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Some institutions of higher education in Kenya have adopted e-Learning with the aim of coping with the increased demand for university education and to widen access to university training and education. Though there are advantages that accrue from adopting e-Learning; its implementation and provision has not been smooth sailing. It has had to contend with certain national, organisational, technical and social challenges that undermine its successful implementation. This paper therefore aims...

A STUDY WAS MADE OF THE FEASIBILITY OF CANADIAN ASSISTANCE IN DEVELOPING NATIONS IN THE WORLD LITERACY CAMPAIGN. NEEDS FOR SPECIALIZED PERSONNEL, MASS MEDIA SERVICES, LITERATURE BUREAUS AND LIBRARIES, INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES, AUDIOVISUAL AND OTHER EQUIPMENT, AND PROVISION FOR TEACHER EDUCATION, WOMEN'S EDUCATION, AND RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WERE IDENTIFIED. RELEVANT CANADIAN PROGRAMS OF OVERSEAS AID BY BOTH GOVERNMENTAL AND NONGOVERNMENTAL BODIES (INCLUDING UNIVERSITIES) WERE...

Nutrition knowledge plays an important role in public health. It is one of the factors that affects the nutrition habits of individuals, families and communities. It provides a good foundation for making proper decisions regarding food choice and nutrition practices. To determine the demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with nutrition knowledge among primary school pupils in Laikipia County. A cross sectional study involving a total of 326 pupils aged 12-14 years recruited into...

Although education stakeholders agreed on achieving Education for All by 2015, high wastage rates in developing countries has remained a major concern. In Kenya, data shows that more than one million primary age children are still out school. In many countries, school feeding programmes has been used as one of the interventions to promote retention and improving learning outcomes in primary schools. The paper therefore investigated the status of school feeding policy initiatives in primary...

Background: We examined the component skills of reading comprehension (i.e., letter sound knowledge, syllable reading fluency, decoding fluency, text or oral reading fluency and listening comprehension) and their structural relations using data from three sub-Saharan African languages with transparent orthographies in a multilingual context. Methods: Data from Kiswahili (N = 946), Kikamba (N = 444) and Lubukusu (N = 499) reading assessments at the end of Grade 2 in Kenya were analysed using...

Background: We examined the component skills of reading comprehension (i.e., letter sound knowledge, syllable reading fluency, decoding fluency, text or oral reading fluency and listening comprehension) and their structural relations using data from three sub-Saharan African languages with transparent orthographies in a multilingual context. Methods: Data from Kiswahili (N = 946), Kikamba (N = 444) and Lubukusu (N = 499) reading assessments at the end of Grade 2 in Kenya were analysed using...

The linguistic interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 1979, 2000) states that children's second-language (L2) proficiency is, to some extent, a function of their first-language (L1) competence. Previous studies have examined this hypothesis with focus on a unidirectional relation from L1 to L2. In the present study, we examined bidirectional influences of literacy skills in multilingual contexts, and whether the nature of relations varied as a function of literacy instruction environment. To...

The linguistic interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 1979, 2000) states that children's second-language (L2) proficiency is, to some extent, a function of their first-language (L1) competence. Previous studies have examined this hypothesis with focus on a unidirectional relation from L1 to L2. In the present study, we examined "bidirectional" influences of literacy skills in multilingual contexts, and whether the nature of relations varied as a function of literacy instruction environment. To...

The linguistic interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 1979, 2000) states that children's second-language (L2) proficiency is, to some extent, a function of their first-language (L1) competence. Previous studies have examined this hypothesis with focus on a unidirectional relation from L1 to L2. In the present study, we examined "bidirectional" influences of literacy skills in multilingual contexts, and whether the nature of relations varied as a function of literacy instruction environment. To...

The linguistic interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 1979, 2000) states that children's second-language (L2) proficiency is, to some extent, a function of their first-language (L1) competence. Previous studies have examined this hypothesis with focus on a unidirectional relation from L1 to L2. In the present study, we examined "bidirectional" influences of literacy skills in multilingual contexts, and whether the nature of relations varied as a function of literacy instruction environment. To...

Abstract: The article traces the policy history of Kenya over more than 40 years (1963–2006) in order to tease out the tensions between the key themes of its own national agenda and the priorities of its principal development partners. The national concerns with the education-and-employment connection and with the orientation of schooling towards skills for work in the formal and informal economies can be contrasted with the aid agency priorities on quality and on education-for-poverty...

Abstract: The article traces the policy history of Kenya over more than 40 years (1963–2006) in order to tease out the tensions between the key themes of its own national agenda and the priorities of its principal development partners. The national concerns with the education-and-employment connection and with the orientation of schooling towards skills for work in the formal and informal economies can be contrasted with the aid agency priorities on quality and on education-for-poverty...

The article traces the policy history of Kenya over more than 40 years (1963-2006) in order to tease out the tensions between the key themes of its own national agenda and the priorities of its principal development partners. The national concerns with the education-and-employment connection and with the orientation of schooling towards skills for work in the formal and informal economies can be contrasted with the aid agency priorities on quality and on education-for-poverty reduction....

The nine papers in this document represent the final report of a workshop on research on literacy in developing countries. It is noted in the introduction by Kenneth King that research in literacy tends to be performed by persons who are also literacy activists and that the problem of motivation seems to be central to most literacy research. It is suggested that adult literacy research must be connected with research on the quality and effectiveness of elementary and secondary education. The...

This paper uses sociocultural theories of language learning to investigate how teachers and students navigate between monolingual institutional policies and the multilingual realities encountered in a rural Kenyan fourth-grade classroom. The paper addresses not only how learners' communicative repertoires are deployed to make meaning in a foreign-language instruction context but also the sociocultural significance of these communicative practices. Results illustrate how the science teacher...

Research in educational linguistics is now challenging the efficacy of monolingual approaches that often dominate educational practices in multilingual settings. In most African nations where multilingualism is the norm, there remains a persistent reluctance by educational stakeholders (principals, teachers, parents, and students) to embrace multilingualism in education or to reposition local languages as resources in classrooms. This article draws on qualitative data from a multilingual,...

This article discusses the findings of an empirical study that investigated the writing practices in a multilingual, rural, fourth-grade classroom in Kenya. The study was undergirded by Bakhtin's heteroglossia. Analysis of texts indicated that these emergent multilinguals used multiple semiotic resources to maximize the chances of meeting the communicative goals through translanguaging. However, the translanguaging process in writing was a tension-filled process in terms of language...

This article discusses the findings of an empirical study that investigated the writing practices in a multilingual, rural, fourth-grade classroom in Kenya. The study was undergirded by Bakhtin's heteroglossia. Analysis of texts indicated that these emergent multilinguals used multiple semiotic resources to maximize the chances of meeting the communicative goals through translanguaging. However, the translanguaging process in writing was a tension-filled process in terms of language...

Bakhtinian concepts of persuasive and authoritative discourse, this study reports on science and English language arts instructional practices in a multilingual, rural, fourth-grade classroom in Kenya. Situated in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) and through the use of case study, the study explores classroom discourse data to illustrate how teachers use instructional practices to reproduce, contest, or navigate prevailing institutional monolingual policies when mediating students'...

Research on discourse in African classrooms has shown the predominance of teacher centered instructional practices. Teacher centered discourse patterns have been blamed for student passivity and disengagement in knowledge production. In this article, we investigate teachers' use of the invariant tag isn't it in Kenyan primary classrooms during ELA and math lessons. Using Bernstein's pedagogical device theory, we submit that the tag plays a regulative function in classroom discourse. Based on...