Issue on Public Administration; Social Equity

Introduction Social equity is one of the critical issues in the contemporary public administration practices. The level of development in every country is determined by the level of equity in all aspects in the society. The higher the economic gap among the people the lower is the country in terms of development.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Issue on Public Administration; Social Equity specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More On the other hand, the smaller the gap among the people the higher is the level of development. Therefore, the issue of equity has a significant implication in public administration. In order to realize equity, the public administrators play a significant role in ensuring that all this has been realized. This is more so in the current situation where the gap between the poor and the rich is increasing with time. Most of the resources are ending up on the hands of few rich while the majority rem ains extremely poor. In the contemporary world, the public administrators have a significant contribution in promoting a fairer, equitable, and more just system. This is despite of the many issues they have to settle. However, the issue of social equity still remains a problem. According to Pickett (2011), people are becoming less equal in terms of economic, social, and political aspects of life. There are large differences in the society. There is therefore need to have a clear analysis in order to understand and be able to come up with appropriate recommendations. Application of the Social Equity In the present-day world, social equity is viewed as one of the primary purposes of the public administration. This entails the efficiency in organisation as well as the management of public services. It involves equitable distribution in management of public services. In order to promote equity in the country, it is always necessary to practice fairness in its management and while delive ring its services (Inter-American Development Bank 2000). It is always important to observe closely any potential inequities of the social equity (Inter-American Development Bank, 2000). In order to be able to make correct inferences, it is always necessary to look beyond the differences in individual inclination. Equity is characterized by the condition where the administrators are not indifferent to the stated conditions. In order to be able to realize equity in every economy, economic and social inequalities need to be rearranged in such a way that they provide the greatest advantage to the least advantaged in the society (Svara and Johnson, 2011). In order to achieve this, it is always advisable to prepare policy proposals in an effort to suppress both social and economic difficulties in the society. The social administrators are also expected to deal with the issue of discrimination in an effort to further reduce these gaps. Kinds of InequalitiesAdvertising Looking for rep ort on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More One of the main types of inequalities is simple equity. The individual equality is composed of one class of equals, where one relationship of equality exists among them (Inter-American Development Bank, 2000). There are several cases where this kind of equality can be realized. A good example of this can be the principle of one man one vote. This is where every person has equal rights and none is above the other. Contributions from each person are considered. This mechanism maintains the equality among the people. The other form of equity is segmented equality. This kind of equality can clearly be seen especially where there is high level of labor division. For instance, the farmers are taxed in a different way from the business people. Similarly, wage earners are taxed differently in a certain way depending on the income levels. In order to promote equity among the peop le, all persons from the same category must be taxed equally. This promotes equity among the people. However, this is based on the assumption that all the people are in the same category. For instance, all the farmers are assumed to be equal. On the other hand, segmented equality suffers from the fact that there is inequality that exists between different segments. It is however necessary to come up with measures to reduce these differences. For instance, the higher income segment can be taxed higher than the lower income segment. Again, this will help in minimizing the difference between various groups. This segmentation is of great importance to the policy makers because most of the public services are provided through these segments. The other type of equality is the block equality. This is the type of equality that calls for parity between different groups (Inter-American Development Bank, 2000). However, the use of racism to define the blocks threatens the level of equity in th e society. This is because it tends to bring about discrimination. In an effort to deal with the problems of inequality in the economy, the public administrators are usually faced by several challenges. This is because the exercise always has the losers and the winners. For instance, the individuals with more resources in the society will lose while those who don’t have will gain. However, the losers in this case are more advantaged. Nonetheless, it is always necessary to take into consideration the protection test. In order to facilitate equity across the country, it is always advisable to ensure that there is fairness, equitable, and just management in all the institutions serving the government in one way or another. All services provided in these institutions must be providing in a way that promotes equity. The policy implementation must also be directed in such a way that it promotes justice, fairness, and equity in all aspects in the society.Advertising We will wri te a custom report sample on Issue on Public Administration; Social Equity specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Social Equity in Government Service Another ground where there are critical issues on social equity is on the government services. Government services play a pivotal role in promoting equity among the people. This is because they have a significant implication on the well being of individuals. Past studies have identified a number of cases where the government services have been unequally distributed. These include the municipal services like paved streets, gutters among others. Such services may be distributed in a discriminatory manner such that they don’t reflect the social equity. For instance, these services were directed towards the white section while the blacks were left behind in poor conditions. A good example of such discrimination was seen at Shaw. At this region, only the white section enjoyed good municipal services like paved streets (Frederickson, 2005). The other section occupied by the black never enjoyed equal services. This discrimination violated the 14th Amendment, which promised equal protection of the law. However, the court rejected this claim arguing that this form of distribution is municipal administration’s business and that it can be resolved at the ballot box (Frederickson, 2005). Through this kind of discrimination, inequalities are increased in the society. This problem was however resolved after which there was more equity in government services. Another issue of inequity in the provision of the government services can be seen in the education sector. In US, desegregation of public schools following Brown V. Board of Education has resulted in varied and creative ways to define and achieve equality† (Frederickson, 2005). One of the ways that has been applied in an effort to achieve equity in education is busing. Through busing, students are able to acces s schools far away from their residential areas. This has significantly helped in bringing about social block equity in the society. Equity in education has also been promoted through funding. For instance, the states have used the equalization formula where more funds are geared towards funding of education in the poor districts. This equalization procedure played a major role in bridging the gap between the poor and the rich districts.Advertising Looking for report on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Over the past decade, questions have been raised on whether the existing separate but equal schooling system reflected inequality or whether it was unconstitutional. This raised major concerns on whether state