Study Of The Vat System In Ethiopia Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 13 Words: 3825 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Government collects revenue from different types of sources to invest for public services like education, health, road and infrastructure distributes equally to the public. This revenue will be the one in which it levies from different income is called a tax. A tax is a blood vessel of a country for development, most of developed countries their tax harmonies are very attractive and strong, the people are well known about the tax what and why you are pay, if you are not pay you accept like you didnt accomplished your duty even your right. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Study Of The Vat System In Ethiopia Finance Essay" essay for you Create order How ever in most Sahara counties like Ethiopia the people do not well understand about the necessity of the tax what and why you are pay, thats why the fraudulent and smugglers would be many and high developing country. Hence the problem of tax collection and assessment in Ethiopia is the gap between the taxpayers willingness to pay tax is as a major with different implementation and other problems by the tax collectors. In general in Ethiopia, where the awareness of taxpayers, the culture of paying taxes and the capacity of tax administrators appear poor. The tax system should be balance the economic activity and expected the people on the ability to pay a tax in proportion to their level of income. From the broad concepts of taxation the tax should be divided in to two major groups. These are direct and indirect tax, from these indirect tax the one in which highly Comprehensive that includes producers, wholesalers and retailers is the value added Tax (VAT). The value added tax (VAT) is a new tax system introduced in Ethiopia since 2003 as a Replacement to sales tax.This tax collects from domestic transaction and importation of goods. Where this tax is replaced the sales tax the assumption was the sales tax does not collect on added value, the value added tax minimizes the damage that may be caused by attempts to avoid and evade the tax and helps to ascertain the profit obtained by the tax payers and the tax initiates saving and investment because the tax is levied on consumable goods and services and does not tax capital and enhance economic growth and improves the ratio relationship between gross domestic product and government revenue. And has a proclamation, cites as a proclamation No. 285/2002. This paper will state the current main issues of VAT administration like organizational structure, staffing and training, Tax Payers Identification and Automation, invoicing and book keeping Requirements, controlling of filing and paym ent, Audit of VAT, Refunds management, penalties and cost of administration and compliances with its strength and weakness in Ethiopias as follows 2. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY How it works the Administration and compliance of VAT system in Ethiopia with its positive and negative during implementation of the current system and explains what compliance risks there are and why and how the risks occur over all those problems will be discussed and further the solutions shall be recommended in the report of study. 3. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY The study is gathered from different secondary data of annual reports and from assessment of different researches of administration of VAT system In Ethiopia by different Authors. 4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study is limited on the current of VAT administration in Ethiopian and compliance risks With its strength and weakness in which applies will be generalized. 5. DEFINITIONS A value added tax is a modern tax system and broad based .It replaces the sales tax, have two rates 15% and 0% with exemptions of the tax. The threshold is based on the annual sales of goods and services above 500,000 Ethiopia birr. Have two types of registration that is obligatory and voluntary registration, the voluntary registrants are registered when 75% their sales are supplied for VAT registered. The reports are monthly which provides in the declaration format whether it credit or nil. Any taxpayers who are not registered for VAT automatically payable to turn over tax (TOT). The exemption in VAT also applies in TOT. 6 .ANALYSIS (MAIN BODY) Value added tax in Ethiopia introduce in the year 2003 cited as proclamation No. 285/2002 which replaces the sales tax with the assumptions mentioned in the introduction part. The current Ethiopia Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) was Federal Inland Revenue Authority (FIRA) before 2008. During the period of FIRA the VAT would introduced and implemented in our country and still exercises after merging of FIRA and Customs Authority. The administration of VAT includes organizational structure, staffing and training, Tax Payers Identification and Automation, invoicing and book keeping Requirements, controlling of filing and payment, Audit of VAT, Refunds management, penalties and cost of administration all these activities are pertain to how applies and affects the government revenue and strategy properly will be describe as follows: 6.1 Organizational structure, staffing and training Ethiopia Revenue Authority should be taken an organizational structure for VAT to be implemented through the branches of the Authority and the staff recruited and trained during the preparation of the VAT introduced. Hence due the complication of the system in the Ethiopia case a special VAT unit in FIRA was setting up. Along this line, there were efforts to design the organization structure and to determine the number of staff to be trained and deployed. Some have been taken from the ex-sales tax unit, some have gone from the tax reform program and the Ministry of Revenue and some have been newly recruited. At present, the newly introduced Value Added Tax is administered by a newly established department located at the Mexico square and some branches in the country and by the Ethiopian Revenue and customs Authority. The new department in ERCA is answerable to the General Manager. The staffs are graduates of accounting, economics and the management profession. The organo-g ram and staff assignment is depicted in the following diagram. General Manager ERCA Tax Payers registration and Education Division (7) VAT DEPARTMENT Head (5) VAT Administration (2) Revenue Collection and Enforcement Assessment and Audit Division Revenue Accounts and Consolidation Diagram 1:- Organo- gram of the VAT Department By: Arega Hailu Teffera June/2004 Even though, the VAT is computerized, considering the current and future challenges, the VAT department requires additional personnel in all areas- taxpayer education and service, accounting and collection, enforcement and audit. Efforts currently underway within the Ministry and ERCA to strengthen the VAT administration, to improve service delivery, training of staff should continue to address the shortfall encountered. Specially, the administration should focus in strengthening its audit and enforcement wings. 