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Nigerian government is making frantic efforts to drive her economy by laying emphasis on technical and vocational education to enable her compete favorably in the global market. Emphasis of government is in Polytechnic education where skills for self-reliant and economic growth are a priority. However, women are not embracing this opportunity by participating in the program that will equip them with skills and contribute to national development. In all 14 female participants were purposefully selected from Polytechnic. Phenomenological methodology was adopted and data collected were transcribed and analyzed. Results from the study include math/science phobia, perceived social support, and contextual roles among reasons for misrepresentation of women in technical and vocational education. Unless women have increased access to technical and vocational education in order to build diverse technical skills their vulnerability to unemployment and poverty will be on the rise. The findings of this study will guide stakeholders to develop a framework for improving the enrollment of women in this field.Keywords: women, technical and vocational education, self-reliant and unemployment

The COVID-19 pandemic altered people's life dramatically worldwide, with major concerns in different economic, political, scientific, and public health aspects. The impact on the lifestyle behaviour of the young generation was larger than anticipated. To better understand the influential factors on the lifestyle of tertiary students in an NZ polytechnic due to the COVID-19 pandemic and their correlations, a questionnaire was administrated online by SurveyMonkey to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on life overall, study time and reasons for changing, stress level, living conditions, eating patterns, choice of food, physical activity level, social activities, and sleep time. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, frequency, and correlations to explore the patterns of the influences and the impact of COVID-19 on the proposed questions. The results showed that the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on students' life, in general, was 3.8 (from 0: not at all to 5: considerably). The main reasons for students who either needed an extension or time-off or changed to part-time study were increased stress level (63%), financial reasons (16%), and family responsibilities (14%). For the comparison aspects (prior vs. post-COVID-19 lockdown), meaningful differences were observed in physical activity level (3.26 vs. 2.50) (from 1: very light to 5: very active); and the importance of factors that influenced the choice of food was convenience (3.62 vs. 3.41) and nutrition value (3.65 vs. 3.50) (from 1: very less important to 5: very important). Students were anxious because of fear of infection, lacked physical exercise due to lockdown, and had trouble sleeping. The results of the study provide useful information on the impact on daily life for tertiary students in pandemic times. The research findings can inform health professionals of these influences for appropriate policy decisions and public health practices to promote a healthy lifestyle during a pandemic.

AbstractDespite its successful expansion over the past two decades, Kenya's Youth Polytechnic Programme1 is widely regarded as having failed to achieve its original objectives. The programme was supposed to provide a non‐formal training to unemployed school‐leavers in skills directly related to local income‐generating opportunities. Critics, especially amongst the influential Aid Community, have complained of excessive formalization and an orientation in the polytechnics to certification and paid employment. A recent national tracer study seems to confirm the programme's marginal impact. This paper reassesses the development of the programme, using a framework derived from Sabatier's work on implementation. Taking account of the inadequate premises upon which the programme was launched, the deficiencies in legal structure, the resource overload, and the socio‐economic and cultural environment, the programme's 'failures' can be seen as a successful adaption to prevailing pressures and constraints. The real failure has been in the lack of learning from practice, which has prevented a realistic assessment of the programme's impact and potential. Wedded to the programme's initial ideals, the impact of policy prescriptions upon polytechnic practice has been limited, and in some respects even counter‐productive.

Rückblickende Bewertung dieses ländlichen, low-cost, nicht-formalen Bildungsprogrammes (bis 1985 Village Polytechnic Programme genannt), unter Verwendung eines an P.A. Sabatier (1986) orientierten und modifizierten Beurteilungsrahmens. Abweichend von, sich in den 80er Jahren häufenden, sehr negativen Urteilen, die die Realität und notwendigen Durchführungsänderungen an idealistischen Ausgangsvorstellungen messen, wird die Gesamtbilanz viel günstiger beurteilt, da u.a. hinderliche Faktoren und das tatsächlich Machbare berücksichtigte werden. Die Untersuchung ist zudem eine generelle Auseinandersetzung mit der Rolle idealistischer Wunschvorstellungen bei der Formulierung politischer Ziele, mit "intellektuellen Modetrends", mit den Kriterien für Bewertungen von Resultaten praktischer Politik und mit der Rolle verschiedener Polit-Akteure. (APAF-Glz)

