What is the role of War poetry Show how it has performed this role throughout history Essay Example

Oedipus Tragic Hero Essay Example

Oedipus Tragic Hero Paper Aristotle utilizes six unique focuses to characterize a heartbreaking legend. The heartbreaking legend must be of respectable height and have enormity. In spite of the fact that the heartbreaking saint is pre-prominently extraordinary, he/she isn't great. The hero’s ruin is halfway his/her own shortcoming, the consequence of free decision, not of inadvertent methods. The hero’s adversity isn't completely merited and the discipline surpasses the wrongdoing. The fall isn't unadulterated misfortune. What's more, however it stirs grave feeling, disaster doesn't leave the crowd in a condition of sadness. VCC Lit Online) Using Aristotle’s meaning of a sad legend, we will show that Oedipus in Oedipus the King is in certainty an appalling saint and how his choices prompted his defeat. As Aristotle stated, the appalling [continues] Read full exposition Cite This Essay APA (2012, 10). Oedipus, a Tragic Hero?. StudyMode. com. Recovered 10, 2012, from http://www. studymode. com/articles/Oedipus-A-Tragic-Hero-1160926. html MLA CHICAGO Welcome StudyMode. com is the networks driving learning instrument. We rouse a great many understudies each day with more than 650,000 model articles and papers, AP notes and book notes. Find out More Related papers Oedipus: a Tragic Hero Oedipus: A Tragic HeroOedipus Rex, or Oedipus the King 3 pagesApr 2001 Oedipus: a Tragic Hero Oedipus: A Tragic Hero Aristotles awful legend is one of 3 pagesMar 2010 Oedipus a Tragic Hero Oedipus A Tragic Hero English 102 Literature and Composition Summer 7 pagesSep 2011 Oedipus The Tragic Hero blemishes, and he is defective, in spite of his noteworthiness. The crowd can without much of a stretch see 6 pagesMay 2012 Oedipus The Tragic Hero state your own. ) The following trademark that shows Oedipus playing the grievous 4 pagesOct 2008 We will compose a custom exposition test on Oedipus Tragic Hero explicitly for you for just $16.38 $13.9/page Request now We will compose a custom article test on Oedipus Tragic Hero explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer We will compose a custom article test on Oedipus Tragic Hero explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer

Importance of Facebook Marketing 3 Strategies to Grow Your Facebook Audience

Importance of Facebook Marketing 3 Strategies to Grow Your Facebook Audience When Mark Zuckerberg first created Facebook in 2004, little did he know that in the years to come that brands would be forever indebted to the social-media platform for the rise in their profits. Facebook has a staggering user base of over 2 billion people worldwide. That’s about 1/3rd of the earth’s population that is registered on Facebook. Now that’s a fascinating fact.It’s no wonder that businesses around the globe use Facebook as their ideal marketing strategy to generate an audience for their products. In fact, every popular brand that you’ve heard of has their own Facebook page. So, if you aren’t using Facebook to increase your brand awareness, get out of your rabbit hole.EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FACEBOOK MARKETINGFirst things first. Why bother with Facebook?Apart from the fact that it’s the most widely used social media platform in the world, here are the top 4 reasons as to why you should use Facebook for your brand.1. Loyal Fan BaseWithout a doubt, ev ery time you post a product or video-link, your Facebook post will be filled with shares and likes. For every share that goes out, you receive new subscribers to your page. Every subscriber is a possible customer that is interested in your product. And if they find your product to their liking, they immediately become a loyal fan of your brand.2. Facebook AdsWe did previously mention that 1/3rd of the earth’s population is registered on Facebook. A single Facebook ad is seen by millions of people at any single given moment. No brand awareness like this exists on the planet that launches your brand to millions of people in less than a minute. 3. Customer InteractionSince Facebook is a social media platform, it doubles up as a place to instantly post queries and complaints. Complaints can be easily resolved in a simple post. It’s easy to reach out to your Facebook audience than it’s to create a manual ticketing system on your website that can take anywhere from 24-48 hours to re solve. Quick resolution means a customer is satisfied and this boosts your after-sales service bringing in more profits in the long run.4. SEOWhat is SEO?Every Facebook post that you make and share is indexed by search engines like Google and Bing. What this means is every time a user searches for relevant products within your criteria, your website shows up in the top results of search engines. Ranking high on search engines translates to bumping up your brand’s popularity in the eyes of the masses.These are just some of the brief advantages of Facebook marketing. The following section below goes in-depth and describes why Facebook is an effective marketing strategyCustom-Targeted AudienceImagine selling hair wax to people that are bald, not a very smart idea, is it? Facebook Ads don’t just randomly target people around the world globally. Facebook uses powerful audience selection tools such as behavioral patterns, demographics, and user interest to gauge how well your product is likely to sell to a specific group of people. This comes with two advantages â€" The first advantage is Facebook targets a custom group of people that are interested in your product and provides awareness of your brand to them. The 2nd advantage is you don’t receive any negative publicity from users that aren’t interested in your products but are still plagued by your ads. To give you better insight here are a few examples of successful Facebook campaigns. AirbnbThe popular hospitality travel site is known for their budget accommodation that caters to travelers looking for a comfortable stay across the globe. Utilizing Facebook campaigns Airbnb has tripled their customer base and reached over to around 238 million people in over 65000 cities and 191 countries worldwide. The Facebook campaign that they ran was just over a month long (June 23rd July 27th, 2017). In just 34 days they were able to achieve the above acquisition numbers at a 47% lower acquisition cost.The metrics t hat Airbnb used via Facebook campaigns were Dynamic Ad system, Core Audience system, user’s decision-making process, and contact customer through Facebook for feedback and after-sales support.ToyotaThe world-famous automobile manufacturer launched a successful Facebook campaign called “Feeling the Street”. The campaign was a callout to all the street musicians in the world to show off their style by linking their videos and images with the hashtag #FeelingtheStreet. The fan-submitted content was later used as source material for their Facebook ads.The campaign generated a shockingly high Facebook engagement rate of up to 440%. Over 1.2 street musicians across the globe had sent their stylish images and videos to Toyota’s Facebook campaign.This campaign also proved the creative space that Facebook offers to its users and how unique your ad can be if you put your mind to it.GameStopA popular name among video game enthusiasts, GameStop was another success story as far as utiliz ing Facebook campaigns was concerned. GameStop ran a Facebook campaign from December 17th to 24th of 2017 as part of the Christmas sale. In just under a week, GameStop was able to acquire a 7.5 times increase in incremental return on their ads. 4% increase in people making a valid purchase and 6% incremental lift in overall sales of games on their website.All of this was done without spamming any of their Facebook followers with ads and other disruptive popups. In fact, during the campaign users were checking out deals on the Facebook page by refreshing to ensure they don’t miss out on crazy video game deals.The following 3 examples provide ample evidence on how even top brands can increase their user base by staggering numbers. Gone are the days when brands used to use traditional campaigns to spark up a debate among the community. Facebook has become the new name in brand awareness and without it, you lose out on making a ton of profit.Cost Factor â€" Facebook Ads vs Google SEO vs YouTubeIf the cost factor of Facebook ads has been keeping you away from advertising your brand on the social media platform, then let’s put an end to that ruse right away with some stunning facts. Let’s compare two well-known behemoths to show you just how advantageous Facebook ads are over other means of marketing.Facebook Ads Vs Google SEOSEO results from Google take over 5-6 months before the brand begins to see traffic. Facebook ads, on the other hand, are instantaneous. You’ll see traffic the moment the ad goes live.Facebook ads are moderately priced at $0.01 per click while Google SEO requires technical knowledge and if you hire a firm, they charge a whopping $700-$1000 dollars for SEO content.Facebook ads have incredible precision in targeting the audience. What this means is you’ll be able to target the type of audience conveniently as per your business. Google SEO has very little control over the type of traffic that is driven to your brand.Facebook Ads are used by 84% of businesses worldwide and people spend the most time on Facebook as per a global survey. 