Monday, July 29, 2013
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Best Active Adult Retirement Communities in California
There are a lot of active adult retirement communities in California, but the following ones are a few of the best that you should keep in mind. Anyone interested in living in an active adult retirement community should definitely check out the following list to see which ones pique their interest. Keep in mind this is not a complete list of all the best active adult communities but a list of some of the best!
Golden Oaks
The first California active adult community that is recommended is Golden Oaks. This retirement community is outstanding and anyone of any age would dream of the services offered. For example, bus service, three daily meals, housekeeping, game room, TV room, computer kiosk, hair salon, and more are offered. There are studio, one bedroom, and two bedroom suites available. Everything is included in the monthly rent and there is even a 24 hour emergency call system. This is perfect for those looking to live independently with an active lifestyle.
The Best Active Adult Retirement Communities in California
Regents Point
Located in Irvine, California Regents Point is a lively retirement community that offers its residents lots in the way of amenities. You can enjoy independent living and an active lifestyle while you are healthy but if you happen to become ill you will be well taken care of thanks to nursing care, continuing care, and assisted living.
Cypress Court
If Escondido, California is your retirement location of choice then you will love Cypress Court. You will have a balcony or patio and a large apartment. People are friendly and the area is beautifully landscaped like a park. A few of the things available to you at Cypress Court include assisted living, active lifestyle, and independent living.
Summerville at Villa del Rey
This retirement community in Napa, California is in an amazing location if you like wine country! It is considered the best retirement center in the area and the private apartments are excellent. You will enjoy an active lifestyle and independent living as well as assisted living if necessary.
Carriage House Estates
If you are looking for a retirement lifestyle that is gracious and wonderful then you will find Carriage House Estates exactly what you are looking for. You will love the independent living and the active lifestyle at this Bakersfield retirement community.
These are just a few of the retirement communities in California that are excellent choices for seniors looking to retire in an area where they feel relaxed and can enjoy their golden years.
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Caitlina Fuller is a freelance writer. Sunshine, weather and ocean make California one of the best states to live in US. Many active adult communities in California top national list of active senior living communities. The first California active adult community that is recommended is Golden Oaks. This retirement community is outstanding and anyone of any age would dream of the services offered.
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Monday, February 25, 2013
7 Steps Effective Strategic Planning Process
This TQM article provides an insight of a typical Strategic Planning Process that was used in several organizations and proven to be very practical in implementation. the key processes of this typical Strategic Planning Process are lined up into 7 steps. Detail of each steps are illustrated below:-
Step 1 - Review or develop Vision & Mission
Able to obtain first hand information from various stakeholders (Shareholders, customers, employee, suppliers communities etc).
7 Steps Effective Strategic Planning Process
You may use templates to evaluate how the stakeholders think about your organization. To find out whether their action are aligned with the organization's objectives.
To review or develop company's Vision and Mission with the involvement of other stakeholders to ensure it is still current with the business changes and new challenges. Also use this session as a mean for communication.
Step 2 - Business and operation analysis (SWOT Analysis etc)
One of the key consideration of strategic planning is to understand internal (own organization) Strengths and Weaknesses as well as external Threats and Opportunities. These are commonly known as the four factors of a S.W.O.T. analysis.
Involvement from various stakeholders to provide their points of view about your organization is key. In the process, you will gain better buy-in from these implementers of strategies and policies.
Step 3 - Develop and Select Strategic Options
You may use templates to develop several key possible strategies to address the organization's objectives. More important, these possible strategies are develop based on the inputs from stakeholders (step 1) and Business and Operation analysis (step 2).
It is often several possible strategies are developed and everyone of them seems important. Since it is quite normal that an organization would have several key issues to tackle, you will be able to use a proper tools to select a few from the possible strategies. You will b e able to apply several prioritizing tools as introduced in this step.
Step 4 - Establish Strategic Objectives
During this step, you will be able to view the overall picture about the organization and able to select a few strategic options objectively. Template may be used to understand various strategic options, set key measures and broad time line to ensure the selected strategic options are achieved.
While it is quite common that measures and timeline is given by top management, it is the intention of this step 4 that these measures and timeline is SMART . What it meant was Specific (S), Measurable (M), Achievable (A), Realistic (R) and Time-bound (T). when the strategic options are SMART, it will help to ease the communication toward the lower level of the organizational hierarchy for implementation.
Step 5 - Strategy Execution Plan
Many organization failed to realize its full potential of its strategies are due to weak implementation. In this Step 5, a proper deployment plan is developed to implement these strategies.
Step 6 - Establish Resource Allocation
Very often, management team assigned selected strategies to key personnel and left it to the individual to carry out the task. While most organizations operate with minimum resources, it often ends up work overloaded by individual.
Step 7 - Execution Review
One of the key success factors for an effective strategy deployment is constant review of its progress and make decision for any deviations to plan. It is vital to decide what to review and with who the review is done. New decision may be required as the status of the strategies progressed.
In summary: Follow this 7-steps in Strategic Planning will ensure various options are considered including its execution, resource allocation d and Execution Review. This 7-Steps form a complete cycle for new or existing Strategic Planning initiatives
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Click here to join the [http://article.tqmcasestudies.com] TQM Ezine Community to subscribe to a 5-series [http://article.tqmcasestudies.com] Understanding of SWOT Analysis and download a FREE ebook titled: Articulated Baldrige Values and Concepts
About the Author: Dr. LM Foong, PhD
He writes and prublishes TQM articles, ebooks, case studies, trainer manual and other TQM Related information made available at the http://www.tqmcasestudies.com Resource Center in Total Quality Management
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Sunday, February 17, 2013
Differences Between Nursing Homes, Assisted Living & Continuing Care Retirement Communities
Benjamin Franklin said it best - “nothing in life is certain except death and taxes” but with daily advancements in science, technology and health care, Americans are living longer than ever before*. This blessing however, has created a unique dilemma for modern American families: How to plan for and prepare for one's retirement years.
Have you taken a road-trip lately? Almost every highway is graced with large bill-boards providing the locations of new planned communities where couples can spend their retirement years dedicated to recreational pursuits. I doubt you will find a local newspaper that doesn’t have at least one ad promoting the amenities found at a local assisted living facility. Try to search for “nursing homes in Virginia” on the Internet and thousands of web pages will appear. Each and every day new facilities offering different programs are being built and marketed across the state.
Is such a facility right for you and your family? If so, which facility? We often hear the terms “retirement community,” “nursing home,” and “assisted living facility” but rarely consider what these terms actually mean. The differences however, are striking and it is imperative to understand these differences when making choices for yourself or your loved ones.