6.2 Tax Payers Identification and Automation Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and VAT SIGTAS were implemented during 2000-2003. These systems have been operational by the FIRA and regional states and city administrations revenue authorities through country-wide network As earlier described the system introduced during Federal In land Revenue Authority where it is Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA). The system is an important for efficient and effective tax and customs administration. Any taxpayer has only one identification number; this will be used for VAT purpose, for with holding tax, for property tax e.t.c. In our country case taxpayers couldnt used different identification number. Except The trade license number issued by Ministry of Trade and Industry Automation of VAT administration commenced with a simple software developed by a local IT firm. In an attempt to deploy better software that integrates the different functions and processes of VAT administration, the government entered an agreement with a Canadian firm known as CRC-SOGEMA in April 2003. The software development project, VAT SIGTAS, was finalized and made operational at the VAT Department during February 2004. Later on, the new software rolled out to the regional branches of the ERCA. It was also made operational in four regional states and two city administration revenue authorities following the delegation of VAT administration. Large taxpayers, started applying VAT SIGTAS in October 2005 upon the decision of the tax authority to administer all taxes of large taxpayers under one office. Previously the large taxpayers used to settle their VAT obligations at the VAT Department. The proper implementation of SIGTAS all taxes would help realize the following anticipated benefits of the project: increased revenues and enhanced control, better service to taxpayers, standardize practices throughout operational departments, reduction of non-value adding activities, real-time management (reminders , remittances, etc.), and Integrated management of all taxes (especially for audit). The regional and city administration tax offices are also using the new system for their VAT operations with the previous VAT functionalities provided unchanged. Efforts are underway to deploy SIGTAS all taxes, with certain modifications, in all regional states and city administrations. The CRC-SOGEMA has already conducted requirements study. 6.3 invoicing and book keeping Requirements Is a very important for issuance of invoices during transaction of VAT system these invoices are printed by registered printing press after getting approval from ERCA. The invoices are separately printed for taxable and exempted transactions. In addition to the printing of invoice recording are mandatory for every VAT registered and required separate of taxable invoice and exempted. The VAT proclamation stipulates that VAT registrants should keep records of account for at least 10 years. However, due to lack of tax administrators follow-up and control, lack of awareness among the society and the prevalence of poverty.these rules are not applied perfectly as to the law required many problems faced with getting invoices, using duplicated invoices, lack of consistency in using invoice, most business holds two books ;one for tax Authority and for Banks . usually the understated income holds book for tax Authority and the over stated book would be for Banks, Do not use invoices ap proved by the Authority, dealing with buyer to issue the lower price in the invoice , also issue fraudulent invoices using invented VAT numbers of their own and collect VAT for their own e.t.c. These will be paralyzing the function of revenue as a whole. In order to solve this problem of invoicing the ERCA gets the expiriance from Latine America to be used the electronical cash registered at retailer on a net work with the SIGTAS. 6.4 controlling of filing and payment According to proclamation No. 285, Article 26/1, every registerd person is required to file VAT return with ERCA for each accounting period and to pay the tax for accounting period by the deadline for filling the VAT return. Article 26/2 , the VAT return for every accounting period shall be filled no later than the last day of the calendar month following the accounting period, where as VAT on taxable imports is collected at Customs and made by C.P.O automatically. The VAT liability is computed based on the invoice credit method in that the registered person will remit the difference between VAT received and VAT paid during transactions conducted during the accounting period. ERCA made a controlling and filing of VAT using computerized system to administer VAT properly authorities use computer programs, namely: Standard Integrated Government Tax Administration System (SIGTAS) and Automated System for Customs Data Management (ASYCUDA). The computer programs are used to maintain t axpayer register and process VAT returns. Detection of non-filers seems to be carried out mainly manually. The authority tries to identify non-filers in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In Ethiopia every trader is required to renew business license annually with the pertinent offices under the Ministry of Trade and Industry or regional governments. To renew business licenses, traders are required to produce evidence from tax authorities that all taxes have