81% of the B2B purchase is conducted via web search through Google.As you can see, the clear winner is Facebook in terms of creating brand awareness for small businesses. Facebook also comes out cheaper than Google SEO and it takes extremely little time for your customers to start connecting to you. Always remember â€" “Time is money.”Let’s do a comparison test between Facebook Ads and YouTube to give you a full analysis.Facebook Ads vs Youtube VideosWolfgang Digital conducted a complete analysis to rank the best social media platform for e-commerce. Let’s see the results.Facebook was found to bring in 334% more business than YouTube’s videos. This is mostly because Facebook’s advertising is extremely budget-friendly and prices 1000 impressions at $1.14 whereas YouTube for the same amount of advertising charges $5.02. Facebook Ads received 3 times the audience compared to t hat of YouTube’s videos. Another issue with YouTube advertising is that ads generated by the company can be skipped and the company will still charge the user, thereby netting the company no profits. Facebook charges its customers only based on Cost per impression, which means a brand is charged only if a user enters the website for a full 3 seconds.The success rate of a user clicking a Facebook Ad is much higher compared to the success rate of a user watching the entire YouTube video for 30 seconds.For businesses that are starting out, it makes more sense to put their ad on Facebook due to the time the audience spend on Facebook as compared to Youtube.The winner is as clear as day. In both comparisons, businesses worldwide prefer Facebook over Google SEO or YouTube videos. While it’s great for your business to use all 3 as an advertising tactic, if you were left to choose just one among the 3 due to budget constraints, the choice is obvious â€" Facebook!Exponential Growth Throu gh New FeaturesWith over a billion people using Facebook as their preferred social media service. There is little surprise in why businesses love to use Facebook as their primary advertising tool. Facebook also regularly updates itself with brand new features and services that come out frequently. With every new update, brands can expect a new way to conquer their advertising campaigns.  Here are the top 5 Facebook features that every business should know about.1. Workplace by FacebookThis nifty feature is used by millions of businesses worldwide to keep their team and colleagues connected via an online network. The online network is accessed via the Workplace application. Once connected there are so many things to do â€" Here’s a list of them.You can say goodbye to sending newsletters and mailing lists. With the workplace app, all you need to do is add all your peers and clients onto the network and simply send them your marketing campaigns via a click of a button The app is user -friendly and assists many companies in saving thousands of dollars of annual revenue used in training employees. The convenient design is easy for employees to learn the basics within a few hours. Workplace offers two-way communication. Which means everyone gets to provide their ideas and share real-time discussions. The app is completely secure and so your online network is free from hacking intrusions Want to use bots to wish your clients birthdays or remind your clients to pay on time? No problem! The Workplace apps have plenty of bots that can be automated Workplace is efficient for smaller businesses looking for a budget pricing model to connect to an online networkEvery week or month, Facebook adds something new to the Workplace app. The best part is the standard version of Workplace is completely free, you only pay to access the premium features, which comes with a 90-day long trial to ensure you are well satisfied before paying upfront. 2. Facebook Professional ServicesEver y time a customer is looking for products that your business excels at, they use Facebook Professional Services to get in touch with you. The way it works is, the customer logs on to the Facebook professional services homepage and begins to search for their required services. They input the specific category and other details of the local businesses. Once they click the search button, it gives them a list of services they can access based on their search preferences. Easy, peasy!Now let’s get down to the exciting part of setting up your own Facebook Professional page for your business. Step by Step Guide to Setting Your Facebook Business page.Step 1: Head over to the Facebook business page or click here.Step 2: On the top right corner, click the “Create a Page” option.Step 3: Choose between “Business/Brand” or “Community/Public figure” options. For this example, we’ll choose “Business/Brand”.Step 4: The “Page Name” should be your Startup name and the “Categ ory” section is to describe your business. For E.g. if you’re running a delivery startup. Simply enter “Food Delivery”.Step 5: Provide your residential details and other important information such as contact number, postal code, etc.Step 6: Add a profile picture and a Cover photo. These steps are optional and can be skipped if you want to come back later. Step 7: Voila! Your Facebook page is now completed and live. All you need to do is add regular posts and invite your colleagues, friends, and family and you have an active Facebook business page.On the off chance, you wish to delete your Facebook business page, it’ll take 14 days of time to completely delete the page from the records. 3. Royalty-Free MusicOne of the hidden features of Facebook that isn’t widely known is attaching music to your Facebook videos, without the risk of copyright violation. All Facebook background music is royalty-free and is extremely easy to use. Here’s how to do it. Head over to your “P ublishing Tools” tab found on your main Facebook pageClick the “Sound Collection” optionYou’ll have a list of music tracks to choose from. You can listen to these tracks by clicking the play symbol before attaching them to your video.Isn’t this a useful feature for just about anyone that doesn’t have time to produce music or spend tons of money just to license them?4. Facebook 360 Gone are the days when you spammed your clients with 100 images of a single room just to give them a view of every aspect of the house. With Facebook 360, you can take a complete 360 photo of your home and send it to your clients. They’ll be able to see the image while swiping around to have a good view of the entire home without having to swipe through multiple images on their phone. The Facebook 360 is a huge roaring success with over 25 million photos and over 1 million videos being posted and shared within a few weeks from launch. If you’ve got a VR device such as the Oculus Rift, you c an even connect to the virtual world and have multiple users connected at a single 360 video. In terms of marketing Facebook 360 is a huge step forward in providing services that customers can visualize instead of browsing through videos and images uploaded by someone else. Facebook 360 gives marketers the chance for their customers to avail the product with a sneak peek attached to it. The possibilities of Facebook 360 are endless. Some of the many uses are â€" A real estate agent showing customers the view of the entire house using VR tech without visiting the location and saving time/money.A car salesman can instantly connect with his customers and provide them with a full interior and exterior view of the automobile they’d like to viewA travel guide can provide sneak peeks to tourists about the city and why they should visit it.Adventure enthusiasts can provide visual simulations of travel gear such as Bungee ropes, Gliders, Scuba equipment, etc. to their customers Those are j ust a tiny speck of examples with what one can do using the Facebook 360 to market their business.5. Facebook Dynamic AdsDynamic ads are a new advertising approach used by Facebook to help brands publish a series of products instead of individually listing a single product. To better understand Dynamic ads, lets break down why marketers would use a Dynamic ad over an individual ad. No individual configuration needed. All dynamic ads are promoted alongside each other to the same user After setting up your dynamic ad once, the ad will continuously reach other people. Unlike an individual ad, that you need to keep updating to target a specific audience Universal reach. Can be configured to reach between platforms â€" tablet, mobile, desktop, etc. Chances of people receiving ads for their preferred products are higher with dynamic ads. This increases profits for a brand and reduces the negative buzz of advertising spamSo now, that you understand that a Dynamic ad is way more interesting than an individual ad, you’re probably wondering what you’ll need to set up your own Dynamic ad. Here are the following requirements â€" Business Manager account accessA filled-up Facebook Business PageAccess to an advertising accountA series catalog of products you want to appear on the Dynamic adThe Facebook PixelOnce you’ve got the following, you could also add in the Pixel Helper Chrome Extension to monitor your pixel. From here on, you can visit the Dynamic ads page and follow the user-friendly instructions to set up your first Dynamic ad in less than a minute.And there we go, the list of the 5 biggest tools to increase your brand’s awareness. While Facebook Ads is more than adequate for a lot of small businesses, the remaining tools used here complement your existing tools to get the best out of your Facebook marketing experience.Now that we’ve learned on the type of Facebook features and tools that are available to us. It’s time to follow guidelines to get the be st out of your digital marketing strategies by using the below guide.3 EXCEPTIONAL STRATEGIES TO INCREASE YOUR FACEBOOK AUDIENCEEvery business wants the exact same thing out of their Facebook business account. How to maximize their reach with the least budget possible. While setting up a Facebook page and the other optional features that come with it, takes a little more than 5 minutes, the tactics you employ here will be the difference between seeing success in a few months or a few years. So, let’s proceed with our first one â€"1. Exclusive Content Time and again, you’ve heard the phrase “Content is King” repeated in articles, blog posts, Facebook posts, etc. You’re probably fed up of hearing the phrase and feel that it’s an overrated term that’s used by fancy digital marketers to mislead beginning startups. The truth is â€" Original content always takes the prime spot over recreated ones. Let’s provide some statistics to prove this point. If your Facebook post is less than 300-500 posts, it won’t be considered under search indexing sites such as Google and Bing. Hence, you receive lesser users that search for your product. 