, alpines scenery and pleasant climate of Kashmir valley has remained an internationally acclaimed tourist destination. But unfortunately, conflict and instability in Jammu and Kashmir have been a major hindrance to its development and progress levels. Tourism is identified as the engine of growth and Development of Jammu and Kashmir economy in general and Kashmir valley in particular. The development of tourist industry can have a significant impact on the overall growth of the state, because of its ability to create direct and indirect employment, as well as growth in allied industries. Tourism will likely contribute to the growth of secondary sectors such as handicrafts, which have historically benefitted from visitors to the state. As tourism is widely recognized as a major mechanism of employment generation, especially in the service sector, holds significant role for poverty alleviation and unemployment in the state. Kashmir being an important tourist destination in India and elsewhere has witnessed downfall because of the ongoing unrest especially during the last two decades which has hindered the smooth growth of tourism industry. The tourism in the whole state was affected badly due the conflict, tourists stopped to visit Kashmir. All the tourism stakeholders were in loss and the unemployment increased swiftly in the state as a whole due to the turmoil in the Kashmir and created negative image of valley in the minds of tourists. Tourism around the world is considered as a noteworthy device of advancement and in the current past it has demonstrated its potential by rising as the quickest developing Industry contributing around 9% to worldwide Gross Domestic Product 8.7% of aggregate business. The present paper investigates the impact of conflict on the tourism sector in Kashmir and followed by some suggestions and recommendations aimed at optimally exploiting the potentials of Kashmir tourism in the fast improving socio-political scenario.

Various scholars working in the agroforestry sector have recognized the importance of social and economic aspects in agroforestry. The purpose of this study was to take a fresh look at the nature of available literature and findings of researches done in socioeconomics of agroforestry, and their likely contribution to agroforestry development. Based on a mixed methodological approach the study reviews a number of books, research articles and findings of case studies done earlier. Finally fifty research articles published during 1989 to 2016 were selected for the review purpose. Results show that many researchers and scientists reported a number of socio-economic factors like land holding, land size, gender, marketing aspects, level of education, age of farmers, policy and programmes as some of the factors that influence a farmer’s decision on agroforestry adoption. However, they also reported a big gap in full adoption of all recommended agroforestry practices and advised to intensify extension services so that farmers could motivate themselves to adopt all the agroforestry practices. It was concluded and suggested that studies on relationship of socio-economic factor and agroforestry practices types as individual and as a whole are required to analyze their influence on adoption and promotion of agroforestry.

Oraon is the second largest tribal group in Jharkhand, consisting of 20% of total Scheduled Tribe (ST) population. Despite their numerical strength, not much research has been conducted on the health status of Oraons. The confined geographical location, unique socio-cultural settings, and inadequate health facilities, are among various factors responsible for creating vulnerability among Oraons in terms of health. This study analyzed the health status and health seeking behavior among Oraons from their perspectives. The main focus of this study was on female adolescents since adolescence is an important phase in the life span of humans when they develop and rationalize various concepts about everyday life in context to health issues and health seeking behaviour. An in-depth qualitative study was conducted in Gokhulpur village at Nagar Panchayat in Sisai block, Gumla district of Jharkhand for detailed understanding about notions on health issues that influence their health status and health seeking behavior. The health status of Oraons is highly influenced by their perception of heath and ill-health which is shaped by their culture. Regarding their health-seeking behavior, it can be contended that Oraon female adolescents rely heavily on traditional healer, the Bhagat. Such reliance was shaped by the cultural practices of the community. Analysis of field data suggests that for Oraons culture acts as a facilitator of maintaining good health care practices. Hence, this paper reinforces the role of culture as an important social determinant of health affecting health status and health seeking behavior of Oran female adolescents.