Differences Between Nursing Homes, Assisted Living & Continuing Care Retirement Communities
NURSING HOMES
In Virginia, a nursing home means any facility with the primary function of providing long-term nursing care, nursing services and health-related services on a continuing basis, for the treatment and inpatient care of two or more non-related individuals**. Put simply, a nursing home is a facility designed for someone who needs less care than a hospital, but requires daily health care assistance.
The Virginia Department of Health licenses such facilities and has established guidelines regulating various aspects of their operations, programs, and staffing needs, etc***. For example, a nursing home must: (a) have written policies and procedures regarding the treatment of residents and the management of resident care which are available to residents and their families (12VAC5-360-20); (b) provide emergency medical services within 15 minutes, under normal conditions (12VAC5-360-50); (c) be subject to unannounced on-site inspections of the nursing facility by State employees (12VAC5-371-60); (d) have a written agreement with one or more physicians licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine to serve as medical director (12VAC5-371-230); and (e) each resident shall be under the care of a physician licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine (12VAC5-371-240).
In addition, residents of nursing homes are also given certain rights as defined by Virginia Code §32.1-138. See http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+32.1-138. Nursing homes are the most regulated and structured residential options for our Seniors requiring some level of daily health care. If the facility provides care through Medicare and Medicaid programs, it is deemed a "Certified nursing facility" (Virginia Code §32.1-123; Virginia Code §32.1-127) and must be in compliance with both federal and state laws.
Of course, the more rules and regulations that define and control the daily operations of a nursing home, the greater the responsibility of the staff. These are the people who will be charged with the daily task of caring for your loved one, and making sure they are in compliance with state and federal laws. No matter how nice and or attractive the facility might be, the staff will make the difference between your loved one being cared for and encouraged, or not.
A nursing home is best suited for someone:
Who requires daily health care – such as assistance getting in and out of bed; taking medicine; or using the restroom. Who may have dementia or Alzheimer’s and as a result, is unable to eat and or bathe daily without reminder or assistance; Who is recovering from a fall or accident and is therefore unable to walk, dress and or eat without assistance
ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY
“Assisted living facility” means an adult care residence which has been licensed by the Virginia Department of Social Services to provide a level of service for adults who may have physical or mental impairments and require at least moderate assistance with the activities of daily living. Within assisted living, there are two types: regular assisted living for those seniors (typically) who need assistance with one or more daily activity; and intensive assisted living for someone who may be incapable of performing activities due to mental and/or severe physical impairment (12VAC30-120-450).
The Virginia Department of Social Services licenses assisted living facilities but does not regulate in the way the Department of Health regulates nursing homes. While there are Virginia guidelines regulating aspects of assisted living facilities, they are limited: An assisted living facility must: (a) provide or coordinate personal and health care services; and (b) provide 24-hour supervision.
As reflected in the table below, assisted living facilities have no obligation to provide health care and/or have health care staff available to assist your loved one. In addition, with no obligation to provide such services, there is the question as to whether or not they owe a duty to warn or treat residents with illnesses or diseases that could be transmitted from other residents.
While a nursing home will have many nurses on staff and doctors hired to monitor the residents, assisted living is more analogous to an apartment building or college dorm where laundry and food services are provided and residents are on their own for the rest of the day.
An assisted living Facility is best suited for someone:
Who is basically independent but may not be able or willing to prepare their own food or drive to doctors’ appointments; Someone who wants to scale back and anticipates needing assistance with laundry, cooking, etc. in the near future. A couple where one spouse is independent but may need assistance in feeding and or providing for needs of other spouse.
CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY
In Virginia you may also see advertisements for a retirement community. They are popping up all around our favorite College Towns and Tourist destinations.
A Continuing Care Retirement Community provides care depending on your current needs. Like an insurance policy, the resident pays an entrance fee and periodic adjustable payments, which in turn gives the resident a package of residential and healthcare services that the CCRC is obligated to provide at the time these residential and health care services are required. For example, if upon entering, all you want is help with your meals, that is the only service which will be provided. If you require intensive physical therapy or God forbid, daily assistance for a Dementia patient, the CCRC has assisted living services or nursing home services available under your contract. Continuing care contracts are regulated by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance of the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
Many CCRCs can have nursing home services available either on-site, or at licensed facilities off-site (12VAC5-360-10). While you may be entering the Retirement Community as a very healthy independent and capable resident, as your needs change, so will your contract with the Community and in turn, the facility’s obligations to you.
A Continuing Care Retirement Community Facility is best suited for someone:
Who is basically independent but anticipates the need for daily health care for themselves or a spouse in the near future; Someone who is physically disabled and would be unable to care for themselves or a spouse if the disability grew worse. With at least three very different choices, it is very important to do your research:
To research assisted living facilities in Virginia, go to Department of Social Services website: http://www.dss.state.va.us/facility/search/alf.cgi.
To research nursing homes, go to Medicare’s website: http://www.medicare.gov
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST
It is always best to speak to a family member of a current resident and spend time getting to know the staff, no matter what type of facility you are looking into. If looking and researching is not enough, then consider the chart below – a comparison of the legal duties of a nursing home compared to the legal duties of an assisted living facility in Virginia.
DUTY or REQUIREMENT
NURSING HOME
ASSISTED LIVING
Duty to provide nursing care and or monitor resident’s health?
YES
NO
Doctor required to supervise residents?
YES
NO
Each resident shall be under the care of a physician licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine?
YES
NO
Must have nurses on staff?
YES
NO
Must offer rehabilitative services?
YES
NO
Must have ongoing consultation from a registered dietitian or dietitian on staff?
YES
NO
24 Hour Supervision required?
YES
YES
Must develop a written plan upon admission of resident?
YES
YES
Staff must undergo criminal background check?
YES
YES
Monitored by Virginia Center for Quality Health Care Services and Consumer Protection
YES
NO
Monitored by Department of Social Services
NO
YES
*Life expectancy increased dramatically during the past century, from 47 years for Americans born in 1900 to 77 years for those born in 2001. These same factors—improved medical care and prevention efforts— that are partly responsible for the dramatic increases in life expectancy have also produced a major shift in the leading causes of death in the United States in the past century, from infectious diseases and acute illnesses to chronic diseases and degenerative illnesses.” The State of Aging and Health in America 2004, published by the Center for Disease Control, available at http://www.cdc.gov/aging/pdf/State_of_Aging_and_Health_in_America_2004.pdf.
**See generally, Virginia Code §32.1-123, as amended and Virginia Administrative Code § 12VAC5-360-10.
***It is a Felony under Virginia law to operate a nursing facility without a license. See generally, 12VAC5-371-30.
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Lauren Ellerman is an attorney with Frith Law Firm in Roanoke, Virginia. She concentrates her practice on medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, lead paint poisoning, and business torts. You may view her complete profile at [http://www.frithlawfirm.com/lauren.htm] and the firm’s home page at http://www.frithlawfirm.com
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Saturday, February 9, 2013
Where Can I Chat With Married Women? The Free Answer!