3 in 10 people that visit your page are likely to promote that content further to their friends and family. If your content is unique, the sharing success rate is higher. In-depth original content is hard to come by. Facebook articles that offer complete product breakdown listing advantages and disadvantages, complete size chart, fitting instructions, and other relevant data to the customer has a better chance of converting a lead into sales. An average user visits Facebook over 8 times a day. That’s 8 tries in a day to gain a single user’s attention. If your content is bogus and littered with irrelevant copied content, expect them to lose interest and find the next product See how Facebook users tend to gravitate towards original and in-depth content over incomplete and copied articles. Here’s are 3 unique ways to dish out exclusive Facebook content for your customers.Share Fan ContentIf your Facebook page has followers, they love your product enough to join your Facebook page. Hence, hold a contest for the top 10 Facebook followers to win a prize if they write and post amazing content using your product. Once you’ve received all the entries, select the best entries and reward the user. Now you’ve got exclusive fan-created content using your products. In this way, you’ve just created exclusive content that will run well with others as it’s coming from a customer’s perspective and not just the company’s own advertising campaign.DIY tipsPlease refrain from posting cat images on your Facebook page just because you’re bored and want to have some fun with your followers. You’ll end up destroying the seriousness of your page by posting trivial content. Here’s another great way to post exclusive content by posting DIY (Do It Yourself) articles, images, or videos. For E.g. â€" You are in the cosmetic industry and sell makeup products as a brand. Create posts on the best way to apply the makeup in different styles and add different posts such as “The top 5 makeup brushes that go well with your makeup kit”. Engage your audience by giving them something to do every week. Provide tutorials on how to apply makeup for beginners or provide tips on how to maintain a healthy skin. When it comes to DIY, the options are endless as you share plenty of exclusive content with your followers. High-Quality ImagesOne of the biggest blunders businesses do is utilize low-quality images to promote their products. Many of them take Facebook posts lightly and believe that since it’s not their main website, the images can be of low quality. Wrong! Every high-quality image serves as an exclusive content that will help connect with your Facebook users. You can caption a pair of sunglasses glittering in the sun or a cupcake wonderfully baked and just out of the oven. Investing i n high-quality images is key to impressing your followers. Every impressed follower has a high chance of clicking your product link and making a purchase. 2. Engage Audience with Polls and User FeedbackObviously, if a Facebook post isn’t good enough, you’ll receive fewer likes than you’d prefer. There’s no magical way to engage an audience without being interesting as a brand and throwing out excellent products for your users to be impressed. However, if you’d like to gain their interest and turn them into returning customers, it’s important to ask them for their feedback frequently. You can do it directly by providing a feedback form after a purchase is made or you can do it indirectly by utilizing these means â€"Fill in the Blanks PostsFill in the Blank posts are highly interactive to your customers and they’ll always choose to respond to it when given the chance. Sample questions include â€"My favorite product of [YOUR BRAND] that I’ve used is ______If I had $15 d ollars with me, the product I’d buy from [YOUR BRAND] is ______Emotionally, the latest chain of products released by [YOUR BRAND] has made me very ______The product from [YOUR BRAND] that disappointed me the most is ________The product from [YOUR BRAND] that I’m looking forward to this year the most is _______By providing the entire statement, you can receive answers from your customers without using up too much of their time. One-word answers are the best way to get them to answer about your products and once you’ve got a great understanding on the type of product that’s doing well and not doing well, you’ll be able to build better products for future releases. Post Sneak Peek ImagesA great way to surprise your audience is by releasing an early image of your product and not revealing it completely. Don’t caption it, instead just put a “?”. This way you’ll find out just how excited your customers are for an upcoming product release. They’ll be all sorts of guessi ng games going on and your customers will interact with one another. This type of audience engagement creates buzz. From here on, you can either choose to directly launch the product or release another sneak peek image of the product to generate even more publicity for your product and engage your audience in a lot more conversations. But don’t make the mistake of building up the hype for too long or your audience will lose interest in your product. Always ensure to maintain a schedule and don’t just spam images. A good rule of the thumb is to reveal a sneak peek image a month before your product launch and another image 15 days before the launch. This will get your customers excited.Show your company’s workplaceSurely, your customers are just as curious to know how the operations go on behind closed doors. By revealing a video every month on different sections of operations, you’ll get your audience’s attention and they’ll be fascinated by the way your employees work an d get a full-on exposure on the type of work culture you breed. An inside look of the company is a great way to deeply connect with your most loyal fans. Post videos of your employees giving their own feedback on how they feel working with the company and why it’s great. Audience love interacting with companies that let them into their sacred space.  3. Facebook LiveA good percentage of the global population has access to high-speed internet access. Hence, high-quality videos and streaming are accessible to the general audience without any interference. Facebook Live is a live-streaming broadcasting service that allows brands to get personal with the audience by interacting with them in real-time. One of the biggest advantages of Facebook Live is connecting with the audience just before a product launch and providing various information to the customers. So, let’s say you’re launching a new juicer to your audience in less than 1 hour, by having an expert from the team logon to Facebook Live and connect with your audience, you build publicity for the brand. You also inform buyers before they purchase the product on what they can expect with your latest release. Demonstrate the product over Facebook live by showing all its features and usability. Discuss how and where the product has its greatest merits and the type of users who’ll enjoy it the most. Many customers tend to log in to Facebook Live sessions to get a glimpse of the product they intend to buy. The more you explain about the product the larger the hype train becomes.Provide AMA via Facebook LiveAnother great use for Facebook Live is to interact with your audience using “Ask Me Anything or AMA”. AMA is an interactive session where you allow the audience to ask you any questions that they want to about the product and your team directly provides a response in real-time. AMA is a great way to solve user queries and to show a confident company that isn’t afraid to answer questions in real t ime. It’s important to provide the dates of your AMA a week or fortnight before setting up the AMA. Also, ensure the best experts are qualified enough to answer the questions. Users don’t like vague answers that don’t give them any information. Ensure you put your best person who understands your product/service to interact with the audience.CLOSING WORDSA schedule must be maintained for effective Facebook engagement. Maintain a time zone that you can stick to. More posts don’t equal a better engagement, a timely frequency with high-quality engaging content is the right way to promote your brand. Don’t forget to collect data for every interaction that you have. Have the statisticians map out a report utilizing flow charts to determine whether the arrow is soaring or crashing down. Every little statistic makes an impact when marketing, so don’t underestimate them.