In Ghana, there are more mobile phones than people and there are more people connected to the internet than people in schools1. In spite of this, ICT tools have not been optimized to contribute to development. E-Government as a tool for ensuring inclusiveness and participation in governance in Ghana is characterized with challenges such as inability to fulfill the basic prerequisite for e-government development which includes minimum technological infrastructure, conducive environment and human capital. This paper attempts to assess the e-Government initiatives of Ghana; e-Government projects in Ghana, success stories and failures, IT visions of administration and the future directions of e-Government in Ghana. The emergence of the concept: e-Government in Ghana can be linked to the effort of the Ghana government to ratify and adopt an ICT policy in 2003-Informations and Communication Technology for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD). A cursory look at the Ghana e-Government initiatives reveals that Ghana is making considerable strides in allowing citizens and businesses to access and pay for services through an online network infrastructure. Renewal of driving licenses, clearing of goods at the port, business registrations, paying of taxes, public procurement and NABCO applications has been made possible through Government of Ghana electronic portal. This study dwelled on mainly secondary sources of data from peer reviewed journal articles, government policy documents and web sources. The study found that, Government of Ghana has exhibited commitment with her attempt to digitalize governance in Ghana. However, this paper also acknowledges the fact that the attempt by the Government of Ghana to digitalize the public sector of Ghana has not been rosy. Improved network and ICT infrastructural facilities should be extended to rural communities as a foundation for e-governance accessible to them, awareness, education and proper training session should be held to educate personnel of public sectors about benefit of e-governance, installation and maintenance of ICT gadgets in public sectors in Ghana to facilitate smooth implementation of e-governance services, proper security checks must be improved upon to restore peoples’ confidence in transacting or dealings through e-governance, extensive advertisements and publication of e-governance must be embarked upon to create awareness of the e-governance services available in Ghana.

In the 1970s, struggles by women around issues of domestic violence, women’s employment and livelihoods, communalism, representations in the media, etc., provided the impulse to women’s studies, which has been referred to as the ‘academic arm’ of the women’s movement. Critical inquiry into the structural and cultural bases which characterise the maintenance and reproduction of patriarchy in India at the familial, community and state levels have been carried out by women’s studies scholars. Women’s studies gained well-earned legitimacy within academia firstly through state support for its institutionalization in the 1980s, and more significantly, through the substantial contributions of feminist scholarship to the so-called mainstream disciplines. By questioning the value-neutrality of disciplinary perspectives, pointing to exclusions and invisibility, recovering women’s voices and concerns from the margins, and often from outside the pages, of mainstream academic discourse, and constantly unveiling and exploring the complex relationship between power and knowledge, women’s studies have engaged directly with the politics of knowledge.

This study investigates how project acceptability and participation determine beneficiaries’ income in ten local government areas that participated in Fadama II rural development project. Descriptive survey design of the ex-post facto type was adopted. Two objectives and two research questions were stated while two null hypotheses were tested. A self-designed instrument i.e. “rural development innovation acceptability and participation scale’’ with 0.73 reliability was administered complemented by focus group discussion. Data generated were analysed using descriptive statistics comprising frequency counts, percentages, mean score and content analysis as well as inferential statistics of multiple correlation matrix. Out of a total of 795 participants, 537(68%) were male while 258(32%) were females. Income sources of the respondents are 565(71%) farming, 107(13.5%) fishing, 33(4.1%) animal husbandry, 53(6.7%) public service, 31(3.9%) trading and 6 (0.8%) others. Beneficiaries in Ijebu North local government area ranked project acceptability 1st with 34.80 while participation was ranked 1st with 39.43 in Obafemi Owode local government area. Results of analysis showed there is a positive significant relationship between the dependent variable income and the two independent variables acceptability (r=0.292) and participation (r=0.793) at 0.05 level of significance. The study therefore recommended that the involvement of all stakeholders in projects acceptability and participation should be improved to ensure higher project impacts.

Food processing has been identified as a major thrust area in West Bengal’s future industrial development. Fruit and vegetable processing sector is one of the core segments under food processing in Bengal. Development of this sector is critically important to the expansion and diversification of state’s agricultural sector. It provides vital linkages and harnesses synergies between the two pillars of our economy, industry and agriculture. Bengal has huge potentials for the growth of this sector in the state. Since economic liberalization, several policy measures have been taken by union and state governments to promote fruit and vegetable processing in the state in particular and in the country in general. But such growth potentials are constrained by several factors. The processing of fruit and vegetable is still at a very low level in Bengal (2.8 per cent) as well as in India (2.2 per cent) against the highest post harvest losses (27 per cent). The main constraint lies behind this with infrastructure, technology, quality measurement and lack of farm-firm linkages. In view of the above facts this paper tries to examine the strengths of this particular sector in the state and highlighting on its existing constraints. The paper also made suggestions to achieve the future progress of this sector in Bengal.