been Paid. The tax authorities on their part, before providing the evidence to taxpayers, 6.5, Audit of VAT Auditing is a basic measuring of for effective tax collection, Audit of VAT in our country was very complicated before the introduction of computerized the tax system, due to different fraudulent of using invoice as mentioned in the above invoicing and book keeping requirements. However, the audit case by the audit selection committee. The selection criteria include; credit declaration, nil VAT declaration, non filers, unusual VAT filing and information obtained from third parties and customs decleracion. Based on the above selected criteria would be subject to audit. Most of VAT registrant provides monthly report as credit or nil. This is the effect of tax evasion by the taxpayers. All these problems affect the potential of revenue this would be due to lack of taxpayers awareness, human resources auditor in particular, the number of VAT registrant compare to auditors or the employees in tax authority is very low they cannot cover by the actual current employees in the ERCA. 6.6 Refunds Management The VAT proclamation No. 285/2002 Article 27/1 stated that at least 25% of the value of a a registered persons taxable transaction for the accounting period is taxed at zero rate, the ERCA shall refund the amount of the VAT applied as a credit in excess of the amount of VAT charged for the accounting period within two months after the registered person files an application for refund, accompanied by documentary proof of payment of the excess amount. The second Article 27/2 relates to unused excess credit. For non-zero rated transactions, the amount of VAT applied as a credit in excess of the amount charged for the accounting period is to be carried forward to the next five accounting periods and credit against payments for these periods. The registered person can claim refund if it has still unused excess credit at the end of the five month period. Refund claims are subject to checks and audit by the tax authority. In view of promoting export supplies, the tax authority effects VAT refund for exporters in 15 days after checking and verifying the documents presented to it. 6.7. Penalties Taxpayers that are not compliant to the VAT law are subject to administrative criminal penalties. According to the VAT proclamation, articles 45-47 administrative penalties are imposed while persons are not registered for VAT where registration is required, when any registered person issued incorrect tax invoices, where invoices are issued without being registered, where there is underpayment and late filing of returns. Administrative fines range from a fine 100 percent of the amount of tax payable and a fine of up to 50,000 Birr. According to articles 48-59 criminal offences are liable to prosecution. A tax offence is a violation of the criminal law of the country and thus is subject to criminal charge and prosecution. Tax evasion, obstruction of tax administration, failure to notify changes in business address and business line, unauthorized VAT collection, improper tax debit and credit notes, aiding or abetting, offence by entities, offence by tax officers, offence by receive rs are liable on convection to monetary fine of Birr 1000- 200,000 and imprisonment of not less than 1 year to not more than 15 years depending on the gravity of the offence. 6.8. Cost of Administration In the case of Ethiopia the cost of VAT administration must be proportional with professional standards of like developing countries. The researches indicate in most developing countries cost of administration estimates the range between 1 2% of collection. Actually low collection may not reflect efficiency but rather indicate unused of resources may occurred. In our country the administration costs are: salaries and wages and top-ups to staff deployed to VAT department, the cost of fixed assets and consumables including telephones, faxes, internet, electricity and power, fuel and lubricants etc. Since customs collects duties and taxes in a single administrative document, i.e. the customs declaration, it is very difficult to apportion the cost of administration for VAT all these costs are the total consumable of ERCAs administration cost for VAT (the above costs are only for VAT actually expend ). Therefore when take 2003 2004 FIRA Customs report the total cost of administ ration for VAT was 9,718,848 birr and total collection of VAT during the year would be 5,234,730,000 birr, so total administration cost was 0.00186 this is under the standard from the point of professional standards sited. ( I think this information is too late, but it can see or indicate the current performance, how ever now a day there are a lot changes to use resources effectively like the deployment of automation, recruitment of employees by allocate more budget how ever, it is not researched, but still it has a limitation) (Source: FIRA and Customs- Administration and Finance, Budget for 2003/2004 fiscal year.) Tax Payers Compliance From any taxpayer that expected they must comply with the laws and regulations of tax and customs duty. How ever as an employee of tax and customs authority the real situation of the taxpayers behavior is not what we are expected them. They are not complying with the tax and customs law. For instance with the fulfillment of the VAT registration requirement, timely reporting with the actual transaction they did, using authorized VAT collection, making true financial statement for tax purpose, providing the correct VAT invoice for any client e.t.c. consider the above issues; most of our taxpayers are not compliance. This would be faced in daily activity during tax and customs assessment and collection. Even there is a positive improvement to comply with law in changing the taxpayers attitude through different way of awareness creation. Strength on VAT administration When ever the VAT administration in Ethiopia has a problem, but there are positive actions are taken off by the Authority to facilitate the tax and customs servies with strong enforcement for non compliance taxpayers. Basically the Authority pursued the reform program in order to achieve the main objectives that are tax policy and administration reform, and customs reform and modernization. From the