The Failure of the Post Civil War Reconstruction Period...

After the North won the civil war, it was time to rebuild this nation. This period of reconstruction was supposed to have a profound change on society. Unfortunately this was not the case. Reconstruction did not fundamentally alter this nation. Not to say that nothing happened, but nothing that really made a change or difference happened. First, the control of the south was given right back to the planter elite. Also, even though slavery was abolished; blacks were not free. Finally, Congress and President Johnson could not get along. Although the civil war reshaped this country profoundly. The reconstruction efforts did little but scratch a surface, before being quickly wiped away. After the civil war the South was†¦show more content†¦They also called for any officials to swear an oath of allegiance to the union.2 After Lincolns assassination, and Johnsons inaugeration these plans changed. Johnson pardoned all the southern leaders that were in trouble for seceding from the union. This effectively put them back in power in the South. Ultimately everything that congress and Lincoln had tried to do in the south. Taking back the power from those who seceded. As well as any help that was given to the poor whites or any blacks in the south was undone by Johnson. One of the biggest ways the reconstruction efforts failed was with giving equal rights to the black community. Although the slaves were freed it was very conditional freedom. The creation of Black codes made it seem like they were free. These codes made it possible for black families to remain intact. It also gave blacks the right to sue in court, and own property. This seems like prog ressive thinking at the time. The big problem with these codes is what they denied blacks. Blacks could not testify against whites. They could not own guns, or travel without permits. Although slavery had ended blacks were still being controlled. Without slaves to work in the fields the plantation owners needed workers. A lot of them would rent out their land to newly freed blacks. In exchange these poor blacks would have to give up 2/3 of their crop.3 The rest would be used to pay off their debts. This wouldShow MoreRelatedHow Did The Radical Republican s Rise For The Failure Of The Post Civil War Reconstruction?1619 Words   |  7 Pagescontribute to the failure of the post-civil war reconstruction? The time between 1863, when Lincoln passed the ten percent act, until the year 1877, when reconstruction was officially ended, will be evaluated with information provided by the sources. The investigation will specifically look to how the Lincoln assassination allowed for th e rise in the Radical Republican Party from 1866 to 1868 and the party’s effect on reconstruction acts leading to the failure of the post-civil war reconstruction era. EricRead MoreOrigin Of And Role Played By Manifest Destiny1323 Words   |  6 PagesSince then, scholars have used the term to refer to the expansionistic excitement that defined the 1840s. During that time, the United States’ population had more than quadrupled and Americans believed God had destined that they span the entire North America from one coast to the other. Although the term â€Å"Manifest Destiny† was used to typify the 1840s American expansionistic exuberance, it can be broadly used to characterize any country’s imperialistic thrusts (Harriet). In this regard, Utah, the indigenousRead MoreThe Civil War And Reconstruction Periods1118 Words   |  5 PagesThe Unfinished Revolution The Civil War and Reconstruction periods had many positive outcomes for America, such as the reunification of the Union, the expansion of the North and South’s economy, education for all, and much more. Although there were many positive results from these two periods, there was also an aftermath of much failure. The post Civil War, and Reconstruction period consisted of the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and the black code laws. Despite the fact that African American’s wereRead MoreCauses Of Reconstruction829 Words   |  4 PagesAmerica was in a rough spot after the Civil War between the Union and the Confederates. The South had her lands destroyed and ravaged by the Union armies, and thousands of slaves were suddenly freed from slavery. It was a time where the Radical Republicans were gaining power. A time where change was coming. This change would be Reconstruction. Reconstructions purpose, in simplicity, was to bring the South back into the Union and to somehow inte grate the freedmen. 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Despite the diffe ring opinions of the two regions, ‘Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee [...] sought readmission to the union’ knowing that they were agreeing to the abolishment of slavery under the Thirteenth Amendment; which abolished slavery, Fourteenth Amendment; that stated all persons born in the states were American citizens andRead MoreAndrew Johnson And Radical Reconstruction1285 Words   |  6 PagesAfter the American Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Americans entered a new period of Radical Reconstruction under the faulty presidency of his successor, Andrew Johnson. With the Emancipation Proclamation being put to use, America went through an abrupt and rigid shift from a slave heavy society to one now being forced to adopt new ideologies which centered around racial equality and acceptance. However, as with all new ideologies, an opposition also emerged. Due to Johnson’sRead MoreRecostruction Era and African American Integration1333 Words   |  5 Pagesaround the world remember the Civil War for a number of reasons. Some will argue that Northern victory in the war preserved the world’s first democracy. Others argue that the Civil War did not weaken the United States; it merely exposed the flaws in government and where it could be made stronger henceforth. Often, many forget that the Civil War affected the fate of nearly four million Americans, or slaves, as they were then labeled. The leaders of the Reconstruction were tasked with piecing a nationRead MoreHistoriography of the Reconstruction Era2240 Words   |  9 PagesRiham Elshazli Professor Clement Price Civil War and the Reconstruction 12/11/12 Historiography of the Reconstruction Era At a time when America was trying to piece itself back together, the Reconstruction Era is one of the most important chapters in history. It is also, however, one of the most debated. After the Civil War, the South was devastated and thousands of freed slaves needed to be integrated into society. When Andrew Johnson took office, he was moderate in his views as to what should

A Reading About Precious Jones Essay - 1343 Words

Reading About Precious Jones This book was probably the most brutal reading I’ve ever read. However, I found it incredibly eye-opening and excruciatingly honest about what life can be like for girls in impoverished and uneducated situations. Sapphire’s writing makes her character, Precious, seem real by incorporating her feelings, questions, and by writing in altered English grammar to make it seem as if her feelings are being spoken. I really enjoyed reading this book as it brought life and sensitivity to the statistics I’ve been reading about in my nursing clinicals and classes this semester. Blunt Truth or Exaggeration? There are children in this world who experience great trauma and neglect. The truth about this abuse is often hidden or ignored just like the children who experience such abuse. I personally have a friend who was mentally and sexually abused by her father for as long as she could remember until the day she moved out. Her mother was abused as well and ignored the abuse that was done to her two daughters. If such great trauma could be conceived in a white, middle-class family that regularly attended church in Western Michigan, the combination of abuse that Precious experienced is certainly conceivable in an impoverished place like Harlem where mortality rates are six times greater for adults aged 25-34 years than their white counterparts nationwide (Geronimus, Bound Colen, 2011). I think children do get starved of a good education, nutrition, and safetyShow MoreRelatedThoughts and Ideas on Saphires quot;Pushquot; Essay654 Words   |  3 Pagesthe life of one Precious Jones. Her life is scarred with rape, molestation, pregnancy, poverty, the HIV virus, illiteracy, and countless other instances which could be classified as unfortunate. My initial reaction to this novel was that I couldnt believe that all of these bad things can happen to one person. It seemed that as the text progressed, we found out more troubling details of Precious life. At the begging in it was tough to fully comprehend what was being said, as Precious writing includedRead MoreThe Counsel Of Heaven On Earth Essay1596 Words   |  7 Pages倀倀ODUCTION The Counsel of Heaven on Earth is a book written by Ian F. Jones on the topic of Christian counseling. Jones makes sure to let his readers know that this book is not meant to be a guide for Christian counseling; he in no way means to advocate a particular methodology, system, or school of thought. Instead, Jones is â€Å"[trying] to identify and explain the essential features of Biblical Christian counseling. No attempt has been made to engage