departments for education can manage to eliminate the existing segregation. The school system was separated based on races. The Court of Appeal in the United States made a significant effort in elimination of the racial based school systems. For instance, it ruled that the school officials had an affirmative role to bring about an integrated school system under the 14th amendment (Svara and Johnson, 2011). Such integration was aimed at bringing about equity by elimination of the system of having Negro schools on one hand and the white schools on the other. In order to eliminate this dual schooling system, it required the authorities to facilitate integration of facilities, activities, and the students. This will help in elimination of the previous dual system. One of the main factors that intensified racial segregation in schools was segregation of residential areas in the United States. This resulted in segregation in schools as a result of segregated neighborhoods. Despite of these efforts, that were put to bring about equity among the people, there still remain some signs of inequality. This can be demonstrated through various aspects in the prevailing systems. For instance, the suburban schools districts around Kansas are dominated by white students (Svara and Johnson, 2011). On the other hand, most of the all-Black schools are still dominated by black teachers and students. This means that there are still some aspects of inequity remaining in the community. These minor aspects have significantly led to differences among the people in the society and must be rectified. There was a number of competing views that threatened the efforts of realizing equity in the society. One of the main areas where people varied was on the definition of the term equity . It is important to note that everybody’s vote is equal to the other in this case. In addition, principle of democracy is that the majority vote wins. This point raised a critical issue because it is difficult for the majority to vote away minority’s constitutional rights to equal schooling (Svara and Johnson, 2011). This threatens the efforts geared towards the achievement of equality in schools. Employment and Social Equity The field of employment is one of the main areas through which the government can have a significant influence on the level of wealth. Consequently, it has a significant role in promoting social equity. This can be both nonpublic and public. The main issue here is the identification of those who should be employed as well as the criteria on which the selection process will be based. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended and the Equal Employment Act of 1972 were designed to guarantee equal access to public and private employment (Frederickson, 2 005). In Other words, this act played a significant role in promoting equality in employment. It provided equal opportunities to every person qualified for a particular position despite of their differences in other aspects. For instance, both children from the poor and rich families were given equal chances provided they had the required qualifications. This has significantly helped in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. It is also advisable for the concerned parties to adhere to the laws in order to promote fair measurement of the talent, ability, and skills in order to determine who gets the job (Frederickson, 2005). Employers are also discouraged by the law from engaging in discriminatory practices while recruiting employees. For instance, favoring candidates because they are either white or black violates this law. In ensuring equity in employment, the affirmative laws have played a pivotal role where the court has the major responsibility of interpreting them. For instance, it has ensured equity in employment for minorities, non-minorities as well as both the gender. However, it is predicted that the values of social equity may fall in the process of shifting towards a new balance in terms of employment which is more inclined towards efficiency level. Several efforts have been applied in an effort to ensure that there is equity among the people, both minorities and non minorities. One of this can be seen through contracting. Back in the year 1977, in the Public Works Employment Act, the government proposed that 10 percent of all the public works must be reserved for the firms that were owned by the minorities in the United States. This was fully settled by 1980 and was being applied by them. Again, this promoted equity among the people. It protected the minorities from bias that may deny them opportunities. Before then, contracts were mostly awarded to the non-minorities. As a result, only the firms that were owned by the non-minorities were progressing while these owned by the minorities continued to fall. As a result, the gap between the minorities and the non-minorities continued to increase. The implementation of this act played a significant role in solving the problem of racial discrimination, which was prevailing by then. â€Å"Today, by upholding this race-conscious remedy, the Court accords Congress the authority to undertake the task of moving our society toward a state of meaningful equality of opportunity, not an abstract version of equality in which the effects of past discrimination would be forever into our social fabric† (Frederickson, 2005). Although this effort led to suppression of racial discrimination, it was opposed on the ground that it denied individuals the equal protection of the law. The difference in the views was as a result of differences in the issue of what is to be equal. Different people have come up with differing approach, the fact which has led to disagreement on this proposal . Some argued that this Act just ensure block equity while it rarely emphasized on individual equity. The opposing groups here based their argument on whether block equity is better than individual equity. Later, the 10 percent set aside by the provisions of the Federal Public Works Employment act in 1977 was interested to 30 percent by the U.S Supreme Court for the minority construction firms on contracts in the city of Richmond (Frederickson, 2005). This move was received negatively by being regarded as impediment for the affirmative action programs of other states and municipalities. This was seen to be denying the whites an equal protection law. Although the proposed arrangement brought equity in the society, it was argued that the law used inequality in the means of achieving this (Svara and Johnson, 2011). The Role of Public Administrators in Promoting Equity The public administrators play a pivotal role in promoting equity in the society. By shaping the work of governance in their respective positions, the public administrators are able to promote equity in public administration. By practicing good judgment in their services, the public administrators abide with the raw that promotes equality in the society. The public administrators also have the duty to partner with the elected leaders in ensuring that there is equity in every service provided (Svara and Johnson, 2011). The public administrators also interact with various individuals including the citizens and giving the elected officials advice and contributing by giving the recommendations on policy. Promoting Equality in Distribution and Access of the Available Services Another way through which the public administrators can promote equity in the country is through distribution and access. That is, to ensure that all services and benefits are equally available to every person in the community. As already noted, the distribution of the resources must be in such a way that the poor get more than the rich. Such allocation will help in bridging the gap between the rich and the poor in the society. It is also necessary to ensure that the distribution and access of the existing programs and policies closely goes with the intended purpose (Vitez 2011). For instance, in case there is a certain service to be provided to everyone, then this service should be equally available to all the people. In other words, every qualified individual in the society must have equal rights to access a certain service. For example, there should be no favor, discrimination or any other kind of bias that may significantly affect the ability of a certain fraction of the group from accessing the services. In some cases, there are some requirements that determine the eligibility for a certain service. In such case, it is always advisable to measure that every eligible