The Management Information System (MIS) in Higher Vocational Education such as Polytechnics functions to coordinate and monitor the planning, implementation, and evaluation of education activities, especially at the study program level. The current MIS serves BAAK's data and information needs, reporting for internal management and providing PD-DIKTI Database. MIS has not fully served the needs of internal customers. The aim of this research is to describe in depth the process of planning and evaluating MIS at the study program level. This research is limited to MIS academic services and support preparation for study program's accreditation of BAN-PT. The theoretical study is supported by theological foundation of Al Qur'an and Hadits, the philosophical constructivism and the theory of Total Quality of Management (TQM). This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach, explore deeply into the data and information needs for students, lecturers, study program, and BAAK. The informant involved internal Polban namely BAAK's person, head of department and study program, lecturers and students, reviewing statute documents, strategic plans, academic regulation, laws and government's regulations related to polytechnic's management. This research reveals that the current MIS program is not based on customer's needs yet by paying attention to business processes in planning, implementing, and evaluating teaching and learning process. MIS in implemented stage solely for BAAK needs, does not yet serve data needs for study programs, lecturers and students, including not yet supports the preparations of program study's accreditation by BAN-PT. Customers are still difficult to get the information needed. The results of the evaluation show that there is a gap between data and information due to several inhibiting factors and a management system that is not yet based on complete data. The novelty of this research is MIS which is integrated with the current management system. MIS is designed comprehensively, not partially on ...

The Indian education system is undergoing a significant pedagogical transition from a traditional teacher-centred to student-centred approach to teaching and learning. The Indian government expects these educational changes to occur in teaching and learning development in Andhra Pradesh polytechnic colleges and in its technical education system. However, research indicates that there is an ongoing ambiguity in regard to the teaching and learning approaches adopted in Andhra Pradesh polytechnic colleges and in tertiary institutions. This seems to suggest that the introduction of Western concepts such as student-centred learning models brought about tension and conflict among Indian teachers and students. Moreover, previous Andhrapradesh studies revealed that different cultures have different norms and values, and these cultural differences have a strong influence on educational practices. Therefore, there is a need to examine and develop appropriate pedagogies for the specific educational traditions, rather than assuming that Western ideas are effective and desirable in every context. Thus, the purposes of this study are to explore: (1) Andhra Pradesh polytechnic teachers understanding about teaching, (2) Andhra Pradesh polytechnic students' understanding about learning, and (3) the relationships between teacher and students' perceptions of teaching/learning and their actual teaching/learning practices. This research was conducted in Andhra Pradesh teacher education programme. It employed a case study using a qualitative approach with the adoption of several research methods: Individual interviews; focus group interviews; classroom observations; stimulated recall interviews; and document analysis. Involved in this study, were a total of twenty nine teachers from differing backgrounds of teaching experience, and 59 final year students. The major findings of the study are that: (1) In Andhra Pradesh teacher participants and the student participants had adopted a combination of traditional teacher-centred and student-centred learning approaches because of the benefits that both approaches could offer to them, (2) The Andhra Pradesh teacher participants' understanding of teaching and the student participants' understanding of learning were a reflection of their educational beliefs , (3) The actual teaching/learning practices of the Andhrapradesh teachers and the student participants have been considerably influenced by their beliefs, (4) Several education philosophies are compatible with student-centred learning (Western learning models). (5) The learning perspectives of Indian students are influenced by their religion beliefs, thus differentiating them from other Asian learners (who have been found to exhibit Confucian values in the educational research literature). The findings of my research into Indian teachers and students result in understanding teaching/learning from a rural college's viewpoint, distinguishing rural teaching and learning from an urban college's environment. The research generates possible significant insight for other countries in the development of language learning strategies. The findings of this study suggest that the Andhra government and its policy makers should be more aware of the appropriateness or otherwise of the Western models for Andhra Pradesh education systems.