in formal theory building or to develop systematicallyRead MorePrecious: A Case Study Essay1660 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿ Precious: A Case Study Kristan Hughart Wilmington University Precious: A Case Study The move Precious (based on the novel â€Å"Push† written by Sapphire), depicts the life of a 16 year old girl named Claireece â€Å"Precious† Jones. The story is set in Harlem, NY in 1987. Precious has suffered severe abuse throughout her life by both of her parents. She has seemed to have slipped through the cracks of the system from family, the school system, child services, as wellRead MoreRodney Jones Argument Against Homework714 Words   |  3 Pagesthe 10-year boys and girls who complain to their parents about the homework they have to complete. However, Rodney Jones starts of his argument against homework using this statement. He argues that homework does not help children taking up all their time. Continuing, he explains how parents should extend child’s knowledge out of school instead of homework and in the end these assignments do not help students grade. However, in contrast of Jones’ beliefs homework indeed benefits children’s learnin g throughRead MoreEssay Psychology in Precious1030 Words   |  5 PagesPrecious, a movie based on the book Push written by Sapphire, is an interesting movie directed by Lee Daniels. Precious can be easily analyzed using basic motivation and emotion theories in psychology. The movie is about Claireece Precious Jones and how she becomes a strong, independent woman after breaking through her curse of physical and sexual abuse which she has endured since she was three months old. At the beginning, Precious is physically and verbally abused by her mother. In additionRead MoreEssay about Precious: The Film1410 Words   |  6 PagesThe 2009 film directed by Lee Daniels, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, tells a story about the life of a 16-year-old, Claireece â€Å"Precious† Jones, who grew up in Harlem during the late 1980s. Precious lives a life that includes many sociological issues that have unarguably caused her great pain throughout her young life. Having endu red poverty, sexual abuse, and verbal abuse her life has been far from perfect, but she realizes the need to defeat these negative sociological factors toRead MoreTheory of Neurosis from Karen Horney1721 Words   |  7 PagesThe following is an essay is based on the theory of neurosis from Karen Horney, and applied to the lead character of the movie Precious. Precious, the movie is based on the life and times of a character, Clarisse Precious Jones, who was raised in Harlem in the late 1980’s. She was raped by her father from an early age, which is revealed closer to the end of the movie, and ends up having two children from him; one of which is a â€Å"mongoloid†. Her relationship with her mother is also on rocky round andRead MorePrecious2771 Words   |  12 PagesThe movies starts off with a picture of a red scarf hanging off a street lamp and then flying through the air. Harlem, 1987. Clarice Precious Jones (Gabourey Sildibe) is in a math class, daydreaming. She is wearing a red scarf. Much of the film is in first-person narration. She narrates, My name is Clarice Precious Jones. I want to be on the cover of a magazine. I wish I had a light-skinned boyfriend with good hair. But first I want to be in one of those BET videos, and we see a fantasy sequenceRead MoreThe Story Of A Writer1505 Words   |  7 Pagesin Katelyn Howard’s life. Reading Junie B. Jones, learning her address and tracing letters in her kindergarten class was monumental. 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The Environment of Crisis on the Nigerian Educational System Free Essays

string(49) " cannot afford the luxury of long-term planning\." Comparative Education Volume 33 No. 1 1997 pp. 87 ± 95 The Environment of Crises in the Nigerian Education System CORDELIA C. We will write a custom essay sample on The Environment of Crisis on the Nigerian Educational System or any similar topic only for you Order Now NWAGWU ABSTRACT The Nigerian education system witnessed tremendous expansion between independence in 1960 and 1995. However, the rate declined after 1986 when economic depression resulted in the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme. A population explosion, frequent changes in the government due to military coups, a depressed economy and unplanned and uncontrolled educational expansion all created an environment of crisis in the education system. The crises included those of poor funding, inadequate facilities, admission and certi ® cate racketeering, examination malpractices, general indiscipline and the emergence of secret cults. Personnel management problems resulted in frequent strikes and closures and the abandonment of academic standards. The thesis is that any society which stimulates the uncoordinated growth of its education system and then fails to provide the necessary dedicated teachers, teaching and learning facilities and operating funds for staff and student welfare services, is creating an environment within which all types of problems and crises will ? urish. Lessons for other developing nations include the need for democratically elected stable governments instead of military regimes and better planning, funding and management of the education system. The National Policy on Education (NPE) It is necessary to examine brie? y the present system of education and its immediate past in order to appreciate the na ture, causes and magnitude of the different types of crises in the system. The National Policy on Education (NPE) popularly referred to as the 6-3-3-4 system, was introduced in 1977 and then revised in 1981 (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1981). It marked a radical departure from the British system of education which Nigeria inherited at independence in 1960. Basically it adopted the American system of 6 years of primary education, 3 years of junior secondary school, 3 years of senior secondary school, and 4 years of university education. Primary education is free, but not compulsory. Junior secondary education is supposed to be free, but it is not yet so in any of the 30 states in the federation. The transition from primary to junior secondary education was planned to be automatic but many states conduct competitive entrance examinations since the available junior secondary schools cannot accommodate all the aspirants. A major emphasis in the NPE is the teaching of pre-vocational subjects to all students at the junior secondary level. The learning of Nigerian languages is also compulsory at the primary and secondary school levels. Much more attention is being paid to women’ s education and the teaching of science, technical and vocational subjects at the senior secondary and tertiary levels. Although many policy documents support decentralisation of the system of administration, there is an ever-increasing tendency towards centralisation of Correspondence to: Cordelia C. Nwagwu, Institute of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. 0305-0068/97/010087-09 $7. 00 O 1997 Carfax Publishing Ltd 88 C. C. Nwagwu ducational control especially as the federal government is called upon to assume a greater role in the funding of the education system at all levels. During the 1993 ± 1994 academic year, there were 38,254 primary schools, 5959 secondary schools, 55 colleges of education, 45 polytechnics and colleges of technology and 35 universities in Nigeria. Though some critics consider the above statistics inadequate for a country with approximately 100 million people, the number of institutions repr esents a phenomenal rate of expansion of the education system between 1960 and 1993. Indeed, at independence there was only one university college, one college of technology, no colleges of education (only 280 low-level teacher training colleges) and 443 secondary schools (Fafunwa, 1974). It is generally acknowledged that the system has developed quantitatively, but it lacks many of the ingredients needed for qualitative growth. The problems in the Nigerian education system which have reached crisis dimensions are direct consequences of the rapid, unplanned, uncontrolled and uncoordinated expansion of the system. Contextual and Theoretical Framework Nigeria has been politically independent for the past 35 years. During this period, a democratically elected civil government has only been in power for 10 years. The remaining 25 years have witnessed military rule by different military regimes which seized power in military coups. All over the world, military regimes, which although they claim to be a corrective intervention, are usually seen as an aberration since they govern by force and not by the wish of the people. They tend to be unpopular, undemocratic, dictatorial, corrupt and unaccountable to anyone except themselves. In Nigeria, long periods of military rule have created problems of instability, uncertainty and degeneration on the political, economic, social and educational scenes. There are very many educational policies which are released in the form of decrees and edicts, but the policy implementation has been haphazard and quite unsatisfactory. Irregular and sudden changes in the government leadership result in good educational policies failing