Browsing by Author "Openjuru, George L."

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    Entry Grades and the Academic Performance of University Students: A Review of Literature
    (Education Quarterly Reviews, 2021) Aciro, Rosalba; Onen, David; Malinga, Geoffrey M.; Ezati, Betty A.; Openjuru, George L.
    Universities world over mostly base their decisions to admit their new students on the applicant’s pre-university academic results. However, there is yet no concrete evidence that the students’ pre-university academic accolades determine their performances at university level. In this article, we explored the findings of earlier studies that examined the relationships between entry grades and the academic performance of university students. The study was undertaken to collate the literature on the relationships between the students’ entry grades and their university academic performance in order to validate earlier assertions, if any, as well as to identify opportunities for further research in this field. During the study, we carried out a systematic review of 59 articles that we drew from different online electronic databases including, among others, the Free Scientific Publication, the Worldwide Science.org, and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The majority of these reviewed studies were drawn from America and Europe. Only a few of them were conducted in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Of the 59 reviewed articles, only 53 of them met our inclusion criteria and our key findings showed, among others, that out of the 53 reviewed articles, 26, 4 and 13 of them revealed the existence of positive, negative, and mixed correlations respectively between the entry grades and the academic performance of university students. The remaining 10 articles, however, did not reveal any significant correlations between the two variables; instead, they alluded to the existence of difference in these relationships between male and female students; thus, suggesting for the need for affirmative action schemes. Overall, the study revealed that there is yet no consensus over whether preuniversity academic performances of students predict their performances at university level; thus, indicating the need for further research in this field.
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    An Ethnographic Study of Rural Community Literacy Practices in Bweyale and their Implications for Adult Literacy Education in Uganda
    (2008) Openjuru, George L.
    In the case of formal education, moreover, it is not only oral proficiency that is needed: the skills of reading and writing are at least equally important to success. The higher one goes within the education system, the more essential is the information that are conveyed through books, and those who can access books for themselves and can read them without help enjoy the greatest advantage. Equally, students are regularly asked to demonstrate what they have learned through writing. If they do not have fluent writing skills, their knowledge of their subject, however extensive, may not be recognised. Nor is the practice of reading and writing confined to schooling. When individuals have finished their formal education, they still need to be able to access information, whether it be in their areas of work, or in the nation’s political life, or in their personal and emotional development (Nsibambi, A., 2000, p. 3).
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    Learning informally: A case for arts in vocational education and training in Uganda
    (ENGAGE, 2022) Openjuru, Maxwell; Openjuru, George L.; Sanford, Kathy; de Oliveira Jayme, Bruno; Monk, David
    This paper advocates for the inclusion of the arts in vocational learning programs in Uganda as an integrated form of holistic learning oriented towards empowerment and entrepreneurship. Using community-based research in the context of vocational education and training, our data emerged from open-ended interviews, focus groups and youth-led radio talk shows with stakeholders from public and private sectors, instructors, artists, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Three significant themes arose from the data collected. First, pathways available to learners to become artists are limited by increasing neoliberal orientations towards education. Second, there is a thriving informal youth-led arts community in northern Uganda empowering young artists to pursue the arts as a