You ask yourself: where can I chat with married women? If you and I were sat in a bar chatting, a laptop on the table, I could show you how to find married women in your town and begin chatting with them in probably - give or take a minute - five minutes. Most people are blown away when I tell them this. Think about what I'm saying. In your town, there must be some - perhaps hundreds or thousands - of married women who want to cheat on their husbands. The trouble is this: who are they and how do you contact them for a chat? You see, married women do not exactly advertise the fact? Pretty obvious, I know. What is not obvious is where to find them. A married lady will not use online classifieds for their area, nor will she use a local dating site. These places are too well-known to everyone in town. Her husband might bump into her ad or profile. Now let me tell you what to do.
You need to select a large free dating community. Your choice - just make sure that is has a lot of members in your country. Make a quick profile and upload a photo of yourself (a head shot, not another part of your body). Now head on over to the people search page. Big dating communities have pretty advanced search engines. If you chose a big site you will not be able to select married women in your town who are looking for men. This will bring up a list of women. Now, this part is very interesting. The first lot of results will be women who are online at this moment. You will also see a little instant message button (usually). All you have to do is instant message a dozen or so women with the same message. Something like, "Hi, I'm Jack. I'm local and discrete. Let's chat and get to know each other." You will then get several women messaging you back. Now, one last tip: big dating communities always have chat rooms. The method of instant messaging will enable you to specifically chat to married women. But if you go into chat rooms you can do something similar and just let everyone know that you would like to chat to wives.
Where Can I Chat With Married Women? The Free Answer!
Where Can I Chat With Married Women? The Free Answer!
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Wednesday, February 6, 2013
What Font Should You Use For Your Book?
One of the most common questions asked by would-be self-publishers who are intent on designing and typesetting their book themselves is, "What font should I use?"
I'm always relieved when somebody asks the question. At least, it means they're not just blindly going to use the ubiquitous default fonts found in most word processing programs.
However, there is almost no way to answer the question. It's like asking, "What's the best car model for commuting to work everyday?"
What Font Should You Use For Your Book?
You'll get a different answer from almost everyone you ask. And they might all be correct.
I am willing to offer one hard-and-fast rule, however: don't use Times New Roman or Times Roman. That will brand your book as the work of an amateur at first glance. And there are other, very practical, reasons for not using it. Times Roman and Times New Roman were designed for the narrow columns of newspapers, originally for the London Times back in the 1930s. Today, almost no newspapers still use it. How, or why, it became a word processing standard, I have no idea. The font tends to set very tight, making the text block on the page dense and dark.
Here are two caveats before proceeding to few recommendations:
The typeface you choose may depend on how your book will be printed. If you look closely at most serif fonts (like Times), you will notice that there are thick and thin portions of each letter. If your book will be printed digitally, you should steer away from fonts with segments that are very thin. They tend to become too faint and affect readability.
Don't get carried away with the thousands of font choices available. Most are specialty fonts suitable for titles, headlines, advertising, emotional impact, etc. And never use more than a very few fonts in a single book -- we usually choose one serif font for the main text body, a sans serif for chapter titles and headings within the chapters. Depending on the book, we may select a third font for captions on photos, graphics, tables, etc. (or maybe just a different size, weight, or style of one of the other two). We may select a specialty font for use on the front cover for the title and subtitle.
For 90% of books, any of the following fonts are excellent choices:
Palatino Linotype
Book Antiqua (tends to set tight, so you may have to loosen it up a bit)
Georgia
Goudy Old Style
Adobe Garamond Pro (tends to have a short x-height, so it might seem too small in typical sizes)
Bookman (the name sort of gives it away, doesn't it?)
Century Schoolbook (tends to be a bit wide, creating extra pages)
You need to look at several paragraphs of each font to see what, if any, adjustments you may find necessary in things like character spacing and kerning. You want to avoid little confusions, like:
"vv" (double v) that looks like the letter "w"
"cl" (c l) that looks like the letter "d"
Such things can make the reading experience annoying.
If you ask other designers, you will likely get other suggestions, but I wouldn't be surprised to see at least some of the above included in their recommendations.
You may run across some books with more unusual font choices, but there are often good reasons for it. Maybe the book is a humor book for which the designer chose a lighthearted font, for example. Such decisions should be made with care and thoughtful consideration for the effects on readability.
Never decide on your font or font size based only on viewing how it looks on your monitor. Most trade paperback books are printed in 10 or 11 point size, but some fonts require larger - or even smaller - sizes. If 12 points looks too big and 11 too small, you can try 11.5 - no need to stick with integer sizes. You might be surprised how much difference a half-point (or even a quarter-point) can make on the overall "feel" of the page.
You also have to decide on appropriate leading (pronounced like the metal), which is the distance from the baseline of one line of text to the baseline for the next line, measured in points. The result is usually expressed as a ratio of the font size in points to the selected leading in points. So, you might say you have set the body text in Georgia 11/14 or Bookman 10/12.5 (11-point size with 14 points leading and 10-point size with 12.5 points leading, respectively).
Word processing programs tend to work in decimal inches, forcing you to convert leading from points into inches. A standard point is equal to 0.0138 inches. Professional typesetting/layout programs (like Adobe InDesign) allow you to use points and picas to define all type measurements and settings. although you can also specify those settings in various other units (including inches).
Typically, book designers will develop more than one design for each book's interior, using different fonts, sizes, and leadings. They should typeset a few pages of the actual manuscript and print them out with the same page settings they plan to use in the final book (e.g., 6" x 9" pages). This allows the client to compare them side-by-side and evaluate them for readability and overall look.
And don't forget your target audience. Very young readers and very old readers do better with larger type. Books that are very textually dense with long paragraphs frequently need more leading and a wider font.
Ultimately, you have to choose based on what your gut reaction is to the typeset samples. It never hurts to ask other people to read it and tell you if one option is easier to read than another.
If you want to gain an appreciation for typography and how to make appropriate design decisions, I recommend the following excellent books:
The Complete Manual of Typography by James Felici
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
Book Design and Production by Pete Masterson
For those who insist on using Microsoft Word to typeset books, you really should buy and study Perfect Pages by Aaron Shepard. He is the reigning guru of how to do it.
It is far better to buy professional layout software and then learn all you can about typography and how to apply those principles to book design...or to hire a professional to do for you. The latter course will leave you more time to develop a dynamic marketing plan for your latest book and start writing your next one!