to be implemented in full or even started. In Nigeria there have been ten different governments since 1960, that is an average of one every 3. years. Many people have attributed the various crises currently plaguing the Nigerian education system to the poor and unstable national leadership, the ripple effects of which tend to hit education programmes and institutions hardest. For example, every new government prefers to start its own projects rather than to complete those started by its predecessors. Consequently, in many educational institutions, from universities to primary schools, we  ® nd uncompleted and abandoned buildings and other facilities. To make matters worse for the Nigerians and the education system, military regimes have no de ® ned mandate and duration, so the military of ® cers appointed by their seniors to administrative and political positions see their appointments as temporary. They have no constituency and, invariably, they are posted to administer a state other than that of their own origin. With little commitment to the people or to the development of the education system, they cannot afford the luxury of long-term planning. You read "The Environment of Crisis on the Nigerian Educational System" in category "Essay examples" In this operational environment, the education system becomes very vulnerable to crisis. Moreover, in the view of MacKinnon (1960), it is unfortunately true that the opportunities for patronage and, in the Nigerian case, ethnicity and religion as well, will usually bring into power and government institutions people who have mediocre ability or who are more concerned with self-interest than with the welfare of the public and the education system. Therefore, the administrative style of the military governments in Nigeria has created a context within which ordinary organisational and managerial problems in the schools quickly turned into intractable crises. The military governments appeared more interested in exercisCrises in the Nigerian Education System 89 ing absolute control over the teachers and students, whom they perceived as potential troublemakers, than in intervening in educational problems which could not be settled quickly with decrees and edicts. This was especially so where the release of funds was involved. Educational planning has been described as the application of a rational, systematic analysis to the process of educational development so that national education can respond more effectively to the needs of individuals and society. Coombs (1970, p. 15) opined that although educational planning per se is not the source of policies and decisions, people who have such responsibilities need it to guide them. It is the argument of this paper that because the Nigerian leaders did not pay suf ® cient attention to educational planning, particularly during the long periods of undemocratic non-consultative military governments, they could not keep the intricate internal and external relationships of the educational system in a reasonable balance. As there were rapid dynamic changes in the social and economic circumstances of the country, the education system could not adjust quickly enough and so the environment of crises became inevitable. Whatever educational planning existed in Nigeria during the unstable and tense years of military regime exhibited the characteristics which Coombs (1970, p. 19) described as focusing on the mechanics and logistics of education rather than on the needs of the students and society. Such planning was therefore short-term in outlook, fragmentary in its coverage, non-integrated and non-dynamic. Moreover, the social demand approach to educational planning was emphasised by various governments in Nigeria, both civilian and military, for political and propaganda reasons. Thus, for example, the refusal to charge tuition fees in the universities and the policy of establishing a federal university and a polytechnic or college of education in every state in Nigeria were politically popular but educationally and economically irrational decisions. The policy was made when there were only 12 states in Nigeria. Now that there are 30 states, with the military government in the process of creating more states in 1996, the funding crisis in higher education is being further aggravated. Any education system that emphasises growth and expansion without due regard to the development of reliable sources of funding, an adequate supply of trained teachers for different academic programmes, infrastructural facilities to accommodate natural and stimulated increases in school population and a dynamic economy to absorb its graduates from the schools is laying the seeds that will, on germination, create an environment in which all types of crises will ? urish. Such is the experience of the Nigerian education system. Funding and Educational Development We can examine the crises in Nigerian education from two broad perspectives. One approach is to look at different periods in the development of education in the country and the major crises that featured during each period. This method was adopted by Ocho ( 1995) when he grouped the crises periods as follows. (1) The crisis of irrrelevance, 1842 ± 1954. (2) The crisis of unequal expansion, 1955 ± 1969. (3) The crisis of unplanned expansion, 1970 ± 1983. 4) The crisis of  ® nancial inadequacy, 1984 ± 1994. In this paper, we shall adopt the second approach which focuses on the crises which have plagued a given period. Here, we shall concentrate on Nigerian education in the last decade and a half, 1980 ± 1995, a period that has created alarm among educational administrators, parents, teachers, students and even the international community. The crisis of educational funding is a fundamental issue because critical shortages of 90 C. C. Nwagwu  ® nance have affected the organisation and administration of education at all levels. The oil glut in the world market in the early 1980s led to a sudden decline in revenue from petroleum products which had accounted for approximately 80% of Nigeria’ s income from exports. The consequences were immediate. The free universal primary education (UPE) scheme which was started by the federal government in 1976 was hurriedly handed over to state governments and the poor ones could not sustain the programme. Bursary awards for student teachers were stopped and subsidised feeding for students in higher education institutions was also abolished. The chairman of the Implementation Committee on the NPE, Dr J. S. Sofolahan, summarised the situation when he said in his 1991 report that `The National Policy was conceived in times of oil boom, born in times of oil glut, and nurtured in times of economic depression’ (Sofolahan, 1991). Chuta (1995) said it was important to note that there was a decline of 6% in real gross domestic product (GDP) between 1980 and 1990 and he referred to this as bad for the future of Nigeria. In 1994, the Central Bank of Nigeria reported that the money supply, particularly by way of de ® cit  ® nancing in the economy, increased from 5 N 24. 3 million in 1980 to over 5 N 64. 9 million in 1990. This led to tremendous increases in the prices of goods and services. The Nigerian currency was seriously devalued from the naira to US dollar ratio of 1:1 in 1985 to 85:1 in 1995. Neither individuals nor the educational institutions could cope with the rate of in? ation. Worse still, the federal government reduced its subvention to educational institutions. For example, while student enrolment in the universities continued to increase, the government expenditure per student declined from 5 N 3085 in the 1980 ± 1981 academic year to 5 N 3057 in the 1984 ± 1985 academic year, in spite of rising costs and in? ation in the economy (Akangbou, 1986). In 1994 ± 1995, the government spent 5 N 5000 per university student, but the real value in terms of 1984 ± 1985 purchasing power was only 5 N 500. The management of the education funding crisis has been very unsatisfactory. Basically, the strategy has been to pass the responsibility for  ® nding extra funds from one tier of government to another, and to ask parents to pay fees where none were paid before or to pay more where government subsidies had formerly been provided. For example, the annual tuition fees in state-owned universities increased from an average of 5 N 1000 in 1990 to 5 N 3000 in 1993 and then to 5 N 7000 in 1995 ± 1996. At the secondary level, the tuition fees, even in states that had free secondary education in 1990, rose from an average of 5 N 300 in 1993 to over 5 N 600 in 1995 ± 1996. To help pay primary school teachers’ salaries which were owed several months in arrears, the federal government established the National Primary Education Commission by Decree No. 31 of 1988. This was later abolished by Decree No. 3 of 1991, but was re-established by another government by Decree No. 3 of 1994. Another strategy to address the education funding crisis was the merging of some federal universities. However, the succeeding government, for political reasons rather than to improve the sourcing of funds, demerged them in the late 1980s and they exist today as separate universities. For their part, some institutional authorities embarked on the retrenchment of staff and a reduction in enrolments. These administrative decisions associated with poor funding created problems and shortages in the educational environment. Crisis in Facilities Management The inadequacy of the infrastructural facilities to cope with the very rapid rate of expansion in student enrolment is a major source of crisis in the education system. There are two main reasons for this situation. The  ® rst is a high birth rate of 3. % per annum, thus providing a relatively young population, with 48% of the total population under 15 years of age. The second reason is economic depression and in? ation which have made it dif ® cult to build new Crises in the Nigerian Education System 91 classrooms, maintain the old ones and buy new equipment. In 1985 ± 1986, there were 12. 