person is able to access the service. The legal procedures should be applied to include those who are in between the two extremes. For instan ce, in case there is a certain allowance given to those people living below a certain income level, it is advisable to consider those at the boundary. While formulating the new policies and guidelines, it is advisable to ensure that only those policies that promote equality and compensatory redistribution are passed (Vitez, 2011). Any cases of previous discrimination must also be rectified to ensure that similar mistakes do not take place in the future. This will however be determined by the nature of the problem being addressed. Any possible barriers that may prevent the people with fewer resources from accessing an essential service must be eliminated. Such barriers include access fees to certain services. Such barriers tend to open the door for those with higher resources while blocking access for those with fewer resources. In case there must be access fee, this should only be in less important services and should be proportionate. While formulating the redistribution policies, it is necessary for the public administrators to consider the rule of law. The policies must also be directed in such a way that they promote maximum utilization of the available resources. Promoting Equity in the Process of Providing Services The public administrators also have a responsibility of promoting quality services to all the people. The process of providing services must be designed in such a way that it promotes equality in terms of quality in distribution of services. For instance, certain groups should not be given better services than the others. Discriminatory allocation will only contribute to increasing the gap among the people in the society. The administration of the services must reflect acceptable standards. This should be reflected in all groups in the community. The intended outcome in this case is to realize equal level of outcome among different people in terms of economic and social conditions (Svara and James, 2004). It also seeks to eliminate the differe nces between the less disadvantaged and richer individuals in the society. The public administrators must also consider the importance of individual’s behaviors on the outcomes and how they may impact or pose constraints on certain areas. This can clearly be demonstrated through the case of education. Poverty levels can significantly affect the level of performance in students. Students from the poor families are more likely to perform poorly than those from families with more resources. It is the role of the public administrators to carry out the appropriate investigations to determine the causes of various disparities among the people. This will help them in coming up with appropriate measures in order to overcome these differences. It is necessary for the public admionistrators to recognize the acceptable level of inequality and the degree to which it should intervene to rectify such inequalities (Vitez, 2011). The policy making process is one of the most important aspects that have a significant role in permuting equity in any country. Every person or group of persons must be given an opportunity to give their views concerning the most appropriate public policies and the service delivery. There must be appropriate efforts to involve all the citizens in policy formulation and also providing the feedback appropriately in order to promote equity in provision of social services. Recommendations Procedural Fairness Procedural fairness is one of the most important aspects of operations through which the public administrators can promote equity in the society. In order to achieve this, there must be due process. This ensures that every person is given an opportunity to access fairness and justice in all aspects. It ensures that every person is given an opportunity to be heard and notified about the proceedings in any issue touching them. Procedural fairness also implies that all the people are exposed to equal human rights in spite of the differences in th eir personal characteristics. In case any deviations from these arrangements arise, then correction measures must be taken instantly. It is also important to not that the world is dynamic in the social, economic, and political aspects. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the new and existing practices are re-examined to ensure that there is no any group that is denied procedural fairness. Similarly, management as well as the service delivery must also be examined to ensure that every group of persons can easily access procedural fairness in the society. In case there is any behaviour detected to cause any form of unfairness, it is always advisable to take appropriate corrective measures to prevent any adverse impact in the society. Progressive Taxation Progressive taxation is another way through which social equity can be promoted. Through taxation, the public policy makers can significantly affect the distribution of resources. Progressive taxation is a kind of taxation where the public administrators impose tax proportionally. The government imposes relatively higher tax rate on the wealthy individuals in the society. The more the income one has the more tax they are supposed to pay to the government. This form of taxation plays a role of reducing the tax burden for the less disadvantaged people in the community. This taxation can significantly help in bridging the poor and the rich in the community. Since the progressive tax increases as the level increases, it has a significant role in promoting equality in the society. It leaves the highest burden to the high income class in the community. Therefore, this kind of taxation can be of great significance in promoting equality in the society. Through progressive taxation, income is shifted from the rich to the poor. This reduces the gap between the two groups hence promoting equality among the people. Progressive taxation protects the poor group in the society from tax burdens. In relation to this, it is proposed that the wealthier people should pay more for the services provided by the government. This will promote equity in the society by shifting income from the rich to the poor. From this discussion, it is clear that social equity is of great importance to the society. However, recent statistics indicates that the gap among the people is enlarging with time. It is therefore necessary to come up with the necessary measures that can promote equality in the society. There are several ways through which the public administrators can increase the level of equality in the community. In order to realize equity effectively in the community, there is need to teach the issues of equity and diversity management to the public administrators. Despite the adverse effects impacted by inequality on the society, very few people are aware of the increasing level of inequity among the people in the society. There is need to have campaigns on the adverse impacts that inequality can have on the soci ety. People must be able to access statistics demonstrating how intensified the gap among the people has prevailed in the society. Such kind of sensitization is of great importance in promoting understanding of the inequality issues in the society. The political parties must also be committed at formulation of the policies that can have a significant impact of reducing inequality among the people. This ensures that there are minimal differences among the rich and the poor in the society. Significance of Promoting Social Equity In many countries of the world, the issue of the social equality is highly upheld by many stakeholders. However, achieving this has been one of the major challenges in many nations. The idea that all men were created equally has contributed in reduction of the differences between the rich and the poor (Gutierrez, 2003). In order to understand the importance of the social equality, it is always necessary to have a connection between the living standards and the well being in a particular society. Social equity promotes the standards of living and the well being in the society. As already noted, social equity promotes the wealth in a country. When the level of health and development in a certain country is high, then the average level of the living standards of the citizens increases significantly. Consequently, this leads to the improvement in life expectancy levels. The people are also generally happy because the level of disparities is high. However, it