Immunization crisis may develop due to economic crisis during COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis with 61, 149,391 confirmed cases and 370,478 deaths till 29May, 2020 [1]. This pandemic has shattered many economies with an estimated loss of $5.8 trillion to $8.8 trillion globally. This economic loss can result in reduction in funds to World Health Organization. Unfortunately, United States of America (USA) has announced termination of any further funding to WHO which can lead to another global health crisis[2]. As WHO is a voluntary funding based organization its main donor are America, China, Japan, Germany and United Kingdom. Among these USA is the main donor with a contribution of $115.8million alone followed by China $57.4 million, Japan $41million, Germany $29.1 million and UK $21.9 million [3].  America’s termination of funding can put WHO and child health programs in serious crisis. Among many programs run by WHO one of the most important program is immunization of children. Immunization coverage programs  save 2-3 million livesper year causing decline in measles related deaths, eradication of polio, surveillance of rotavirus, BCG and DTaP vaccination in children[4]. It is estimated that during MillenniumDevelopment Goal (MDG) there is overall decline in child related mortalities due to malaria, measles, diarrhea, AIDS and meningitis [5]. Remarkable results are achieved with measles are diarrhea immunization programs causing a decline in death rate by 73% and 80% respectively. According to a study with current success rate diarrhea related deaths can be virtually eliminated by 2030. Another successful program is “End Polio” program which eradicated polio from world except from Pakistan and Afghanistan [4][6]. This termination of funds to WHO can waste all previous efforts in developing countries. On the other hand despite of all efforts still 19.4 million children did not received prescribed dose of vaccines. Data analysis revealed among these  60% of children belong to 10 developing countries namelyAngola, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Viet Nam [4]. These countries mainly rely on foreign funding and Non-Government Organization (NGOs) for child health care programs.

Effect of Feedback on Studen Engagement and Achievement in Mathematics in Secondary Schools

Feedback is the key to improve the quality of teaching in mathematics classroom. There are different practices in teaching and learning in mathematic classroom throughout the world. In Pakistan a number of ways have been introduced to increase students‘ engagement and achievement in mathematics but the impact of these programs is considered marginal. The purpose of this study was to assess ―effect of feedback on students‘ engagement and achievement in mathematics in secondary schools‖. This study provides the empirical support that how feedback enhances students‘ engagement in mathematics classroom and how feedback support students to improve their achievement in mathematics. The ultimate effect of this feedback is on students engagement and achievement and consequently, as improved students‘ mathematics learning. The sample of the study was 87 students who were studying Mathematics in grades 9. There were 43 students in control group and 44 students in experiment group.Groups were matched on students‘ results in Mathematics in grade 8 to ensure the equivalence of both groups. Then pretest was conducted to compare both groups equivalence. Modified lesson plans with feedback strategies and techniques along with independent practice assignments for intervention were developed. Researcher employed different techniques and strategies of feedback while teaching mathematics to experiment group. Special emphasis was given to ‗questioning based discourse‘ following the initiation, response follow up (IRF) format, either in written or verbal form. At the end of intervention the participants of this study were post tested. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 15 version. According to the nature of data and to address the research questions by considering the number of participants, parametric techniques were applied on students‘ engagement in mathematics classroom scale and mathematics achievement test separately. The major findings of the study are: The idea that traditional teaching in mathematics classroom is sufficient for mathematics learning should be reconsidered. The traditional teaching in mathematics is lacking in quality teaching to mathematics students because of the limitation of their usual teaching style. A comparison of pretest and posttest scores of control and experiment group has shown significant effect of feedback on students‘ achievement in mathematics. Therefore, there is need to introduce new teaching and learning approaches in mathematics classrooms. When engagement in mathematic classroom of the participants was compared on pretest and posttest it showed that there was significant increase in engagement in mathematics classroom of students in experiment group. Understanding mathematical concepts and expanding students‘ engagement in mathematics is only possible by introducing appropriate feedback techniques and methods in teaching mathematics. Similarly, different dimensions of engagement in mathematic classroom of the participants were compared based on pretest and posttest, it showed that each dimension of engagement was better in experiment group than control group. Feedback given to mathematics students in classroom not only contributes to improve engagement of students but also expands the understanding of the mathematics which causes increase in achievement. There was a significant co relation of feedback with engagement and achievement of participants in intervention group. Also, three construct of engagement along with their different dimensions were found to be correlated with each other. Another interesting finding was that low and average ability students were most beneficiary of the intervention. This limited success within engagement and achievement in mathematics can be increased by expanding this intervention with long intervals. Students are benefited from feedback in mathematics content, which consequently resulted in efficient engagement by using feedback given to them on selected topics. Therefore, feedback given to the student in the relevant topic can engage students in mathematics learning. The feedback on specific content from the textbooks to be taught in mathematics classroom is a desired element of teaching and learning of mathematics. In the changing scenario of education policies and curriculum change, training on feedback is needed for novice and in-service teachers, because in our context a teacher has to taught mathematics in limited time and according to given examples of mathematics textbook. In this situation, the concepts of mathematics textbook of grade 9 can be addressed in an appropriate manner by giving feedback to the students of mathematics.