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Browsing Conference Proceedings by Author "Aguti, Jessica"

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    Energy resource centres (ERCs) as vehicles for extracting higher benefits from solar power in rural and suburban areas of developing countries (the case of Uganda)
    (Open Impact Conference, 2019) Mbalyohere, Charles; Aguti, Jessica; Nabushawo, Harriet
    The very low access to energy in African countries, where over 70% of the population still live in the dark, is significantly hindering development (World Bank, 2019).1 While some progress has been made in recent years to improve access to traditional on-grid and new off-grid systems, the rate of change is low. The problem is particularly evident in rural and suburban areas where over 80% of the population are resident. A major barrier is that the understanding of the use of solar power systems has been left to the startup companies that offer the systems. In most cases, these companies are located far from the rural areas. Consequently, they are not well positioned to systematically investigate solar usage patterns of their customers. The loophole in turn weakens the capability of these firms to develop suitable training and effective customer care services (Amankwah-Amoah, 2015). It has further hindered the capability of these firms to develop products and services that are more strongly adapted to local needs. The potential for value-added use not only in homes, but also for farming, entrepreneurship and broader income-generating activities, has hence remained largely unexploited. Key economic activity like farming and rural/suburban entrepreneurship has as a result not benefited from solar power to the extent that would have been needed to accelerate development.
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    Using OERs to improve teacher quality: emerging findings from TESSA
    (Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, 2010) Wolfenden, Freda; Umar, Abdurrahman; Aguti, Jessica; Abdel Gafar, Amani
    The last decade has seen tremendous progress in primary pupil enrolment across much of sub-Saharan Africa but unfortunately in many areas this has not been accompanied by an improvement in pupil achievement. Attention and priorities are now expanding to embrace close scrutiny of the processes of classroom teaching and learning. Governments and donor agencies across the region are engaged in promoting a pedagogical paradigm shift to improve pupil attainment; a learner-centred classroom approach with pupil-teacher construction of knowledge through active inquiry. But to date systematic adoption and embedding of these progressive teaching methods has been limited and pupil learning achievements continue to be low. Much recent research on African classrooms shows that the dominant mode of teaching remains a teacher-led transmission style in which pupil talk is restricted to short, often chorus, answers to closed questions. ( Pontefract and Hardiman, 2005; Akyeampong et al, 2006; Altinyelken,2010; Henevald et al, 2006; Mtika & Gates, 2009) Recent UNESCO EFA reports draw attention to the importance of teacher quality for improving pupil achievement in schools and the key role of teacher education in shifting modes of interaction in African schools to those which more fully support pupils’ cognitive and linguistic learning (UNESCO, 2010). Teachers are potentially key agents of change. However such a focus on teachers is not unproblematic.