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Walt Shiel is the Managing Partner and Publishing Mentor at Five Rainbows Services for Authors & Publishers, a subsidiary of Slipdown Mountain Publications where he serves as Publisher. Besides offering a full range of affordable publishing solutions, Five Rainbows can tailor a mentoring program to help you achieve your specific goals for your book! And be sure to check out Walt's View From the Publishing Trenches blog.
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Sunday, February 3, 2013
The Best Places to Live For Families in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio has the reputation for being a nice smaller sized Midwestern city with friendly people who have strong values for raising their families a certain way. Like most metropolitan areas, Cincinnati has some communities that have been around as long as the city was founded and others that have become part of the suburban sprawl of the last two decades. This article will talk about some of the best towns to live in if you have children, whether it is a huge horse estate in Indian Hill or Cincinnati rental apartments or apartments in funky Hyde Park. These towns are considered the best to raise a family for the good school districts, the lower crime rates and other family friendly factors.
For those people that have unlimited funds and want to live in the wealthiest town in southern Ohio, that would be Indian Hill. It is a beautiful community with large estates placed on even larger properties. Most of the homes in Indian Hill have at least a tennis court or a pool but usually both. Many well known people that are from Cincinnati like astronaut John Glenn and singer peter Frampton call Indian Hill home. So, if you have millions to spend on a home, this is the right place to do it.
Two other great towns for families are located near one another and they are Mariemont and Madeira. They both have outstanding school systems with some of the highest academic achievements in the state. Mariemont has a charming town square and was the first planned community in the state of Ohio. The architecture there is Swiss and German style and generations return to raise their families there. Madeira has a nice downtown as well with some nice shops and restaurant options and is located closest to the nicest shopping mall in southern Ohio. The cost of living in these two towns is higher than most in Cincinnati but comparable to one another.
The Best Places to Live For Families in Cincinnati
A great neighborhood and town that is located closest to downtown Cincinnati is called Hyde Park. The people that reside in Hyde Park are more diverse with a lot of recent college grads living here in large rental homes as well as retired professors from university of Cincinnati and a lot of families too. This feeds into the Cincinnati Public school system which is not great so another option like Clark Montessori or a private school is usually what parents in Hyde Park do. Some of the best boutiques and restaurants are in Hyde Park.
Mason, Ohio is farther out from downtown Cincinnati and is considered a newer suburb that has exploded in size over the last decade. The thing that a lot of people like is that the homes are newer as well as the schools and other facilities and they cost less than an older home closer to downtown. Mason High School is the one of the biggest in the state of Ohio with close to 3500 students but has a very good reputation.
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Connor R. Sullivan recently contacted a real estate agent who specializes in finding Cincinnati rental apartments. His son searched the internet for a new home by using the term apartments Cincinnati.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Ice Melt Products - What The Buyer Needs To Know
The sale of ice melt products continues to be big business each winter and with these sales come many questions. In this article, the top 20 ice melt buyer questions are answered by a small business that sells ice melt over the Internet.
1) Why should I use ice melt? ANS: Safety is the primary reason. Other reasons include damage prevention from heavy ice buildup and just plain convenience to keep traffic areas clean.
2) Why does ice melt contain chemicals other than salt? ANS: The added chemicals keep the ice melt from getting hard and adjust the minimum temperature at which the product works effectively.
Ice Melt Products - What The Buyer Needs To Know
3) Which ice melt product should I use? ANS: The customer is the best person to make that decision based on their unique needs. Cost, environmental friendliness, weather pattern and area where the ice melt is to be applied all play a role in the decision.
4) What are my ice melt choices? ANS: You have two choices; Urea or Salt (contains chloride). Urea is used in lawn fertilizers, but as an ice melt it is sold in much higher concentrations so do not buy the comment that it "will not burn your lawn." Salt can be Sodium Chloride (rock salt is 95 98.5% pure), Potassium Chloride, Magnesium Chloride and/or Calcium Chloride. The different ice melt brand names often mix these salts in patented blends along with the added chemicals.
5) What is the least expensive ice melt? ANS: Rock Salt is least expensive but many companies offer various "economical blends" that will work well on your driveway and will be friendlier to the environment.
6) Why is the ice melt minimum effective temperature (MET) important? ANS: If you live in a climate where sub zero temperatures rarely occur, you might be wasting money buying an ice melt that works down to -25 degrees F.
7) What are the ice melts "METs"? ANS: Potassium Chloride +25F, Urea +20F, Rock Salt +10F, Magnesium Chloride -22F and Calcium Chloride at -25F. However, with the additional chemicals many manufactures can vary these temperatures somewhat for their patented blends.
8) Is a fast acting ice melt product always better? ANS: No. In areas where slips and falls is a greater concern, a fast acting product may be your best choice. These products often require a greater frequency of application, which can increase cost and risk of damage.
9) Which ice melt products are safe? ANS: All products on the market are generally safe when used per instructions. Both urea and salt will burn a lawn and may irritate the bottom of your pet's paws. You should store the ice melt is a sealed area out of reach from pet's and children.
10) Do ice melts contain any form of poison? ANS: No. However, if ingested by a person or animal it is recommended that you contact your physician (or veterinarian).
11) Which ice melt products are better for the environment? ANS: Blends with less Chloride are better for the environment but will be more expensive, especially if you want them to work at the sub zero temperatures.
12) What other concerns for safety and property damage should I be aware when using ice melt? ANS: Exceeding the recommended usage and/or heavy traffic which moves the ice melt to areas not intended can damage concrete, carpet, floors, wood decks in addition to vegetation.
13) What can I do to protect vegetation from ice melt applications? ANS: Follow package instructions and use the environmentally friendly products (more expensive) where the vegetation is a concern.
14) What can I do to protect carpets/wood floors from ice melt traffic? ANS: Vacuum and/or wipe up with a damp sponge any residue tracked on to your carpet/wood floor. Use rubberized mats in areas of high traffic during bad weather.
15) What can I do to protect my wood deck? ANS: Ice melt salts can penetrate the wood pores and cause early degradation as it re crystallizes. Therefore, it is not the best product for a wood deck. Sand and/or matting are better solutions. Wood sealers do offer some protection.
16) What can I do to protect my concrete surfaces from ice melt damage? ANS: Ice melt usage will increase the number of freeze thaw cycles, which increase the risk of concrete scaling on the surface. Never use ice melt on concrete less than one year old. Clean off slush as soon as possible. Use of concrete sealers will help also.
17) Can I use ice melt on my roof? ANS: Although ice melt is one option for roofs it is often not the best option. Ice built up on roofs is caused by excess heat loss. Correcting the heat loss or installing heating elements to prevent the ice buildup is a better preventative measure. Consult a professional roofer for guidance when removing ice from a roof.