is important that the level of happiness will increase up to a particular point. After a certain level of average income, there will be no marginal increase in well being or happiness as a result of an increase in the level of income (Rosenbloom and Carroll, 1990). This is because the importance of the material things on the well being reduces as the level of income increases. At this point, the main factor necessary is the psychological influences that affect the level of happiness. Pre vious studies have indicated that there are a number of social evils associated with inequality (Blas and Kurup, 2010). For instance, there is a higher rate of imprisonment and more violence in the countries where there is high level of inequalities. As noted previously, inequalities lead to an increase in differences between the people in society. This increases the level of poverty among the people because the resources will be ending on the hands of marginal people in the society while the majorities are left in poverty. When the level of poverty in the society is high, the rate of crime tends to be high (Gooden and Meyers, 2004). Past research has also revealed that the rate of teenage births is high in the countries where there are high levels of inequality (Accius, 2008). Similarly, this is as a result of poverty. Most poor parents are unable to educate their children and therefore they are forced to drop out of school at a very young age. Consequently, they are forced to get married at a very early age. Due to poverty, teenagers may engage themselves in sexual activities as a way of earning a living. This may also lead to high rates of teenager birth. Social equity also promotes the social mobility. This implies that it is easier for the poor to move out of poverty in a country where there is equity. On the other hand, there is no social mobility in economies where there is no equity in distribution of resources. The level of well being is relatively higher in the countries where there is a high level of equity. This is because the living standards are higher and every family is able to access at least the basic goods. Therefore, there is low likelihood of starvation or malnutrition. Psychological problems are also minimal since people do not suffer from extreme poverty. Consequently, there is high life expectancy. Child mortality is also minimal in countries where there is a higher level of equity. By promoting equality in the country, the administrato rs are able to deal with the increasing differences between the ideal and reality of equality. This helps in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. It is necessary to consider equity in all aspects of the society’s operations. It is also important to ensure that equity is practiced in all activities in which the members of the society are engaged in. For instance, there is need to have equity in the treatment of all the people from different races. In connection to this, the top management is required to ensure equity at all levels. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is evident that the public administrators have a significant role to play in promoting equality in the society. They have the responsibility of formulation of the policies that leads to reduction of the gap between those with more resources and those with fewer resources. This is because inequity has an impact of increasing disparities in the society. Equity can be maximized by reducing discriminat ion in provision of the public services and facilities as well as the employment opportunities. References List Accius, J. (2008). Toward a Demographic Divide? Equity, race, and Social Security. U.S.A.: ProQuest. Blas, E. and Kurup, A. (2010). Equity, Social Determinants and Public Health Programmes. World Health Organization. Frederickson, G. (2005), The state of social equity in American public administration. National Civic Review, Vol. 94, pp. 31–38. Gooden, S., and Meyers, S. (2004). Social Equity in Public Affairs Education. Journal of Public Affairs Education 10: 91-97. Gutierrez, R. (2003). Social Equity and the Funding of Community Policing. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC. Inter-American Development Bank. (2000). Social Protection for Equity and Growth. New York: IDB. Pickett, K. (2011). The Benefits of Equality. Web. Rosenbloom, D., and Carroll, J. (1990). Toward Constitutional Competence: A Casebook for Public Administrators. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Svara, J., and James, B. (2004). Filling in the Skeletal Pillar: Addressing Social Equity in Introductory Courses in Public Administration. Journal of Public Affairs Education 10: 99-109. Svara, J., and Johnson, N. (2011). Justice for All: Promoting Social Equity in Public Administration. New York: M.E. Sharpe. Vitez, O. (2011). What Is a Progressive Tax System? Web. This report on Issue on Public Administration; Social Equity was written and submitted by user Kenley Acevedo to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Congress Of Vienna Essays - Knights Of The Golden Fleece

The Congress Of Vienna Essays - Knights Of The Golden Fleece The Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna was an international peace conference for the countries of Europe. The goals of the Congress of Vienna were to have peace throughout Europe and have no wars or fights. The Congress was formed because there had been many wars in the past. The Congress of Vienna was made mostly of conservatives, but had some liberals as well. Some of the influential leaders were Czar Alexander I of Russia, King Frederick William III of Prussia, Lord Castlereagh who was the British foreign minister, and Prince Klemens von Metternich who was the Austrian foreign minister. The Congress of Vienna attained peace in Europe by doing a number of things. One way they attained this is using legitimacy, which is restoring the royal families to their throne. One example is that the Congress recognized Louis XVIII as the legitimate king of France. Another way they attained peace in Europe is restoring the balance of power between the countries in Europe. To do this, they reduced France to its 1790 frontiers, and they strengthened the countries on the borders of France. Also, to the north of France, the Dutch and Austrian Netherlands were united into a single country called the Netherlands, which was ruled by a Dutch king. To the east, 39 German states were loosely joined into the German Confederation, headed by Austria. The Congress also recognized Switzerland as an independent nation. It also strengthened the kingdom of Sardinia in northern Italy by giving it Piedmont and Genoa. All these variations helped Europe to obtain peace. The Congress of Vienna had kept its peace for nearly one hundred years. It maintained this peace by the Concert of Europe. To protect the peace settlement reached at Vienna, the Quadruple Alliance was formed with Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia; France was later added to the alliance. These countries met to deal with any threat to the peace and stability of Europe. Czar Alexander proposed a Holy Alliance that would bind all rulers to govern according to Christian principles. These two alliances acted together to preserve the peace along with the Concert of Europe which preserved the balance of power and prevented local conflicts from flaring into a major European conflict. Another way the Congress maintained the peace is the Metternich system. This is to defend the status quo, which is the existing state of affairs; and the Carlsbad Decrees, which are laws that imposed press censorship and suppressed freedom of speech. After Europe's one hundred years of peace, it had a downfall which cause the Congress of Vienna to break down into nothing. It broke down because of Europe's brief, localized conflicts, such as the Crimean and Franco-Prussian wars. Many rivalries among nations led to mistrust and even hatred, the countries came on the brink of war. The main reason for breakup was WWI, where Germany had become very powerful which upset the balance of power. The other countries then form alliances and there is a breakout of WWI which demolished the hundred years of peace. The Congress of Vienna was a great importance to Europe because of the great peace it provided to Europe for one hundred years. Factors such as the Concert of Europe, Metternich System, legitimacy, and the balance of power all provided help in forming and maintaining the Congress. The outbreak of WWI was the extreme termination of the great Congress.