9 million pupils in the primary schools. The  ® gure for 1993 ± 1994 was 15. 87 million pupils. During this period, ver y few new classrooms were built to accommodate the extra 3 million pupils, hence there is a problem of overcrowded classroms today. It was the same story in the secondary schools in the period 1989 ± 1994 as Table I shows. TABLE I. Classrooms and enrolments in Nigerian schools Primary schools Secondary schools Year Classrooms Enrolments Classrooms Enrolments 1989 ± 1990 375,726 12,721,087 76,819 2,749,528 1991 ± 1992 377,439 13,776,854 82,930 3,123. 277 1993 ± 1994 447,859 15,870,280 104,693 4,032,083 Source: Educational Data Bank, Federal Republic of Nigeria (1995). The crisis of the shortage of the infrastructure and facilities is felt everywhere and at all levels of the education system. The library facilities and books are grossly inadequate and so is the provision of classrooms, classroom furniture, laboratories and workshops. Hostels are not available in some institutions, including universities. Where some are provided, the rooms are crowded with students. Chuta (1995) observed that the hostel room shortage had become so acute that a black market racket had developed. In many institutions, buses for students have broken down beyond repair, while even electricity and good drinking water are not assured on a daily basis. To address the shortage of facilities, parents are often asked to provide chairs, desks and beds for their children in the primary and secondary schools. The government obtained a World Bank loan to purchase books and instructional materials for use in the universities and for secondary schools the federal government secures equipment for vocational workshops under a bilateral agreement with some East European countries such as Bulgaria. Unfortunately, some schools cannot install and use these because they lack the necessary electricity and/or water for their operation, as well as trained technicians to manage and maintain them. The objectives of the NPE cannot be attained in the absence of teaching and learning facilities. Indeed, the environment of the critical shortages of the infrastructure, facilities and services is a frustrating and crisis-generating one. Crisis of Indiscipline and Standards Critics from within and outside education are often locked in serious controversy over whether the standards in Nigerian education are rising or falling because they cannot agree on what the standards ought to be in the  ® rst instance. However, Nwagwu (1990) argued that minimum standards in education should be perceived as yardsticks for responding positively to the challenges of relevance, need satisfaction, quality and excellence in the education system. Therefore, any system that fails to meet the population’ s expectations of providing the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes they require to solve individual and societal problems, has fallen below the expected standards. This, in the view of Coombs (1968, p. ), implies subjecting the input into the education system, the programmes and processes and the education system’ s outcomes or products to critical analysis. In this paper, the standards in Nigerian education have been deliberately linked to the various acts of indiscipline that appear to be on the increase at all levels of the system. Three 92 C. C. Nwagwu major acts of indiscipline? admission rackets, examination of malpractices and secret cult activities? will be discussed. Admissions M alpractices Due to the limited vacancies and high demand for placement into secondary and tertiary institutions, there is an admissions crisis, which in turn has affected standards for two main reasons. Firstly, the quota system leads to the rejection of many brilliant candidates and the admission of weak ones because of their place of origin and the connections they have with important personalities. For example, the Federal Ministry of Education formula for admission into the federal secondary schools is as follows: merit 15%, states quota 40%, environment (catchment zone) 30% and exigency (discretion) 15%. The formula for admission into federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education is merit 40%, states quota 30%, catchment zone 20% and discretion 10%. Secondly and arising from a down-grading of merit as a basis for admission, there is much racketeering during the exercise. Bribery, corruption and nepotism become agents that ensure admission of weak candidates and, at times, even of the bright ones who have lost faith in merit, fair play and justice. As a result of this situation, mediocrity and economic power take precedence over academic standards. Examination Malpractices Related to the admissions crisis is the desperate need to obtain certi ® cates and, consequently, the serious crisis of examination malpractices. Chuta (1995) identi ® ed four main strategies for cheating in examinations by the code names given to them in Nigeria by the students. (1) Life mercenary service by which an academically able person enters the hall and writes the examination for the real candidate. 2) Hall assistance whereby materials useful for answering the questions are brought into the hall with the collusion of the supervisors and invigilators. (3) Express service by which the real candidate sits in the hall while a hired person writes the examination outside and later smuggles the answer scripts into the hall. (4) Super express service whereby the candidate is given the question papers in advance; the candidate writes the answers at home a nd then brings the scripts into the hall on the examination day. Alarmed by this development, the West African Examinations Council and other examination boards cancel thousands of students’ results every year and ban some schools from serving as examination centres. The students affected are expelled or suspended. The Nigerian Government also directed that offenders should face special tribunals under the Miscellaneous Offences Decree to ensure speedy trials and stiff penalties. An important step in solving the problem is to examine the environment that has created the need for these vices and crises in the education system. A proper analysis puts the blame on two main factors. One is the education system itself which puts so much emphasis on examinations. Worse still, the assessment of a student’ s performance is placed on just one examination either for admission to or for the award of a particular certi ® cate. Continuous assessment is still new in the system and it is not a part of the evaluation process for many examinations, such as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination for entrance into the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. Crises in the Nigerian Education System 93 Another factor is that Nigerian society, as in many developing countries, places too much value on the possession of certi ® cates rather than on the acquisition of requisite knowledge and skills. Many students, therefore, supported by their parents and teachers, even resort to criminal activities (including membership of secret cults) to pass the public examinations which will secure these cherished certi ® cates and help obtain admission into higher institutions or employment. The bogus certi ® cates which many people carry about are, in essence, a manifestation of what Dore (1976, p. ) referred to as `the quali ® cation ± escalation ratchet’ and `the diploma disease’ . In Nigeria today, students refer to their educational certi ® cates as `meal tickets’ . Their main preoccupation is with how to obtain the certi ® cate and not with how much knowledge and skill they have acquired from the teaching and learning experiences in their schools. Unfortun ately, the educational environment has not fostered positive attitudes towards the acquisition of essential knowledge, values and skills as a condition for deserving an educational certi ® cate. With educational institutions very poorly funded and with great shortages of quali ® ed teachers, instructional facilities and materials, very little effective teaching and, hence, learning, takes place in the schools. Confronted by employers and a society that are so certi ® cate conscious and competitive entrance examinations into higher education institutions, the environment for admissions racketeering, examinations malpractices and membership of secret cults is properly set. Personnel Management Problems After independence, there was an unprecedented popular pressure to build more schools and to train more and better teachers. The government responded positively to this