18) Can I use ice melt on my brick surface? ANS: Ice melt products are not recommended on these surfaces.
19) Can I use left over ice melt for other purposes such as a water softener? ANS: This is not recommended. Ice melt will keep for the next year usage, it is less suitable for other purposes and it will require more clean up of the brine tank in softeners.
20) How can I best make my ice melt purchase? ANS: Individuals needing less than 100 bags (50 lbs each) per year should consider their local hardware store or shopping market. When the usage is greater, consider using the Internet to research the available ice melt products based on your needs.
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Friday, January 25, 2013
Benefits of Leisure and Recreation
Although it may not seem so, in reality, Leisure and Recreation is the largest industry in the world. The benefits of leisure and recreation as an important part of life are easy to see. As an industry, it offers a variety of related employment and creates billions of dollars in revenue. Workers in parks and recreation, community agencies, sports agencies, youth development organizations, non-profit organizations, rehab and hospital agencies, the travel and entertainment industries all utilize and benefit from parks and recreation facilities world-wide. Additional benefits of leisure and recreation include environmental improvements from expanding green spaces, health benefits, and personal satisfaction benefits.
There are many civic benefits of leisure and recreation activities. Sports and youth activities offer leadership development for adults and children. Strong communities are built as parks become a hub of community life. Benefits extend to all ages, childhood, youth, young adults, families, and seniors. Both care for environment and wellness through green spaces are enhanced by beauty. This same beauty helps combat stress through the opportunity for mild exercise and mediation upon natural beauty. Wilderness experiences are available in some locations.
For personal benefits, leisure activities may include:
Hobbies
Exercise
Sports
Gardening
Crafts
Health
Coping
Family Bonding
Benefits of Leisure and Recreation
Physical benefits include increased lung capacity from sports participation, plus reducing serum cholesterol and hypertension, increasing bone mass, strengthening the spine, reducing disease, increase in feelings of well being, reduction in stress hormones, improved attitudes and performances, and improved social skills. For childhood development, recreational areas assist in learning, can keep kids off the streets, and enhance their confidence. Studies confirm that physical activity can aid the learning process in children. Sports activities enhance large motor skill development and social skills. Adult leaders offer positive role models to children. Group sports are well known for promoting social support, networking, and developing friendships.
As if all the above is not enough to encourage support of leisure and recreational activities, consider the following additional benefits:
Stress management - the mild stress of leisure activity can reduce overall negative stress by contributing to relaxation.
Self esteem - especially in children and seniors, mild exercise, group activities, and hobbies and crafts will help create positive self images.
Positive lifestyle development - contributing to society, social interaction, development of leaders, being part of organized sports all encourage good lifetime activities.
Personal satisfaction - any creative outlet will enhance personal satisfaction. Being part of the leadership offers self satisfaction, and those who work in the recreational areas can feel the pride in keeping these areas vital and available to others.
Quality of life - fresh air, sunshine, social interaction, health benefits and self esteem all will improve quality of life.
Preventative health - regular exercise, physiological benefits from mild exercise, and stress reduction all are made easier by having leisure and recreational activities readily available.
Since the future seems to be headed for a shorter work week and more extra time, support of leisure and recreational outlets and locations would be prudent, and benefit all involved.
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Matthew Finn is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about leisure and recreation [http://exoticrecreation.info/benefits-of-leisure-and-recreation/] please visit Exotic Recreation [http://exoticrecreation.info/] for current articles and discussions.
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Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Globalisation And Primary Education Development In Tanzania: Prospects And Challenges
1. Overview of the Country and Primary Education System:
Tanzania covers 945,000 square kilometres, including approximately 60,000 square kilometres of inland water. The population is about 32 million people with an average annual growth rate of 2.8 percent per year. Females comprise 51% of the total population. The majority of the population resides on the Mainland, while the rest of the population resides in Zanzibar. The life expectancy is 50 years and the mortality rate is 8.8%. The economy depends upon Agriculture, Tourism, Manufacturing, Mining and Fishing. Agriculture contributes about 50% of GDP and accounting for about two-thirds of Tanzania's exports. Tourism contributes 15.8%; and manufacturing, 8.1% and mining, 1.7%. The school system is a 2-7-4-2-3+ consisting of pre-primary, primary school, ordinary level secondary education, Advanced level secondary, Technical and Higher Education. Primary School Education is compulsory whereby parents are supposed to take their children to school for enrollment. The medium of instruction in primary is Kiswahili.
One of the key objectives of the first president J.K. Nyerere was development strategy for Tanzania as reflected in the 1967 Arusha Declaration, which to be ensuring that basic social services were available equitably to all members of society. In the education sector, this goal was translated into the 1974 Universal Primary Education Movement, whose goal was to make primary education universally available, compulsory, and provided free of cost to users to ensure it reached the poorest. As the strategy was implemented, large-scale increases in the numbers of primary schools and teachers were brought about through campaign-style programs with the help of donor financing. By the beginning of the 1980s, each village in Tanzania had a primary school and gross primary school enrollment reached nearly 100 percent, although the quality of education provided was not very high. From 1996 the education sector proceeded through the launch and operation of Primary Education Development Plan - PEDP in 2001 to date.
2. Globalization
To different scholars, the definition of globalization may be different. According to Cheng (2000), it may refer to the transfer, adaptation, and development of values, knowledge, technology, and behavioral norms across countries and societies in different parts of the world. The typical phenomena and characteristics associated with globalization include growth of global networking (e.g. internet, world wide e-communication, and transportation), global transfer and interflow in technological, economic, social, political, cultural, and learning areas, international alliances and competitions, international collaboration and exchange, global village, multi-cultural integration, and use of international standards and benchmarks. See also Makule (2008) and MoEC (2000).
Globalisation And Primary Education Development In Tanzania: Prospects And Challenges
3. Globalization in Education
In education discipline globalization can mean the same as the above meanings as is concern, but most specifically all the key words directed in education matters. Dimmock & Walker (2005) argue that in a globalizing and internalizing world, it is not only business and industry that are changing, education, too, is caught up in that new order. This situation provides each nation a new empirical challenge of how to respond to this new order. Since this responsibility is within a national and that there is inequality in terms of economic level and perhaps in cultural variations in the world, globalization seems to affect others positively and the vice versa (Bush 2005). In most of developing countries, these forces come as imposing forces from the outside and are implemented unquestionably because they do not have enough resource to ensure its implementation (Arnove 2003; Crossley & Watson, 2004).