The School Nurse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The School Nurse - Essay Example However, in today's world the school nurse position is not given the resources necessary to accomplish this goal and the role has become so unmanageable and the task so encompassing it may be placing education and students at risk. The number of students taking Ritalin has doubled since 1990 and now exceeds 3 million students (Goldberg, 1). The over worked nurses must medicate these students to insure the proper dose to the correct student. The pervasiveness of lunchtime medication has become so involved and lines of children outside nurses' offices so prevalent, that in Boston, schools are now facing a challenging dilemma; Who should have responsibility for the medicating According to Carey Goldberg, reporter for the New York Times, "...school officials have proposed that individual nurses be given permission to delegate the distribution of their ''meds'' to handpicked, supervised staff members". Many nurses who advocate the addition of higher paid nurses as a solution rather than reducing their roles have discredited the plan as unsafe. However, school officials see it as a reasonable cost cutting measure in this New World of psychoactive drugs. Untrained personnel handing out sensitive and dangerous drugs a re certainly placing the students at an increased risk. School nurses are called upon to walk obese students, insert catheters, and administer diabetic insulin. These are disciplines that call on the highest order of medical training. Food poisoning, infectious diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, and injuries from student violence complicate these situations. The nurse is required to perform the duties of a general practitioner while having the training of a nurse and the attendant pay scale. Still, school systems balk at the possibility of adding more nurses to the staff due to cost considerations. While the National Association of School Nurses recommends that a school system have one nurse per 750 students, the national average is one nurse per 1350 students (Vail). Attending to the students medical needs should be a priority to assure that the system is promoting adequate and fair education, but staffing at a 50% level can not guarantee success of the health of the student body. Obesity is running rampant through the school corridors and nutrition and healthy food have come into the spotlight. Once again, the school nurse is called on to make recommendations and plans to provide a healthy diet and reduce the problem of overweight children. Nutrition is a special discipline and often runs counter to the school's agenda of providing vending machines and a junk food cafeteria. There is more profit in a McDonald's station than there is in a healthy dietary offering. The American Medical Association advocates a proactive approach based on food types and amounts that are to be offered through school lunches ("Expert Committee Recommendations", 8). Dedicated school nurses can not be expected to protect the health of children in the existing political and economical climate of many school boards. They are not trained as nutritionists and do nor serve the political function of being socially

Organizational Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Organizational Behavior - Essay Example According to Huczyski and Buchanan (2009), a central part of the concept of the organization and administration is the development of administration perceptions and what skill should be termed as administration theory. The application of the theory brings complete alteration in the management practices. Management theories are a well-defined set of general guidelines that direct the managers to effectively manage an organization. Management theories are helpful for employees for carrying out effective collaboration with business objectives and the sources required for achieving the goal. Organisational behavior is based on understanding the management principles. Knowledge of the history helps in understanding the attributes of administration and management behavior along with the affirmation of the major areas of organizational function (Huczynski A & Buchanan, D 2009). Management theories are analytic and can be implemented in accordance with the diverse administrative contexts. Ap proaches to Management & Organisation The above chart describes the main approaches to organizational behavior (Mullins 2005). Organisational studies, organization behavior, and management practices are analytical concepts and they depict the precise use of ability on how humans as individuals and as groups act within the organization. The initial writers presented the management theories on the basis of understanding the various purposes of management and its functions within an organization.  Ã‚  ... 1. Classical Approach The initial writers presented the management theories on the basis of understanding the various purposes of management and its functions within an organisation. They built the management concept categorising it as work planning, the profound requirements of the organisation, challenge of management, and the acceptance of rational and analytic behaviour. 2. Human Relationship In Behaviour Management The human aspect of the classical writers was a framework for the organisation, however during the 1920s, the years of the Great Depression; the greater incorporation began with the human relations and the organisational behaviour (Mullins, 2005). 3. The System Approach In the recent days, interest has been focused on the evaluation of organisations as systems with an amount of shared sub-systems. The classical access emphasised the complex requirements of the organisation and its people. According to this theory, the managers should be able to understand the aspirati ons of their employees or subordinates in order to create an effective working relationship with them. It also determines the various factors by which an employee can be motivated towards working well in the firm. This would help in achieving organisational goals with more effectiveness and commitment. The theory draws attention towards the hygiene factors of motivation of employees within an organisation and the aspects that should be considered by managers in the course of management. An interrelationship can be drawn here with the understanding of organisational behaviour and the human relation theory of management which emphasises the behavioural element which is shared mutually with both the subjects. The concept of the management theory

Importance of Early Childhood Education

Importance of Early Childhood Education Brain in early childhood takes what environment offers and learning environment that challenges and motivate children is the first preparation of child education. The education given in early childhood shapes foundation of the life and helps mental and academic development of child. It is very essential to recognize importance of early childhood education and how it effects to persons life. Effective curriculum and education in early childhood encourage and develop language skill and ability to acquire vocabulary. Throughout the play and education, children learn social skills along with how to deal with others and develop their own values. Importance of Early Childhood Education In old days, people used to think that children dont have ability to distinguish what is right and wrong so there is no need to educate them in their early ages. However, even though it is true that they cant differentiate right or wrong, it is also true that children absorb everything what they hear and see like sponge and therefore early education is essential. The education given in early childhood shapes foundation of the life and helps mental and academic development of child. It is very essential to recognize importance of early childhood education and how it effects to persons life. Research and study on brain development shows how closely they connect to development of emotional, physical, and social capability of individuals. If these fundamental capabilities are not developed in early ages, it would affect to childs learning potentials. Early childhood is defined as first eight years of life of individual. Eighty-five percent of brain develops