reforms the tax policy and administration reform have a result during the implementation would be : income tax law that was in force for more than 40 years was replaced in July 2002; VAT was introduced on January 1, 2003 to replace sales tax. Turnover tax was introduced on January 1, 2003 to apply to those taxpayers whose annual turnover is below VAT threshold. Excise tax was rationalized to more accurately reflect the current market situation. National implementation of the TIN network through the installation of communication equipment at FIRA, and City and Regional administrations sites. And taxpayers were registered for TIN. The replacement of the estimated assessment method with the more standard assessment method in order to achieve equity and administrative efficiency in connection with presumptive taxation. Tax collection and audit manuals prepared and put in use. Large Taxpayers Office and VAT Department established. Operational departments are automated as part of the modernization of the FIRA. TIN system interface with the Ethiopian Customs Authority is operational.(before merging the two Authority) Using this in mind the strength way of FIRA, currently ERCA would be perform many activities to improve services delivery and the potential of revenue on VAT administration. Thus are; The reform introduced during FIRA would take as a base to perform effectively and introduced BPR. Make extensive consultation with stake holders, comprehensive taxpayers education program and aggressive advertisement campaign. strongly used of computerized tax and customs system ( SIGTAS, TIN, ASYCUDA ++) Create positive attitude for the tax collector with good payments. Conducted comprehensive trainings on the VAT law, regulation, directives and administration techniques for tax officers drawn from different area of the country. Create strong enforcement unit on VAT 7. Measures were taken to enforce registration: for non compliant 8 Administrative and criminal cases are strongly followed-up 9. Strongly applied deterrent provisions: penalties and prosecution e.t.c, thus would be Taken to improve performance of VAT administration. 9. Basic Weakness 1. Lack of strong and follow up for non complaints 2. Lack of human resources specially VAT auditors 3. Lack of taxpayers awareness. 4. In some lack of ethics . Although VAT was successfully introduced in Ethiopia due to adequate preparations, different challenges have been faced in implementation as I have stated in VAT administration. In general ERCA faced the following challenges in VAT administration still- Resistance against VAT registration, Failure to register due to the prevalence of large informal sector, Low level of tax awareness, Suppression of taxable sales, Failure to issue invoices during transaction, Negotiate with customers during transaction to account VAT or not, Print and use of identical invoices, one registered by the FIRA and the other not, Issuance of fictitious invoices among related persons without actual transaction to overstate input VAT and claim refund, Prevalence of significant number of constant credit filers, n il-filers and non-filers, Non-remittance of VAT collected, Prevalence of missing traders, poor audit and enforcement capacity of the tax authority, and Mal-practices in the administration aspect. Recommendations From the above study I recommended as following: Recruit quality and quantity of human resource to be deployed and Training and development for staffs who will join and who have already joined. All liable businesses registered for VAT in all sectors of the economy must be registered and it needs strong and practical monitoring and controlling system. that fall within the threshold should be identified and an action to be compliant.. Must be apply frequent audit system ,donot delay the auditing. Due to lack of auditor, the auditors must selective based on the size of the business with return of tax from these. Make consistent tax educations for taxpayers in each tax Authority to create awareness. Create ethical tax servants e.t.c All the basic challenges that mentioned must be change and improve with substantial monitoring and controlling effort. Conclusions Ethiopian Government committed to improve the tax harmony in each stage of the tax authority by allocating resources with the efforts of ERCA. The effort which applied is the introduction of tax reform in Ethiopia. The Government introduced the VAT since 2003, mainly to broaden the tax base, and to compensate for revenue loss as a result of duty reduction at customs, to reduce distortions by other indirect taxes, and to encourage trade and investment. With the challenges that already stated, the performance of tax from VAT would be increase. For the increasing of VAT collection the introduction of IT has great role. The implementation of SIGTAS increases revenue collection, Real-time Management of Non-compliers, Facilitation of Assessments and Reassessments, Prompt Calculation of Penalty and Interest, Provision of Better Service to Taxpayers, these are facilitated the collection of VAT progressively. Appreciating the role of IT in VAT administration, during FIRA decided to au tomate the administration of all taxes in an integrated manner. Thus, the functionalities of VAT SIGTAS were extended to embrace the other taxes and ERCA would be catch-up the system and implemented successfully. SIGTAS all taxes was tested at the Large Taxpayers Office in August 2006. Currently, all tax centers of the FIRA are using SIGTAS all taxes software. The application of SIGTAS has been instrumental in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the tax administration. And Extensive consultation with stakeholders, comprehensive taxpayer education programmed, aggressive advertisement campaign and an intense registration drive did help the tax authority. Over all the experience of Ethiopia in automating tax administration, including VAT, shows that success in IT implementation is mainly dependent upon: aggressive implementation as per schedule, strict control over procedural issues, active action in case of peculiarities, monitoring and feedback, continuous manpower de velopment, timely provision of hardware and supporting services, and proactive and genuine participation of every member of the tax authority.