There is misinterpretation that globalization has no much impact on education because the traditional ways of delivering education is still persisting within a national state. But, it has been observed that while globalization continues to restructure the world economy, there are also powerful ideological packages that reshape education system in different ways (Carnoy, 1999; Carnoy & Rhoten, 2002). While others seem to increase access, equity and quality in education, others affect the nature of educational management. Bush (2005) and Lauglo (1997) observe that decentralization of education is one of the global trends in the world which enable to reform educational leadership and management at different levels. They also argue that Decentralization forces help different level of educational management to have power of decision making related to the allocation of resources. Carnoy (1999) further portrays that the global ideologies and economic changes are increasingly intertwined in the international institutions that broadcast particular strategies for educational change. These include western governments, multilateral and bilateral development agencies and NGOs (Crossley & Watson 2004). Also these agencies are the ones which develop global policies and transfer them through funds, conferences and other means. Certainly, with these powerful forces education reforms and to be more specifically, the current reforms on school leadership to a large extent are influenced by globalization.
4. The School Leadership
In Tanzania the leadership and management of education systems and processes is increasingly seen as one area where improvement can and need to be made in order to ensure that education is delivered not only efficiently but also efficaciously. Although literatures for education leadership in Tanzania are inadequate, Komba in EdQual (2006) pointed out that research in various aspects of leadership and management of education, such as the structures and delivery stems of education; financing and alternative sources of support to education; preparation, nurturing and professional development of education leaders; the role of female educational leaders in improvement of educational quality; as will as the link between education and poverty eradication, are deemed necessary in approaching issues of educational quality in any sense and at any level. The nature of out of school factors that may render support to the quality of education e.g. traditional leadership institutions may also need to be looked into.
5. Impact of Globalization
As mentioned above, globalization is creating numerous opportunities for sharing knowledge, technology, social values, and behavioral norms and promoting developments at different levels including individuals, organizations, communities, and societies across different countries and cultures. Cheng (2000); Brown, (1999); Waters, (1995) pointed out the advantages of globalization as follows: Firstly it enable global sharing of knowledge, skills, and intellectual assets that are necessary to multiple developments at different levels. The second is the mutual support, supplement and benefit to produce synergy for various developments of countries, communities, and individuals. The third positive impact is creation of values and enhancing efficiency through the above global sharing and mutual support to serving local needs and growth. The fourth is the promotion of international understanding, collaboration, harmony and acceptance to cultural diversity across countries and regions. The fifth is facilitating multi-way communications and interactions, and encouraging multi-cultural contributions at different levels among countries.
The potential negative impacts of globalization are educationally concerned in various types of political, economic, and cultural colonization and overwhelming influences of advanced countries to developing countries and rapidly increasing gaps between rich areas and poor areas in different parts of the world. The first impact is increasing the technological gaps and digital divides between advanced countries and less developed countries that are hindering equal opportunities for fair global sharing. The second is creation of more legitimate opportunities for a few advanced countries to economically and politically colonize other countries globally. Thirdly is exploitation of local resources which destroy indigenous cultures of less advanced countries to benefit a few advanced countries. Fourthly is the increase of inequalities and conflicts between areas and cultures. And fifthly is the promotion of the dominant cultures and values of some advanced areas and accelerating cultural transplant from advanced areas to less developed areas.
The management and control of the impacts of globalization are related to some complicated macro and international issues that may be far beyond the scope of which I did not include in this paper. Cheng (2002) pointed out that in general, many people believe, education is one of key local factors that can be used to moderate some impacts of globalization from negative to positive and convert threats into opportunities for the development of individuals and local community in the inevitable process of globalization. How to maximize the positive effects but minimize the negative impacts of globalization is a major concern in current educational reform for national and local developments.
6. Globalization of Education and Multiple Theories
The thought of writing this paper was influenced by the multiple theories propounded by Yin Cheng, (2002). He proposed a typology of multiple theories that can be used to conceptualize and practice fostering local knowledge in globalization particularly through globalized education. These theories of fostering local knowledge is proposed to address this key concern, namely as the theory of tree, theory of crystal, theory of birdcage, theory of DNA, theory of fungus, and theory of amoeba. Their implications for design of curriculum and instruction and their expected educational outcomes in globalized education are correspondingly different.
The theory of tree assumes that the process of fostering local knowledge should have its roots in local values and traditions but absorb external useful and relevant resources from the global knowledge system to grow the whole local knowledge system inwards and outwards. The expected outcome in globalized education will be to develop a local person with international outlook, who will act locally and develop globally. The strength of this theory is that the local community can maintain and even further develop its traditional values and cultural identity as it grows and interacts with the input of external resources and energy in accumulating local knowledge for local developments.
The theory of crystal is the key of the fostering process to have "local seeds" to crystallize and accumulate the global knowledge along a given local expectation and demand. Therefore, fostering local knowledge is to accumulate global knowledge around some "local seeds" that may be to exist local demands and values to be fulfilled in these years. According to this theory, the design of curriculum and instruction is to identify the core local needs and values as the fundamental seeds to accumulate those relevant global knowledge and resources for education. The expected educational outcome is to develop a local person who remains a local person with some global knowledge and can act locally and think locally with increasing global techniques. With local seeds to crystallize the global knowledge, there will be no conflict between local needs and the external knowledge to be absorbed and accumulated in the development of local community and individuals.
The theory of birdcage is about how to avoid the overwhelming and dominating global influences on the nation or local community. This theory contends that the process of fostering local knowledge can be open for incoming global knowledge and resources but at the same time efforts should be made to limit or converge the local developments and related interactions with the outside world to a fixed framework. In globalized education, it is necessary to set up a framework with clear ideological boundaries and social norms for curriculum design such that all educational activities can have a clear local focus when benefiting from the exposure of wide global knowledge and inputs. The expected educational outcome is to develop a local person with bounded global outlook, who can act locally with filtered global knowledge. The theory can help to ensure local relevance in globalized education and avoid any loss of local identity and concerns during globalization or international exposure.
The theory of DNA represents numerous initiatives and reforms have made to remove dysfunctional local traditions and structures in country of periphery and replace them with new ideas borrowed from core countries. This theory emphasizes on identifying and transplanting the better key elements from the global knowledge to replace the existing weaker local components in the local developments. In globalizing education, the curriculum design should be very selective to both local and global knowledge with aims to choose the best elements from them. The expected educational outcome is to develop a person with locally and globally mixed elements, who can act and think with mixed local and global knowledge. The strength of this theory is its openness for any rational investigation and transplant of valid knowledge and elements without any local barrier or cultural burden. It can provide an efficient way to learn and improve the existing local practices and developments.
