Black Board Struggles: Teacher Unionism Under the ‘Democratic’ Rawlings Regime 1992-2000
Introduction hana’s return to liberal democratic rule formed part of what has been generally accepted as the third wave of democratisation in Africa, when internal frustrations with growing corruption, repression and unemployment in most African countries, conjoined with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, triggered waves of democratic protests, which eventually led to the birth or rebirth of new democracies across Africa (see Bratton & Van de Walle 1997). In Ghana, by December 1991, when the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), the quasi-military regime that was formed after the 1981 coup, observed its tenth anniversary, the move towards constitutional rule had taken firm roots. Two significant developments in 1992 sealed the rebirth of a democratic Ghana. The first was a
The future of the teaching profession
he Institute for Public Policy Research is Britain’s leading centre-left think tank. Its education researchers, Joe Hallgarten and Martin Johnson, are working on a oneyear project, ‘The Future of the Teaching Profession’, which attends to one key question – how can the teaching profession be transformed to improve recruitment, retention, and morale? The urgency of the question has grown during its first six months, but the project will continue to pursue both short and long term considerations.
Effect of Calcium Glycerophosphate on Demineralization in an in vitro Biofilm Model
The aim was to investigate the anti-caries properties of calcium glycerophosphate (CaGP) using an in vitro bacterial flow cell model. Four flow cells, inoculated from a chemostat containing a seven-organism bacterial consortium, were pulsed with sucrose twice daily, to provide an acidic challenge and pH-cycling conditions. Blocks of enamel and dentine were mounted in each flow cell. In a study on the effect of CaGP concentration, CaGP was pulsed into three of the flow cells, at the same time as the sucrose, to give concentrations of 0.10, 0.25 and 0.50%. Water was pulsed into the fourth flow cell with the sucrose. Microradiography revealed a significant dose response of decreasing demineralization as CaGP concentration increased. Reductions at 0.25 and 0.5% were significant when compared to the control. A second study investigated the effect of timing of CaGP pulsing, relative to sucrose, on enamel and dentine demineralization. CaGP (flow cell concentration 0.2%), was pulsed 1 h before, during or 1 h after the sucrose pulse; a water control was employed. In enamel, pulsing CaGP before the sucrose reduced demineralization significantly compared to concurrent pulsing, which in turn gave a significant reduction compared to pulsing after sucrose, which did not reduce demineralization significantly compared to the water control. In dentine, CaGP reduced demineralization significantly only when pulsed before the sucrose. The findings suggest that in vivo, the anti-caries potential of CaGP may be greater if it is applied before a cariogenic challenge.