social demand for education without serious regard to a cost ± bene ® t analysis of the implications. Consequently, between 1960 and 1985, primary school enrolment increased  ® ve times and secondary enrolment over 22 times, while higher education enrolment increased 84 times. As expected, there was also a tremendous increase in the number and quality of teachers. Part-time and sandwich in-service programmes expanded between 1985 and 1995 and led to many professionally trained teachers with the National Certi ® cate in Education (NCE) and  ® rst degrees in education. As a result of this positive development, salaries and allowances have also increased so much that some state and local governments can no longer regularly meet their monthly obligations to teachers. With poor and sometimes unpaid teachers’ salaries and allowances, the environment has been created for frustration, indiscipline, a lack of dedication to duty and frequent strike action among teachers at all levels. Bereday (1969) remarked that `Financing education is an under-developed and unimaginative enterprise’ (p. ix) and this is very true in Nigeria. Today there are overcrowded classrooms, overworked and underpaid teachers and double sessions particularly in urban areas, yet there are many unemployed but well-trained professional teachers. Hardly a month passes without either a group of primary, secondary or higher education teachers being out on total strike action demanding improved conditions of service. This disrupts academic sessions, breeds ill-taught graduates and retards educational development in the country. The quality of all education systems re? ects the quality, dedication and motivation of its teachers. If teachers are well-supported by the government and society, they can use their commitment and teaching competence to help stem the crisis of student indiscipline and examination malpractices and to reduce the impact of the shortages of facilities and funds. 94 C. C. Nwagwu Conclusion This analysis of the condition of education in Nigeria shows that unplanned and uncontrolled expansion of the system, inadequate funding, corruption and poor management are mainly responsible for the many types of crises there are today. The organisational climate is not conductive to serious teaching and learning. This is because over the decades, particularly under the military regimes, Nigeria has pursued the policy of an unrestrained positive response to the social demand for education. Thus, within the education system germs of problems had a fertile environment in which to grow until they have become chronic diseases that now threaten the very existence of the system. The Nigerian Government appear to have ignored the important advice given by educators such as Dore (1976, p. 8) that the effect of schooling, the way it alters a person’ s capacity to behave and do things, depends not only on what is learned, but also on how and why it is learned and the environment within which it is learned. There are a few general lessons to learn from the Nigerian experience. The  ® rst is the need for developing countries to aspire to be governed by stable, popular, democratically elected governments which can develop long-term as well as short-term plans for the articulated development of the nation and the education system. Military regimes are arguably incapable of providing such leadership because the hand-picked military junta does not have the training and experience nor the mandate, time and temperament to operate in this way. Secondly, good policies that are haphazardly implemented can create crises. For example, the quota system of admission came into being in Nigeria to meet the demands of the `federal character’ provision enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This was designed to ensure an equitable representation of all parts of the country in all the federal institutions and the protection of minority and disadvantaged groups such as women. Unfortunately, the formula produced by the government of ® cials for the quota system neither ensures equity nor merit because of its defective formulation and worse still, its poor, dishonest and undisciplined application. The Nigerian experience highlights the point that supervision of the effective implementation of education policies is thus as important as their initial formulation. Thirdly, Nigerian experience suggests that the planning and management of the education system should be left to professional educators who arguably have the training, experience and, above all, the interest and commitment necessary to achieve the effective development of the system and the attainment of both short-term and long-term educational aims and objectives. Fourthly, schooling is not synonymous with education and political leaders should constantly be made aware of this. Therefore, a situation in which young people are stimulated to go to school but are then denied reasonable facilities and opportunities for effective teaching and learning experiences is likely to lead to a crisis, not only in the education system but also for society as a whole. In Nigeria today, there is a crisis of con ® dence in the ability of the education system to tackle the many serious problems confronting it. Nigeria is at a crossroads where she must develop the courage to  ® ght problems which range from home to school and through society to government. The  ® rst major step is a recognition that the environment that has generated and supported the identi ® ed crises in Nigerian education must be changed if an operational climate that will ensure effective teaching and learning is to be achieved. In the  ® nal analysis, however, what is needed most are more stable education policies which are faithfully implemented, better planning and the management and utilisation of whatever material and human resources re available for developing and maintaining an effective and ef ® cient education system. Crises in the Nigerian Education System 95 REFERENCES AKANGBOU, S. D. (1986) Financing Nigerian Universities (Ibadan, University of Ibadan, Faculty of Education Lecture Series, No. 2). BEREDAY, G. Z. (1969) Essays on World Education: the crises of supply and demand (New York, Oxford Univ ersity Press). CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (1994) Statistical Bulletin, 5(1). CHUTA, E. J. 1995) Money syndrome, paper presented at the 10th Congress of the Nigerian Academy of Education at Abuja (Abuja, November 9, 1995). COOMBS, P. H. (1968) The World Educational Crisis: a systems analysis (London, Oxford University Press). COOMBS, P. H. (1970) What is Educational Planning? (Paris, UNESCO IIEP). DORE, R. (1976) The Diploma Disease: education, quali ® cation and development (London, George Allen Unwin). FAFUNWA, A. B. (1974) A History of Education in Nigeria (London, George Allen Unwin). FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (1990) Statistics of Education in Nigeria 1985 ± 1989 (Lagos, Government Printer). FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (1995) Educational Data Bank (Lagos, Federal Ministry of Education). FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (1981) The National Policy on Education (Lagos, Government Printer). FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (1995) Educational Data Bank Statistics (Lagos, Federal Ministry of Education). MACKINNON, F. (1960) The Politics of Education (Toronto, University of Toronto Press). NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION (1993) NUC Statistical Digest 1988 ± 1992 (Lagos, NUC). NWAGWU, N. A. (1990) The Concept of Minimum Standards in Education. Second Nathan Ejiogu Memorial Lecture, Nsukka, University of Nigeria. OCHO, L. O. (1995) A history of the crisis in the Nigerian education system, in: O. ANIMBA, P. OMOLUABI O. ANOWOR (Eds) The Nigerian Education System in Crisis, pp. 55 ± 63 (Enugu, Amazing Grace Publishers). SOFOLAHAN, J. S. (1991) Chairman’ s Report to the National Policy on Education Implementation Committee (Lagos, Federal Ministry of Education). How to cite The Environment of Crisis on the Nigerian Educational System, Essay examples

Psych unit 9 Essays - Reflexes, Childhood, Human Development

Psych unit 9 Are humans completely helpless at birth? In the past, some philosophers and psychologist believed that humans are born as blank slates - helpless and without any skills or reflexes. In fact, they believed this lack of reflexes was one of the factors that separated humans from animals. Researchers now know that humans are far from blank slates when we are born. All babies exhibit a set of specific reflexes which specific, inborn, automatic response to certain specific stimuli. Some important releases humans are born with are: Rooting reflex - is an infant's response to touch near the mouth or the check. The infant will turn their head to the sie which he or she felt the touch. Sucing reflex - when an object is placed into the baby's mouth the infant will suck on it. (the combination of rooting and sucking reflexes helps babies eat. Grasping reflex - is an infants clinging response to a touch on the palm of the hand Moro reflex - When startled, a baby will fling their limbs our and then quickly making themselves as small as possible Babinski reflex - when a baby's foot is stroked, they will spread the toes