The theory of fungus reflects the mode of fostering local knowledge in globalization. This theory assumes that it is a faster and easier way to digest and absorb certain relevant types of global knowledge for nutrition of individual and local developments, than to create their own local knowledge from the beginning. From this theory, the curriculum and instruction should aim at enabling students to identify and learn what global knowledge is valuable and necessary to their own developments as well as significant to the local community. In globalizing education, the design of education activities should aim at digesting the complex global knowledge into appropriate forms that can feed the needs of individuals and their growth. The expected educational outcome is to develop a person equipped certain types of global knowledge, who can act and think dependently of relevant global knowledge and wisdom. Strengths of the theory is for some small countries, easily digest and absorb the useful elements of global knowledge than to produce their own local knowledge from the beginning. The roots for growth and development are based on the global knowledge instead of local culture or value.
The theory of amoeba is about the adaptation to the fasting changing global environment and the economic survival in serious international competitions. This theory considers that fostering local knowledge is only a process to fully use and accumulate global knowledge in the local context. Whether the accumulated knowledge is really local or the local values can be preserved is not a major concern. According to this theory, the curriculum design should include the full range of global perspectives and knowledge to totally globalize education in order to maximize the benefit from global knowledge and become more adaptive to changing environment. Therefore, to achieve broad international outlook and apply global knowledge locally and globally is crucial in education. And, cultural burdens and local values can be minimized in the design of curriculum and instruction in order to let students be totally open for global learning. The expected educational outcome is to develop a flexible and open person without any local identity, who can act and think globally and fluidly. The strengths of this theory are also its limitations particularly in some culturally fruit countries. There will be potential loss of local values and cultural identity in the country and the local community will potentially lose its direction and social solidarity during overwhelming globalization.
Each country or local community may have its unique social, economic and cultural contexts and therefore, its tendency to using one theory or a combination of theories from the typology in globalized education may be different from the other. To a great extent, it is difficult to say one is better than other even though the theories of tree, birdcage and crystal may be more preferred in some culturally rich countries. For those countries with less cultural assets or local values, the theories of amoeba and fungus may be an appropriate choice for development. However, this typology can provide a wide spectrum of alternatives for policy-makers and educators to conceptualize and formulate their strategies and practices in fostering local knowledge for the local developments. See more about the theories in Cheng (2002; 11-18)
7. Education Progress since Independence in Tanzania
During the first phase of Tanzania political governance (1961-1985) the Arusha Declaration, focusing on "Ujamaa" (African socialism) and self-reliance was the major philosophy. The nationalization of the production and provision of goods and services by the state and the dominance of ruling party in community mobilization and participation highlighted the "Ujamaa" ideology, which dominated most of the 1967-1985 eras. In early 1970s, the first phase government embarked on an enormous national campaign for universal access to primary education, of all children of school going age. It was resolved that the nation should have attained universal primary education by 1977. The ruling party by that time Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), under the leadership of the former and first president of Tanzania Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, directed the government to put in place mechanisms for ensuring that the directive, commonly known as the Musoma Resolution, was implemented. The argument behind that move was essentially that, as much as education was a right to each and every citizen, a government that is committed to the development of an egalitarian socialist society cannot segregate and discriminate her people in the provision of education, especially at the basic level.
7.1. The Presidential Commission on Education
In 1981, a Presidential Commission on education was appointed to review the existing system of education and propose necessary changes to be realized by the country towards the year 2000. The Commission submitted its report in March 1982 and the government has implemented most of its recommendation. The most significant ones related to this paper were the establishment of the Teachers' Service Commission (TSC), the Tanzania Professional Teachers Association, the introduction of new curriculum packages at primary, secondary and teacher education levels, the establishment of the Faculty of Education (FoE) at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, the introduction of pre-primary teacher education programme; and the expansion of secondary education.
7.2. Education during the Second Phase Government of Tanzania
The second phase government of Tanzania spanning from 1985 to 1995, was characterized by new liberal ideas such as free choice, market-oriented schooling and cost efficiency, reduced the government control of the UPE and other social services. The education sector lacked quality teachers as well as teaching/learning materials and infrastructure to address the expansion of the UPE. A vacuum was created while fragmented donor driven projects dominated primary education support. The introduced cost sharing in the provision of social services like education and health hit most the poorest of the poor. This decrease in government support in the provision of social services including education as well as cost-sharing policies were not taken well, given that most of the incomes were below the poverty line. In 1990, the government constituted a National Task Force on education to review the existing education system and recommend a suitable education system for the 21st century.
The report of this task force, the Tanzania Education System for the 21st Century, was submitted to the government in November 1992. Recommendations of the report have been taken into consideration in the formulation of the Tanzania Education and Training Policy (TETP). In spite of the very impressive expansionary education policies and reforms in the 1970s, the goal to achieve UPE, which was once targeted for achievement in 1980, is way out of reach. Similarly, the Jomtien objective to achieve Basic Education for all in 2000 is on the part of Tanzania unrealistic. The participation and access level have declined to the point that attainment of UPE is once again an issue in itself. Other developments and trends indicate a decline in the quantitative goals set rather than being closer to them (Cooksey and Reidmiller, 1997; Mbilinyi, 2000). At the same time serious doubt is being raised about school quality and relevance of education provided (Galabawa, Senkoro and Lwaitama, (eds), 2000).
7.3. Outcomes of UPE
According to Galabawa (2001), the UPE describing, analysis and discussing explored three measures in Tanzania: (1) the measure of access to first year of primary education namely, the apparent intake rate. This is based on the total number of new entrants in the first grade regardless of age. This number is in turn expressed as a percentage of the population at the official primary school entrance age and the net intake rate based on the number of new entrants in the first grade who are of the official primary school entrance age expressed as percentage of the population of corresponding age. (2) The measure of participation, namely, gross enrolment ratio representing the number of children enrolled in primary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official primary school age population; while the net enrolment ratio corresponds to the number of children of the official primary school age enrolled in primary school expressed as a percentage of corresponding population. (3) The measure of internal efficiency of education system, which reflect the dynamics of different operational decision making events over the school cycle like dropouts, promotions and repetitions.
7.3.1. Access to Primary Education
The absolute numbers of new entrants to grade one of primary school cycles have grown steadily since 1970s. The number of new entrants increased from around 400,000 in 1975 to 617,000 in 1990 and to 851,743 in 2000, a rise of 212.9 percent in relative terms. The apparent (gross) intake rate was high at around 80% in the 1970s dropping to 70% in 1975 and rise up to 77% in 2000. This level reflects the shortcomings in primary education provision. Tanzania is marked by wide variations in both apparent and net intake rates-between urban and rural districts with former performing higher. Low intake rates in rural areas reflect the fact that many children do not enter schools at the official age of seven years.