Master the German Language Exams - Level A1

I would like to introduce to you the different levels that you can achieve in an official German exam. There are two language certificates that are renowned all over Germany and possibly all over the world: The TELC, the Ãâ€"SD (Austrian standard) and the Goethe-Certificates. There are plenty of other certificates around and while they might be of the same quality as the ones above, for certain purposes they might not suffice. There are also quite a few other standards worldwide which you can find in a neatly organized table here.  According to the European reference frame, there are six language mastery levels which I will present to you over the coming months. Please be patient with me. Quick Overview The six language levels that you can achieve are:   A1, A2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  BeginnerB1, B2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  IntermediateC1, C2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Advanced The division of A1-C2 into beginner, intermediate and advanced is not very exact but should rather give you an idea of what level of proficiency those levels are aiming at. It is, of course, impossible to measure your language skill precisely and with every grading system, there can be huge gaps between a bad B1 level and an excellent one. But those labels were created to make language skills of university or job applicants comparable all over Europe. They have defined them as precisely as they could in the so-called Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Absolute beginner A1 according to the CEFR would mean that you, I quote the  above source:   Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has.Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. To see a sample of how that would sound, I recommend that you take a look at ​some of these videos here. What is an A1 certificate good for? Next, to marking a significant first stage in your German learning, it often is a requirement for some nationalities to get a visa for Germany. For the reunion of Turkish family members, the European Court of Justice has declared such requirements as void. In case of doubt, I suggest that you simply call your local German embassy and ask.   How long does it take to reach A1 You are probably aware of the difficulty to answer this question to anyone’s satisfaction. In case of a standard intensive German course here in Berlin, you would need two months, five days a week with 3 hours of daily tuition plus 1.5 hours of homework. That sums up to 200 hours of learning to finish A1 (4.5 hours x 5 days x 4 weeks x 2 months). That is if you are studying in a group. With individual tuition, you might be able to achieve this level in half the time or even quicker. Do I need to attend a German course to reach A1? While there are many things one can accomplish on ones own, with languages I would always advise you to seek some guidance. It doesn’t have to be an expensive or intensive language course. Seeing a good German tutor for 2-3 times 45mins per week might do the job. But she would have to provide you with sufficient homework and direction to make sure you are and stay on the right track. Learning on your own might simply take longer as you might first have to figure out what material to use and how to establish a learning routine. Also, you will not have any error correction which might lead to the establishment of fluent but broken German which is very hard to fix. Those who say they don’t need a teacher, most likely don’t. If you are challenged financially, use the internet to find affordable tutors. Try three to five tutors and go for the one that makes the most competent impression.An alternative is group courses at local language schools. I’m not a big fa n of those but I also understand that sometimes the situation doesn’t allow for anything else.   How much does it cost to reach A1 Well, the costs, of course, depend on the institution that you are taking the course with. Those range from 80â‚ ¬ / month at Volkshochschule (VHS) to 1.200â‚ ¬ / month at the Goethe Institut (during summer here in Berlin, their prices vary worldwide). There are also ways to get your German learning subsidized by the government. I will talk about these in detail in the coming weeks but in case you would like to do some research on your own, look for German integration courses (Integrationskurse), the ESF program or check out the requirements for a Bildungsgutschein (education voucher) issued from the Agentur fà ¼r Arbeit. Although the latter might rather be granted for learners at a higher level of German. How do I prepare the most efficient way for such an exam? When I still went to school to pass an exam it was always really helpful to take a look at older exams. Like this one gets an impression on what kind of questions or tasks are requested and will, therefore, feel already accustomed to the material. Nothing is worse than sitting in an exam and realizing that one doesn’t know what to do.  You can find model exams for A1 (and the higher levels) on these pages: TELCÃâ€"SD (check the right sidebar for the sample exam)Goethe Those institutions also offer additional material for purchase in case you feel the need to prepare a bit more. Get a free evaluation of your written skill They all come with answer keys so that you can evaluate your skill yourself. To get an evaluation of your writing skills I suggest that you send your work to the lang-8 community. It is free, though they have a premium subscription offer that pays off in case you need your texts to be corrected a bit faster. You need to correct other learners’ texts though to gain credits that you then can use to „payâ€Å" for the correction of your work. Mental preparation An exam is always an emotional experience. If you are not the least bit nervous in such a situation, you are a „Kalter Hundâ€Å" or a very good actor. I think I have never really failed an exam (only once in fourth-grade elementary school in Religion) but I can clearly feel my stress levels rising when being tested.To prepare a bit for this experience, you might want to use mental training which has proven to be effective for sportspeople. If you can visit the examination center beforehand to get an impression of the room and to check out how to get there smoothly in time on your examination day. Try to remember some details of that place or simply try to find images of it on the institution’s homepage.   With these images in your mind and maybe after having watched those videos of oral exams above, close your eyes and imagine sitting in your exam and answering questions. In case of the oral exam, imagine how you’d sound like and how everyone smiles (some German examiners have a physiological disorder which doesn’t allow them to smile - see above videos) and how you get out of this exam satisfied with yourself.   This might take just a minute or two. So repeat it in the morning when waking up and just before your go to sleep as early as a month before the exam takes place. You will find that it makes a significant difference. That’s it for the A1 exam. Should you still have any question regarding this exam just contact me and I will get back to you asap.