by age of five and brain of child in age of three have 2.5 times more active brain than adults (McCarthy, 2011). The learning experience of diverse areas in early childhood makes number of childrens brain connection and such brain cell connection strengthens by continuous new stimulation from the environment (McCarthy, 2011). Brain takes what environment offers and there is prime time that brain absorbs new information like sponge especially in the first three years of life (Bouchard Gilles, 2011). By proving proper education in early childhood, children learn basic foundation of their whole life and also develop social, mental, and academic activities. Among many benefits of early childhood education, most fundamental reason is that education provided in five to eight years is very influential to what kind of person a child would grow up and is vital for academic and mental development of an individual. Effective curriculum and education in early childhood encourage and develop language skill and ability to acquire vocabulary. According to early childhood education research journal, most capacity of language skill of learning vocabulary, which is a foundation for literacy, develops by ages of three (Bouchard Gilles, 2011). Bouchard and Gilles have studied the importance of encouraging language skills in early childhood and argued that educators who are in daycare services by age of five have lots of opportunities of stimulating practice that helps children to acquire language skills (Bouchard Gilles, 2011). Studies show that how educational setting and specific training of language skills can develop and promote language skills of children. The studies were conducted at daycare center with 22 educators and 174 children and language skills practice have been divided into three parts; educator wait and listen, educator follows childs lead, and educator adjusts childs sentence. Practice that educators adjust childrens language shows rather few instances than educators wait and listen. Children in groups that educator waits and listens what they say and educator follow childs lead tried to use new vocabulary and to finish their sentence while children in group that educator makes correction when they use wrong grammar or vocabulary didnt use any new words and some werent even to start to talk later. Children learn language skills by interacting with immediate environment and training or simple structural changes can improve language skills of children (Bouchard Gilles, 2011). Development in early childhood does not only affect to academic and physical activities, but also involves relationship with other people and emotional and cognitive development. People easily think children struggle to find their ego in adolescence; however children actually start to realize their identity in first eight years and inner capacity of imagination and self-image of gender roles start to develop. In that age, they learn how to associate with friends and start to look people around them. Throughout the play and education, children learn social skills along with how to deal with others and develop their own values. Teaching language or academic skills in early ages is not only education, but rather child-directed play and interacting with them is most important education (Webster-Stratton Reid, 2010). Webster-Stratton and Reid conducted experiment to show difference and its effects between child-directed play that lets children to play what they want to do and express feeling and adult- directed play that parent or educator specifically asks to how they should play. In the therapy, five years old boy, Dylan who had multiple tantrums and aggressive behaviors to other people and no friends, was asked to child-directed play with his parents. First, he rejected his parents attempts to play with him, but gradually started to interact and invite them into his play. These child-directed plays enable to establish ego and practice how to express and control (Webster-Stratton Reid, 2010). Throughout the play and education, children learn social skills along with how to deal with others and develop thei r own values. Brain takes what environment offers and learning environment that challenges and motivate children is the first preparation of child education. Parents and educators should understand that children also have own thinking and proper education based on care and attachment is potent influence to them. Society and community should also recognize education given in these ages is very critical to childs mental and intellectual development and therefore provide more productive education program not only for the children, but for parent, since early childhood education is most efficient investment for society.

Information Systems and Services Essay -- Essays Papers

Information Systems and Services Question 1 Components of an Information System: Hardware – There are three types of hardware technology - mainframes, minicomputers and microcomputers. Mainframes – The mainframe computer is a very powerful machine designed for large-scale data processing activities. These computers have steadily declined over the last 20 years due to their size, cost of operation and maintenance. Minicomputers – The minicomputer is often referred to as a server. It has the ability to offer networking, speed and power. These computers can be programmed and are much more interactive as well as more user friendly. Although they are still expensive (though not as expensive as the mainframe) they are upgradeable. Microcomputers – The microcomputer is commonly known as the PC (personal computer). It is most commonly used as a desktop computer intended for office or home use. These machines can be placed in fixed locations and connected to peripherals such as printers, scanners etc. The microcomputer is easily upgraded, fairly cheap to upgrade-repair and components can be easily fitted or removed. Software – The most common piece of software associated with an information system is a database. Information is accessed through a database management system, which is defined as one or more computer programs that will allow the user to enter, store, organise, manipulate and retrieve data from the database. Data - Data is derived from both internal and external sources and whilst most external data is readily usable and concrete forms e.g. Bank statements, purchase invoices etc. Data is a routine by product of some routine essential operation such as the production of an invoice or alternatively a special counting. Data are facts obtained by reading, observing, counting and measuring, which are then recorded. Personnel – Information systems personnel usually work in their own department (I.S. Department), which employs computer programmers, systems analysts, computer operators etc. They may also work in other functional departments or areas in a support capacity. The skills required by these personnel will include technical skills, written and verbal communication skills, an understanding of the organisation that they work for and the ability to work with other people. The information systems department has three primar... ...mmediately available or delayed. The information should be available when needed. If it is supplied too late it will be of no use. It is also important that information is communicated through the correct channels so that it arrives at its destination clear and understood. Question 3 INFORMATION FLOWS WITHIN THE SYSTEM. Internal - The internal flows of a system are the data or paper work that is sent internally to other departments within an organisation i.e. making and receiving orders, sending invoices and memos etc. It also helps the different departments to communicate effectively with each other. External - The external flows of information are to whom the organisation is accountable e.g. the government for taxes, suppliers for payment, shareholders for dividends, financial institutions for deposits or withdrawals etc. Electronic - The electronic flows within the system can be anything that requires technology to move data around e.g. e-mail, fax, network messages within a LAN or WAN, bar code scanners, swipe machines etc. Hardcopy - A hardcopy is any thing that is received which is paper based e.g. invoices, purchase order, statements and received faxes.