7.3.2. Participation in Primary Education
The regression in the gross and net primary school enrolment ratios; the exceptionally low intake at secondary and vocational levels; and, the general low internal efficiency of the education sector have combined to create a UPE crisis in Tanzania's education system (Education Status Report, 2001). There were 3,161,079 primary pupils in Tanzania in 1985 and, in the subsequent decade primary enrolment rose dramatically by 30% to 4,112,167 in 1999. These absolute increases were not translated into gross/net enrolment rates, which actually experienced a decline threatening the sustainability of quantitative gains. The gross enrolment rate, which was 35.1% in late 1960's and early 1970s', grew appreciably to 98.0% in 1980 when the net enrolment rate was 68%. (ibid)
7.3.3. Internal Efficiency in Primary Education
The input/output ratio shows that it takes an average of 9.4 years (instead of planned 7 years) for a pupil to complete primary education. The extra years are due to starting late, drop-outs, repetition and high failure rate which is pronounced at standard four where a competency/mastery examination is administered (ESDP, 1999, p.84). The drive towards UPE has been hampered by high wastage rates.
7.4. Education during the Third Phase Government of Tanzania
The third phase government spanning the period from 1995 to date, intends to address both income and non-income poverty so as to generate capacity for provision and consumption of better social services. In order to address these income and non-income poverty the government formed the Tanzania Vision 2025. Vision 2025 targets at high quality livelihood for all Tanzanians through the realization of UPE, the eradication of illiteracy and the attainment of a level of tertiary education and training commensurate with a critical mass of high quality human resources required to effectively respond to the developmental challenges at all level. In order to revitalize the whole education system the government established the Education Sector Development Programme (ESDP) in this period. Within the ESDP, there two education development plans already in implementation, namely: (a) The Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP); and (b) The Secondary Education Development Plan (SEDP).
8. Prospects and Challenges of Primary of Education Sector
Since independence, The government has recognised the central role of education in achieving the overall development goal of improving the quality of life of Tanzanians through economic growth and poverty reduction. Several policies and structural reforms have been initiated by the Government to improve the quality of education at all levels. These include: Education for Self-Reliance, 1967; Musoma Resolution, 1974; Universal Primary Education (UPE), 1977; Education and Training Policy (ETP), 1995; National Science and Technology Policy, 1995; Technical Education and Training Policy, 1996; Education Sector Development Programme, 1996 and National Higher Education Policy, 1999. The ESDP of 1996 represented for the first time a Sector-Wide Approach to education development to redress the problem of fragmented interventions. It called for pooling together of resources (human, financial and materials) through the involvement of all key stakeholders in education planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (URT, 1998 quoted in MoEC 2005b). The Local Government Reform Programme (LGRP) provided the institutional framework.
Challenges include the considerable shortage of classrooms, a shortage of well qualified and expert teachers competent to lead their learners through the new competency based curriculum and learning styles, and the absence of an assessment and examination regime able to reinforce the new approaches and reward students for their ability to demonstrate what they know understand and can do. At secondary level there is a need to expand facilities necessary as a result of increased transition rates. A major challenge is the funding gap, but the government is calling on its development partners to honour the commitments made at Dakar, Abuja, etc, to respond positively to its draft Ten Year Plan. A number of systemic changes are at a critical stage, including decentralisation, public service reform, strengthening of financial management and mainstreaming of ongoing project and programmes. The various measures and interventions introduced over the last few years have been uncoordinated and unsynchronised. Commitment to a sector wide approach needs to be accompanied by careful attention to secure coherence and synergy across sub-sectoral elements. (Woods, 2007).
9. Education and School Leadership in Tanzania and the Impacts
Education and leadership in primary education sector in Tanzania has passed through various periods as explained in the stages above. The school leadership major reformation was maintained and more decentralized in the implementation of the PEDP from the year 2000 to date. This paper is also more concerned with the implementation of globalization driven policies that influence the subjectivity of education changes. It is changing to receive what Tjeldvoll et al. (2004:1; quoted in Makule, 2008) considers as "the new managerial responsibilities". These responsibilities are focused to increase accountability, equity and quality in education which are global agenda, because it is through these, the global demands in education will be achieved. In that case school leadership in Tanzania has changed. The change observed is due to the implementation of decentralization of both power and fund to the low levels such as schools. School leadership now has more autonomy over the resources allocated to school than it was before decentralization. It also involves community in all the issues concerning the school improvement.
10. Prospects and Challenges of School Leadership
10.1. Prospects
The decentralization of both power and funds from the central level to the low level of education such as school and community brought about various opportunities. Openness, community participation and improved efficiency mentioned as among the opportunities obtained with the current changes on school leadership. There is improved accountability, capacity building and educational access to the current changes on school leadership. This is viewed in strong communication network established in most of the schools in the country. Makule (2008) in her study found out that the network was effective where every head teacher has to send to the district various school reports such as monthly report, three month report, half a year report, nine month report and one year report. In each report there is a special form in which a head teacher has to feel information about school. The form therefore, give account of activities that takes place at school such as information about the uses of the funds and the information about attendance both teacher and students, school buildings, school assets, meetings, academic report, and school achievement and problems encountered. The effect of globalization forces on school leadership in Tanzania has in turn forced the government to provide training and workshop for school leadership (MoEC, 2005b). The availability of school leadership training, whether through workshop or training course, considered to be among the opportunities available for school leadership in Tanzania
10.2. Challenges
Like all countries, Tanzania is bracing itself for a new century in every respect. The dawn of the new millennium brings in new changes and challenges of all sectors. The Education and Training sector has not been spared for these challenges. This is, particularly important in recognition of adverse/implications of globalisation for developing states including Tanzania. For example, in the case of Tanzania, globalisation entails the risks of increased dependence and marginalisation and thus human resource development needs to play a central role to redress the situation. Specifically, the challenges include the globalisation challenges, access and equity, inclusive or special needs education, institutional capacity building and the HIV/aids challenge.
11. Conclusion
There are five types of local knowledge and wisdom to be pursued in globalized education, including the economic and technical knowledge, human and social knowledge, political knowledge, cultural knowledge, and educational knowledge for the developments of individuals, school institutions, communities, and the society. Although globalisation is linked to a number of technological and other changes which have helped to link the world more closely, there are also ideological elements which have strongly influenced its development. A "free market" dogma has emerged which exaggerates both the wisdom and role of markets, and of the actors in those markets, in the organisation of human society. Fashioning a strategy for responsible globalisation requires an analysis which separates that which is dogma from that which is inevitable. Otherwise, globalisation is an all too convenient excuse and explanation for anti-social policies and actions including education which undermine progress and break down community. Globalisation as we know it has profound social and political implications. It can bring the threat of exclusion for a large portion of the world's population, severe problems of unemployment, and growing wage and income disparities. It makes it more and more difficult to deal with economic policy or corporate behaviour on a purely national basis. It also has brought a certain loss of control by democratic institutions of development and economic policy.
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