The Concentration Of The Great Depression - 1976 Words

‘’Without the great depression, the Nazi’s would never have come to power’’ do you agree? The Great Depression was a key factor as to why the Nazi’s came to power. The economic crisis highlighted the weakness of the Weimar republic and it caused the public to turn to extreme parties. However, in comparison to other factors it is arguably not the most important reason. The other factors such as the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic, the Nazi appeal and the role the elite played in bringing Hitler to power have to be taken into account. It is also important to reflect on the concern that Germany had frail fundamental struggles within itself due the effects of the War. It can be argued that the Depression wouldn’t have had an overwhelming effect on Germany’s economy and Government if they hadn’t suffered as much as they did due to the War. The demoralizing effect led people to desperate positions and in return they chose to support the views of extremist parties, I.e. the Nazis. 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Hitler’s great power, massive number of soldiers, and unwillingly hate for the Jewish race, caused one of the biggest world crisis’s throughout the world war’s. The people of Poland and many surrounding countries seemed scared of Hitler’s great power, but as his power was only increasing, people have not seen the man Hitler really isRead MoreDepression in the Bible1331 Words   |  6 PagesDepression is defined as, â€Å"a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty with thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal thoughts or an attempt to commit suicide† (Merriam Webster). A close friend of mine battles depression and would describe it is, â€Å"a debilitating mood that makes it hard to get out of the bed in the morning, a desire to sleep all the time

Transition Into The Middle School Programme â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Transition Into The Middle School Programme? Answer: Introduction The transition from the primary area of an area school to the middle school area causes anxiety amongst students and it can challenge their ability to cope well especially students who have categorised already within the school as being at risk and high priority learners. The transition includes so many actors that are important to adolescent students such as teacher relationships, peer relationships, uniform changes, keeping up with academic expectations and the changes involved with now having multiple teachers. These students not only have these worries but they are also dealing with other changes that are perfectly normal and part of growing up such as puberty with hormonal and physical changes that go with it. This transition stage has been an area of concern that I have had and observed as a middle school teacher who is receiving this year six students for the past six years. It is sometimes taken for granted that because we are a very small area school, everyone knows everyone and to a degree this is true but it still does not make the transition any easier for these students when they have a bunch of worries and concerns about how all of this is going to go. This proposal is important to me as a teacher and my professional development, as I find out firsthand how I can best support year six students in their transition into the middle school programme. Many students have ideas and inside knowledge and understanding that can be utilized by informing me of the obstacles that are in the way of them having a smooth transition. Many students do not have the necessary skills to deal with transitioning or the skills to transition well, so my research could prove to be valuable to teachers and students in ensuring future smooth transition periods for future students. The purpose of this proposal is to determine how as a teacher, I can alleviate some of the worries and concerns these students may be experiencing by finding out more as to how I can best support year six students in their transition into the middle school programme. I want to ensure the students to have a good start to their middle school education pinnacle in ensuring students hav e the best start to their middle school years education. Many students do not have the necessary skills to deal with transitioning, so my research could prove to be valuable to teachers and students in ensuring future smooth transition periods for future students. Brief literature review Transition is an important and critical time in the early adolescent years as there are many considerations and factors that need to be taken into account when it comes to students transitioning from the primary area to the middle school area and as a teacher who receives these students I need to assist in ensuring this transition goes as smoothly as I possibly can. This transition can be a difficult time for many adolescents. It is a period filled with both anxiety and anticipation (Schoffner Williamson, 2000). Student anxiety and anticipation can be based on many reasons such the academic, social and emotional worries and well-being of young adolescents as this become a time when psychologically young adolescents desire control over their lives and the establishment of identities outside of their families (Schoffner Williamson, 2000). Not only do these students have to deal with the anxiety that comes with changing areas of the school and their education but they also have to deal with the changes with their own bodies at the same time. Pubertal changes occur at different times and at different rates for students in the same grade. Therefore, a students transition to middle school, they confront both external changes and internal pubertal changes. (Akos, 2002). According to Mizelle and Irvin (2000), the transition programs that were viewed as the best at helping students succeed during their first year following transition were those that used a number of different articulation activities. These articulation type activities provided students and parents information about the new school, provided social support during the transition and brought middle and high school personnel together to learn from one another. Following the transition, many students feel less positive about their own potential and the importance of schooling (Schoffner Williamson, 2000). Studies have shown that student motivation and attitudes towards school tend to decline during the transition to middle-school (Akos, 2002). Transition programs need to also address students needs for competence and autonomy and this can be done by enhancing the interpersonal relationships and coping skills and addressing their normal fears and concerns and excitement. Coping skills developed during the transition will make future transitions, like the move to high school, easier. (Schoffner Williamson, 2002). A successful transition is where we are sensitive to student anxieties and the importance of the role teachers and parents play into the whole process and the continual support they give because transitioning can take some student's time to adjust and the process is ongoing. Transitions can include additional and unfamiliar students and school staff, and multiple sets of behavioural and classroom rules and expectations (Akos, 2002). According to Hanewald (2013), stated that there are several issues that are faced by the students when they are facing the transition from primary to secondary schools but well designed and executed transitional approaches can help in the process of encouraging students, their families and the other staff members of the school. It further specifies that the teachers portray a serious role in helping the children who are moving in or between the schools, thus making the transitional experience a positive one. However, it is necessary for those would be teachers to get an awareness as well as an understanding of the main problems that the children may face during the transitional period. He further explained in his research paper that teacher or the educator must consider various ways to get included in the transition programs or plans in their courses to guarantee that graduate teachers have the expertise and knowledge to arbitrate few pressures that their students seem to encounter w hile dealing with this process of transition. On the other hand, Forrest et al. (2013), in their study they have mainly focused on the connection between the health of the child and the school outcomes because of the transitions that they are facing. As per the results, they came up with says that transition into the middle school and puberty both has an individualistic negative effect on the school outcomes. However, the chronic health conditions which affect a child's practical status are related to the outcomes in schools. It further states that low levels of experiences in the negative stress and any increased physical comfort has an effect that is positive on the teacher coherence, engagement in school and academic attainment. However, the students outcomes get negatively affected when the child is either bullying or getting victimized during this transitional period. Children who are experiencing a highly satisfied life are said to be more connected with their teachers as well as occupied in their schoolwork and obtains hi gher grades in schools that those who are not so satisfied. Wang and Dishion (2012), said that in the transition to middle school the children are often challenged with a series of fresh social as well as educational demands that actually places the child at a greater threats for the evolution of behavioural issues. There have been substantial proofs that academic and the social environment of the middle schools affects the adjustments of the students at multiple domains. However, the findings demonstrate that all the aspects of the school environment declined have increased the behavioural problems and the divergent peer affiliation. In 2013, Shoshani and Slone in their paper has worked with 417 students and 13 teachers from 4 public middle schools. However, their findings greatly supported the associations between the character powers, subjective welfare and the middle school adjustments. The interpersonal strengths are remarkably associated with the school functioning at the middle school. Strong positive predictor of the student's subject ive well-being is temperance and transcendence strengths in their middle school. Findings further suggest that the already existing understanding about the character and its connection to the optimal oporation and the well-being of the students have major practical involvements for implementing the strengths-building execution in their middle schools. However, this transition to the middle school has been recognized as a complicated period for the children in their transitional phrase as it demands changes as well as adjustments to some different reality. Research Methodology Research methodology or design is the process by which researcher is able to collect the data in an appropriate manner and it is a systematic plan for conducting research (Flick, 2015). The research methodology is important to delve deep into the research strategies that the researcher can take to conduct the research. There is importanceto examine the studymethodologyand the data from other viewpoints ensuring a complete approach for theresearchquestion. Research Method Outline Different tools will be used for conducting this research, and with the help of these tools, the satisfactory results will be obtained. The chosen research philosophy will be positivism for the research as it helps the researcher to analyse the collected data in a scientific manner. Moreover, the Deductive approach will be chosen with the help of this approach, the focus is on the existing models and theories, which are associated with the study. Descriptive or analytical design method will be assigned research design. The chosen data collection method is the survey method and the interview process for the research strategy. Research Philosophy Research philosophy, which is the framework of beliefs, consisted with three basic philosophies. The three basic research philosophies are positivism, realism and interpretivism. These philosophies help to analyse the nature of the study by conducting an in-depth study of the different theories and models. Positivism assists for identifying the problem, however; realism is the mixed approach, which combines the positivism and interpretivism. Interpretivism tackles with management and business activities. To analyse the present study, Positivism method will be used and in return, a wider perspective of the research process has come up. Positivism philosophy assists the researcher to have the analysis through experiences and excludes the specification. Students' behaviour and human phenomena can be described through Positivism philosophy. Research Approach The two kinds of research approaches that are present here are deductive and inductive. The existing theories would fall under the deductive approach and the new theories and models with new approaches would fall under inductive approach (Panneerselvam, 2014). In this study, the deductive approach will be used as the researcher develops a research questions at the beginning of the study. Therefore, the relevant researchmethodology will be used through the deductive approach to testing the questions to prove them right or wrong. Research Design There are three basic research designs to follow, those are descriptive or analytical, explanatory, and exploratory research designs (Matthews, 2014). To conducts the various approaches of the research in a detailed or descriptive manner, descriptive research design is used. The exploratory research design assists in the initial steps of the research, which is based on the hypothesis that is already created. The explanatory research design assists to broaden the relationship between the two prevailing variables of the research. In this research study, the researcher will use descriptive research design as it will help the researcher to understand the respondents of the research in a specific way. The observational study will be conducted to understand the growth and transition of the students. Research Strategy The research strategy is a method to conduct the research in a proper direction. The general research strategies are the case study, focus group, survey methods, interview process. The survey method and interview will be conducted if the data is collected for the larger group (Bryman Bell, 2014). This process will provide the different views of the parents