Book Review on Imagining India Essay

Monday morning, it is chaos. Despite its pristine new metro and expanding highways, the city can barely contain the morning hubbub, the swarm of people all trying to get somewhere. By the time I reach Kaushik Basu’s home—set a little apart from the highway, on a quiet street that is empty except for a single, lazy cow who stops in front of the car, in no hurry to move—I am very late, a little grimy, but exhilarated. Kaushik and I chat about how the crowds in the city look completely different compared to, say, two decades ago. Then, you would see people lounging near tea shops, reading the morning paper late into the afternoon, puffing languorously at their beedis and generally shooting the breeze. But as India has changed— bursting forth as one of the world’s fastest-growing countries—so has the scene on the street. And as Kaushik points out, it is this new restlessness, the hum and thrum of its people, that is the sound of India’s economic engine today. Kaushik is the author of a number of books on India and teaches economics at Cornell, and his take on India’s growth—of a country driven by human capital—is now well accepted. India’s position as the world’s go-to destination for talent is hardly surprising; we may have been short on various things at various times, but we have always had plenty of people. The crowded tumult of our cities is something I experience every day as I navigate my way to our Bangalore office through a dense crowd that overflows from the footpaths and on to the road—of software engineers waiting at bus stops, groups of women in colourful saris, on their way to their jobs 38 at the garment factories that line the road, men in construction hats heading towards the semi-completed highway. And then there are the people millin g around the cars, hawking magazines and pirated versions of the latest best-sellers. * Looking around, I think that if people are the engine of India’s growth, our economy has only just begun to rev up. But to the demographic experts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, India’s population made the country quite simply a disaster of epic proportions. Paul Ehlrich’s visit to Delhi in 1966 forms the opening of his book The Population Bomb, and his shock as he describes India’s crowds is palpable: ‘People eating, people washing, people sleeping . . . people visiting, arguing and screaming . . . people clinging to buses . . . people, people, people’. But in the last two decades, this depressing vision of India’s population as an ‘overwhelming burden’ has been turned on its head. With growth, our human capital has emerged as a vibrant source of workers and consumers not just for India, but also for the global economy. But this change in our attitudes has not come easily. Since independence, India struggled for decades with policies that tried to put the lid on its surging population. It is only recently that the country has been able to look its billion in the eye and consider its advantages. ‘MILLIONS ON AN ANTHILL’ For most of the twentieth century, people both within and outside India viewed us through a lens that was distinctly Malthusian. As a poor and extremely crowded part of the world, we seemed to vindicate Thomas Malthus’s uniquely despondent vision—that great population growth inevitably led to great famine and despair. The time that Thomas Malthus, writer, amateur economist and clergyman (the enduring term history gave him would be ‘the gloomy parson’), lived in may have greatly influenced his theory on population. Nineteenth-century England was seeing very high birth rates, with families having children by the baker’s dozen. Malthus— who, as the second of eight children, was himself part of the population explosion he bemoaned—predicted in his An Essay on *Tbe Alchemist, Liar’s Poker and (Tom Friedman would be delighted) The World Is Flat have been perennial favourites for Indian pirates. the Principle of Population that the unprecedented increases in population would lead to a cycle of famines, of ‘epidemics, and sickly seasons’. India in particular seemed to be speedily bearing down the path that Malthus predicted. On our shores, famine was a regular visitor. We endured thirty hunger famines* between 1770 and 1950— plagues during which entire provinces saw a third of their population disappear, and the countryside was covered ‘with the bleached bones of the millions dead’.1 By the mid twentieth century, neo-Malthusian prophets were sounding the alarm on the ‘disastrous’ population growth in India and China, and predicted that the impact of such growth would be felt around the world. Their apocalyptic scenarios helped justify draconian approaches to birth control. Policies recommending ‘sterilization of the unfit and the disabled’, and the killing of ‘defective’ babies gained the air of respectab le theory. 2 India’s increasing dependence on food aid from the developed world due to domestic shortages also fuelled the panic around its population growth—in 1960 India had consumed one-eighth of the United States’ total wheat production, and by 1966 this had grown to onefourth. Consequently, if you were an adult in the 1950s and 1960s and followed the news, it was entirely plausible to believe that the endgame for humanity was just round the corner; you may also have believed that this catastrophe was the making of some overly fecund Indians. Nehru, observing the hand-wringing, remarked that the Western world was ‘getting frightened at the prospect of the masses of Asia becoming vaster and vaster, and swarming all over the place’. And it is true that Indians of this generation had a cultural affinity for big families, even among the middle class—every long holiday during my childhood was spent at my grandparents’ house with my cousins, and a family photo from that time has a hundred people crammed into the frame. Indian families were big enough to be your *Amartya Sen and others have pointed out, however, that while these famines may have seemed to be the consequence of a country that was both poor and overpopulated, they were in fact triggered partly by trade policies and the lack of infrastructure. Lord Lytton exported wheat from India at the height of the 1876-78 famine, and the lack of connectivity across the country affected transportation of grain to affected areas. Main social circle—most people did not mingle extensively outside family weddings, celebrations and visits to each other’s homes. The growing global worries around our population growth created immense pressure on India to impose some sort of control on our birth rates, and we became the first developing country to initiate a family planning programme. But our early family planning policies had an unusual emphasis on ‘self-control’.3 In part this was influenced by leaders such as Gandhi, who preached abstinence; in an interesting departure from his usual policy of non-violence, he had said, ‘Wives should fight off their husbands with force, if necessary.’ This focus on abstinence and self-restraint continued with independent India’s first health minister, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, who was in the odd position of being at the helm of a family planning programme while opposing family planning ‘in principle’.4 As a result Indian policy during this decade emphasized the rhythm method. Rural India was targeted for raising awareness of the method, and one villager remarked of its success, ‘They talked of the rhythm method to people who didn’t know the calendar. Then they gave us rosaries of coloured beads . . . at night, people couldn’t tell the red bead for â€Å"don’t† from the green for â€Å"go ahead†.’ 5 Not surprisingly, India’s population continued to grow through the 1950s and 1960s, as fertility remained stubbornly high even while infant mortality and death rates fell rapidly. This was despite the massive awareness-building efforts around family planning that the government undertook. I still remember the ‘small family’ songs on the radio and the walls of our cities, the sides of buses and trucks were papered with posters that featured happy (and small) cartoon families, and slogans like ‘Us Two, Ours Two’. And yet, each census release made it clear that our population numbers continued to relentlessly soar, and we despaired over a graph that was climbing too high, too fast. SNIP, SNIP As the global panic around population growth surged, the Indian and Chinese governments began executing white-knuckle measures of family planning in the 1960s. ‘Our house is on fire,’ Dr S. Chandrasekhar, minister of health and family planning, said in 1968. If we focused more on sterilization, he added, ‘We can get the blaze under control.’ By the 1970s, programmes and targets for sterilization of citizens were set up for Indian states. There was even a vasectomy clinic set up at the Victoria Terminus rail station in Bombay, to cater to the passenger traffic flowing through. 7 But no matter how Indian governments tried to promote sterilization with incentives and sops, the number of people willing to undergo the procedure did not go up. India’s poor wanted children—and especially sons—as economic security. State efforts to persuade citizens into sterilization backfired in unexpected ways—as when many people across rural India refused to have the anti-tuberculosis BCG, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, injections because of a rumour that BCG stood for ‘birth control government’.8 In 1975, however, Indira Gandhi announced the Emergency, which suspended democratic rights and elections and endowed her with new powers of persuasion, so to speak. The Indian government morphed into a frighteningly sycophantic group, there to do the bidding of the prime minister and her son Sanjay—the same hotheaded young man who had described the Cabinet ministers as ‘ignorant buffoons’, thought his mother a ‘ditherer’ and regarded the Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos his role model.9 In the winter of 1976, I, along with some of my fellow IIT Bombay students, had arrived on the ‘festival circuit’ in Delhi to participate in the student debates and quizzes (yes, I was an inveterate nerd). It meant going from college to college for competitions, from Hindu to St Stephen’s to Miranda House to IIT Delhi. Most of us from the sylvan, secluded campus of IIT Bombay were not as politically aware as the Delhi students—the only elections we followed were those for the ITT hostels and student body. But in the Delhi of the Emergency years, sitting around campfires, one heard the whispered tale s of Emergency-era atrocities, and of one particular outrage—’nasbandi’. Sanjay, who had discovered a taste and talent for authoritarianism with the Emergency, had made sterilization—specifically male sterilization or nasbandi— his pet project. The sterilization measures that were introduced came to be known as the ‘Sanjay Effect’—a combination, as the demographer Ashish Bose put it to me, of ‘coercion, cruelty, corruption and cooked figures’. Ashish notes that ‘incentives’ to undergo the sterilization procedure included laws that required a sterilization certificate before government permits and rural credit could be granted. Children of parents with more than three children found that schools refused them admission, and prisoners did not get parole until they went under the knife. And some government departments ‘persuaded’ their more reluctant employees to undergo the procedure by threatening them with charges of embezzlement.* The steep sterilization targets for state governments meant that people were often rounded up like sheep and taken to ‘family planning’ clinics. For instance, one journalist witnessed municipal police in the small town of Barsi, Maharashtra, ‘dragging several hundred peasants visiting Barsi on market day off the streets’. They drove these men in two garbage trucks to the local family planning clinic, where beefy orderlies held them down while they were given vasectomies.10 This scene repeated itself time and again, across the country. It was difficult to trust the sterlization figures the government released since there was so much pressure on the states for results. Nevertheless, the Emergency-era sterilization programme, Ashish notes, may have achieved nearly two-thirds of its target—eight million sterilizations. But democracy soon hit back with a stunning blow. When Indira Gandhi called for elections in 1977—ignoring Sanjay’s protests, ‘much to his ire’11—the Congress was immediately tossed out of power. The nasbandi programme was the last gasp of coercive family planning in India on a large scale, and it became political suicide to implement similar policies. The Janata Party government that followed Indira even changed the label of the programme to avoid the stigma it carried, and ‘family planning’ became ‘family welfare’. While sterilization programmes have occasionally reappeared across states, they have been mostly voluntary, with the focus on incentives to undergo the procedure, f *Asoka Bandarage describes the target fever in India’s sterilization programmes, which gave rise to ‘speed doctors’ who competed against each other to perform the most number of operations every day, often under ghastly, unhygienic conditions. One celebrated figure was the Indian gynaecologist P.V. Mehta, who entered the Guinness Book of World Records for sterilizing more than 350,000 people in a decade—he claimed that he could perform forty sterilizations in an hour. tThese sweeteners for the procedure have at times been very strange and a little suspect, such as Uttar Pradesh’s ‘guns for sterilisation’ policy in 2004, under which scheme Indians purchasing firearms or seeking gun licences were told they would be fast-tracked if they could round up volunteers for sterilization. A district in Madhya Pradesh also made a similar ‘guns for vasectomies’ offer to its residents in 2008.