3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Assessing the rational use of cefotaxime at Queen Elizabeth ll Hospital(2004) Maphasa, TebohoThe purpose of the study was to evaluate the use of cefotaxime with the idea of improving its use within the hospital. Improving the use of cefotaxime could result in a change in the proportion spent from the pharmacy budget. More importantly a change in prescribing patterns of this drug could also result in a reduction in resistant patterns of cefotaxime.Item Excess liquidity in the financial sector of Lesotho : main drivers and policy options(2014-07-10) Thamae, MatsabisaThis study investigates the main drivers of excess liquidity in the financial sector of Lesotho using Vector Auto Regression (VAR) analysis. The study also undertakes a comparative analysis of Lesotho and CMA economies for economic and financial sector characteristics to benchmark and assist policy recommendation. The results of the study suggest that excess liquidity in Lesotho’s financial sector is driven by undeveloped financial sector as reflected by significant private sector credit to GDP ratio in the results, government expenditure and central bank activities in the open market operations, together with past levels of excess liquidity in the model. Compared to CMA, financial intermediary in Lesotho is relatively undeveloped with government dominating economic activity. The banking sector is observed to be non-competitive for deposits as hinted by the wide intermediation margin compared to other CMA countries.Item The role of police and civil society in combating cross-border stock theft(2013-08-29) Rafolatsane, ApiStock theft is a national crisis in, across and throughout Lesotho. This fact has led the Lesotho Mounted Police Service to place stock theft management under the serious crimes unit. In the mid-1990s stock theft reached epidemic proportions in the southern district adjoining the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa. This problem still persists and has lately turned very violent and deadly in the Qachas’nek District. However, the Quthing district has seen a relative decrease in the rate of stock theft in the mid-2000s. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors and strategies used in both Quthing and Qachas’nek districts to curb cross border stock theft. These factors and strategies are then compared to establish why crossborder stock theft is decreasing in Quthing while it escalates in Qachas’nek. The main finding of the research is that the Quthing community adopted the strategy of community policing and were trained on crime prevention while the opposite is true in the Qachas’nek district. A community policing strategy has not been adopted in Qachas’nek. It has also been established that training in community policing and crime prevention has to be offered to police officers and the members of crime prevention committee members. Lastly, the study revealed that laws governing stock theft have to be amended and the crime prevention committees should be better empoweredItem Poverty reduction and public security in Lesotho(2013-04-04) Likotsi, Tsotang ErnestThe developmental challenges confronting Lesotho range from a prevalence of poverty to a lack of safety and security. These problems directly affect in many ways the well-being of the people living in this country. The belief is strong that lack of integration in tackling the challenges of subsistence and protection needs leads to poor performance on poverty reduction and an inability to guarantee public security in the Kingdom. The principal objective of this study is to investigate factors leading to lack of integration in tackling the subsistence and protection needs in the Kingdom of Lesotho. This objective is broken down into three questions: What are the factors leading to the lack of integration in addressing subsistence and protection needs of the people of Lesotho? What are the trends in tackling subsistence and protection needs in Lesotho? What are the possible strategies in the integration of subsistence and protection needs in Lesotho? The two approaches were utilised to investigate the above questions. The first advance was based on exploring data available in the form of text books, journals and official publications. The second step was based on fieldwork carried out around Maseru, Lesotho. The results were presented, analysed and discussed in the report. The findings indicated that poverty surprisingly is no simple phenomenon. In fact, it is a deadly issue with little attention paid to it. Poverty and the issue of safety and security affect everyone as they are social issues. Secondly, some people see poverty as an excuse for people to commit crime and threaten people’s safety and security. Thirdly, while there is a clear understanding about social crime prevention, there remains a problem in developing good initiatives for poverty alleviation and crime prevention. Finally, it is vital for the country to ii integrate poverty and security sector policies in order to achieve sustainable development. The research makes recommendations which would enhance an integrated approach in dealing with issues of subsistence and protection. Efforts should include better public policies intended to shape the infrastructure, economic, social, political and institutional forms in the country. This will be a pathway to improving quality of life and security as people rank poverty and crime among the top concerns that they have in everyday life. Finally, proper policies will begin to bridge the increasing gap between the rich and the poor that remains a cause for concernItem Challenges brought about by the lack of a harassment policy in the Ministry of the Public Service, Lesotho(2012-09-27) Motselebane, Ntsebeng V.This study examines the challenges that the employees of the Ministry of the Public Service in Lesotho face due to lack of harassment policies. This is because the Ministry of the Public Service, as the mother ministry, is mandated to look after and protect all civil servants, and in the absence of relevant policies employees are left vulnerable. This is an explorative case study of the Ministry of the Public Service – Lesotho Institute of Public Administration and Management (LIPAM). The researcher found that there are no conventional harassment policies in place, and therefore nothing is being done to address the challenges facing employees as regards harassment. Harassment affects not only the person being harassed and the harasser, it also affects the organisation as a whole as the harassment victim will not be productive, and this may impact on other employees. The conclusion is that there is ignorance and apathy from management as regards harassment as claims have been brought to their attention, but no tangible action has been taken. It is therefore the researcher‟s view that management and employees need to come together to deal with this problem and develop a conventional policy that suits everyone involvedItem Teaching and assessing reading to meet the requirements of the COSC English examination in selected Lesotho high schools.(2012-03-09) Mosothoane, MatumaneThe comprehension of English plays a significant role in Lesotho’s education system, as it determines students’ access into tertiary studies. Teachers of English therefore have an important role to play in developing students’ English reading comprehension skills. The COSC examinations provide a formal assessment of reading comprehension in English. This study investigates how Lesotho English teachers teach and assess reading comprehension to meet the requirements of the COSC English examination in six selected Lesotho high schools. Data was collected through interviews and the reading comprehension tasks that the six teachers devised for COSC students. They also drew marking memoranda for the tasks. Five selected COSC English past question papers were also analysed against the tasks devised by teachers. The results indicated that all the six teachers did not teach effective reading strategies to students. Although they asked questions of high instruction in the tasks, the data collected also reflected that teachers did not teach students to read as text users nor text analysts. This also was the case with the five selected COSC past question papers that were analysed. Both the COSC questions and the teachers asked questions that tested readers’ roles as text participants. Recommendations in this study are that another research be made on teaching English as a subject which will encompass other elements of English teaching which were not within the scope of this research report.Item Item Selecting patients for anti-retroviral care at a rural clinic in Lesotho: results from a case study analysis(2009-04-30T13:03:30Z) Armstrong, RussellABSTRACT The number of people in immediate need of anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in the southern African region continues to significantly exceed the capacity of health systems to provide it. Approaches to this complex rationing dilemma have evolved in different directions. The ethical concepts of fairness and equity have been suggested as a basis guiding rationing or patient selection processes for ART. The purpose of the study was to examine whether or not such concepts had relevance or operative value for a treatment team providing ART in rural Lesotho. Using an exploratory, single case study design the study found that while concepts of fairness and equity were relevant to the work of the treatment team, patient selection practices did not necessarily reflect what these concepts entail. The idea of fairness as a structured, formalized selection process did not figure in the approach to ART provision at St. Charles. A less formal, ‘first-come-first-served’ approach was adopted. While there was knowledge amongst some team members that social, economic or geographic conditions inhibit individuals and groups from gaining access to ART and that this was inequitable, it was felt that there was little they could do to try to mediate the impact of these conditions. The study findings pose importance questions about the approach to ART programming in resource constrained settings. The findings also question the relevance of trying to achieve fairness and equity when the gap between need for care and capacity to provide it remains so large.Item Exploring formal and informal arrangements for care of orphans : a study in the Maseru District of Lesotho.(2009-03-02T09:52:41Z) Makape, Sylvia MakananeloThis study explores both formal and informal arrangements for care of orphans in the Maseru district of Lesotho. The study adopted a qualitative approach using both in-depth interviews and documentary research as the primary methods of data collection. The research findings show that care of orphans in Lesotho is predominantly in the hands of non-governmental and church based organisations. The government’s role is limited to the provision of technical support, including the formulation of policies and laws and some welfare grant provision in the form of free primary education. Care of orphans in the communities is undertaken not only by the extended family members of orphans, but also non-relation community members. It is clear however that while such informal arrangements might provide care and protection to orphan, many are struggling in the face of extreme hardship and poverty. A crisis of social reproduction is therefore increasingly apparent in Lesotho.Item Factors affecting the implementation of the new junior secondary science curriculum in Lesotho.(2008-12-23T08:44:19Z) Phakisi, Maisaiah EvodiaFollowing earlier worldwide trends in school science curricula, Lesotho revised its Junior Secondary Science curriculum as the new millennium started, moving towards a learner-centred approach, focusing more on activities, and including the development of appropriate science-related skills and attitudes. My observations as mentioned in chapter 1 section 1.4, page 15, were that implementation of the new curriculum was not going as expected. There are three aspects to this study. Firstly, I had to establish what the requirements of the new curriculum are. A document analysis of the syllabus document was made, and interviews were conducted with four National Curriculum Development Centre staff who had been involved in developing the syllabus. The requirements deduced from the syllabus documents were that a learner-centred approach be used, there should be greater use of activities, and there should also be development of skills and development of appropriate attitudes. The results of the interviews however, indicated that although the curriculum developers developed the syllabus document, which implied four requirements, not all the curriculum developers seemed to clearly see them as requirements. If it is not clear that there are four important requirements, it is unlikely that the requirements will be effectively communicated to teachers. The second step was to investigate teachers’ awareness of the new requirements, and how they were implementing them in their classrooms. Questionnaires were completed by twenty-eight Junior Secondary Science teachers in one district in Lesotho, and four teachers were interviewed to probe for in-depth information. Eleven of the teachers who completed the questionnaire did not list even one of the requirements as changes they were expected to make. Thirteen teachers mentioned use of activities in learning; 6 stated that a learner-centred approach should be used; 6 mentioned that skills have to be taught; and only one teacher indicated that there should be development of appropriate attitudes. The results also showed that many teachers tend not to discriminate between “learner-centred” and “activity-based” approaches. Furthermore, only about half of the teachers seemed to understand the meaning of “activity-based” teaching and learning approaches. It also appears that few teachers really understand that skills and attitudes need to be actively taught, and few are actually teaching skills in their science classes. Lastly, document analysis of the syllabus document (already discussed above), available textbooks from two publishers, and teacher’s guides from one publisher was made to determine the extent to which they provide guidance to help the teachers to understand and make the required curriculum changes. The results of the study indicated: i) The syllabus document does not clearly state requirements as such: instead the requirements are deduced from statements scattered in the syllabus documents. The terms used, like learner-centredness, are not defined. ii) The two teacher’s guides analysed give little guidance on the features of using a learner-centred approach, like accommodating the learning pace of learners and recognizing learner differences in learning abilities. Whilst one guide gives some guidance on how to teach the skill of report- ii writing it gives no guidance on other skills, most importantly those skills mentioned in the syllabus document. Teacher’s guides are the main place where we would expect to find guidance, but little guidance is given about how teachers should go about putting the new approaches to practice. iii) The four Form B and C textbooks from two publishers have very few activities which promote the four new approaches required by the new curriculum. The implication is that one of the factors which may be inhibiting change in teachers’ practice is that the documents intended to support teachers are not fully serving this purpose. iii