and other important members associated with this topic. Selection of Sampling methods and Sample Size The population of the sample will be parents of the students. For serving this purpose, a survey will be conducted on 30 parents of the year 6 students who will go to mid-school. Thus, the sample size is 30. The researcher will select the sampling through using the simple random sampling technique as it is a subset of a statistical population in which each member of the subset has an equal probability of being chosen. Data Collection Method The information of the primary data has to be very authentic and genuine. The primary data are the information based on different surveys and interviews and it leads to having the comprehensive understanding about the research. The data collected from the data collection method should have the possibility to give a constructive approach to the study. The secondary data is the information that is already accessible either in a printed means or in any other versions (Matthews Ross, 2014). Thus, this data is further used to make changes in the future for simplifying transition of other students. In this research study, primary and secondary both data will be used. In order to get the primary data, the researcher will conduct the survey. Primary research helps the researcher to address specific research issues and it has greater control. The survey will be conducted to understand both pre and post worries and concerns of the students are highlighted about middle school. In order to conduct the survey, the researcher will make 12 close-ended multiple type questionnaire and the researcher will distribute this to respondents. In order to collect the secondary data, books, journals, websites would be used in literature review section. Data Analysis The researcher will use quantitative data analysis method that helps to comprehend the data in a better way. For getting the quantitative data, the numerical digits will be transformed into percentages and after that, it will be shown in various graphs, charts and tables. Apart from this, the descriptive data is used for calculating the mean, median, mode and the standard deviation of the findings (Liamputtong, 2013). Transcription of the parents speech has been used to calculate the qualitative data and after that, it has to analyse well (Liamputtong, 2013). A thematic analysis has to be conducted for analysing the interviews of the parents. Research Ethical Consideration For conducting the research well a strict ethical guidance has to be maintained. Ethics are the basic norms or the standards of conduct,which distinguish betweenthe rightand the wrong. it helps for determining the contrast between the acceptable and the unacceptable behaviours. The participation should not be forced at any time in conducting the interview. The surveys should be conducted for academic purpose only and to keep in mind that it is not the promotional activity. The participants are not forced to participate in the research and voluntary participation from the parents of year six students were acknowledged during the research. The parents who participated in the research were informed about the procedure of the research and they participated in their own consent in the research activities. Time Horizon Main activity 1st month and 2nd month 3rd month 4th month and 5th month 6th month, 7th month and 8th month 9th month Survey of the market Identification of user of internet Deciding the way to implement the promotion on these segmented group Implementing the marketing method Monitor Table: Gantt chart (Source: Created by researcher) Ethical Consideration The ethics of the research will be followed to distinguish between behaviour that is acceptable and unacceptable while conducting research activities. The research would involve human participants. Parents of the year 6 students and teachers are involved in the research. Both parents and their children must give their consent must there for collecting the data. The confidentiality of the research participants is protected while conducting the research. The research participants are allowed to be anonymous (Smith, 2012). The human participants who are mainly parents of the year six or more children are protected from risks while conducting the research and they are not deceived during the research. In order to conduct the research, the researcher would follow strictly Privacy Act 1993 New Zealand. This act speaks about the use, collection, and disclosure, by the public and the private sector agencies, of individual information (Legislation.govt.nz, 2017). The researcher will not make any transaction of money during the research process and any coercion of any information will not be done. The researcher will not disclose any name of the respondents after the research. The research will destroy the data once the research will be done and any type of commercial purposes will not be used with this data. The researcher will create an ethics form in order to conduct the research, the respondents will read this and after that, they can fill the survey questionnaire. This consent form will speak about the overall purpose of the research and benefits and risks for participating in this research. The risks are related to the dignity and emotional distress through the questionnaire. Moreover, the confidentiality of respondents must be mentioned in the research ethics consent form. While conducting the project ethical considerations were followed like protection to intellectual rights of others, responsibility towards society was addressed during the research. Honesty is maintained while presenting the data of the research. Data is not fabricated; the sponsors of the research and public are not deceived while conducting the research. Any kind of bias is avoided while conducting the research. All the research activities are carefully recorded and data negligence and errors are avoided during the research. Intellectual property Rights (IPR) including patents and copyrights are respected while conducting this research and plagiarism is avoided while considering the secondary research. All reference sources are cited while presenting the research paper and credits and acknowledgements are provided to individuals who contributed eminently to the research activity. Any discrimination of sex, ethnicity or race is avoided while selecting participants for the research. The research aims to improve the quality of teaching. The research activities are conducted by following procedures of law and government. Reflection The research has added value to my teaching philosophy. Teaching year six and older children who enter middle school from primary schools is fun yet challenging. The children of middle school often consider their parents and teachers to be over-protective and as teachers, it sometimes becomes difficult to handle these children because during middle school children get influenced by opinions of their peers and are directed by their self-will. As a teacher, counselling and special attention are provided to individual children and bias is avoided in the class like cultural bias. The research has provided me insights about providing assistance to homework and learning materials to parents so that middle-school children can enhance their cognitive development and skills which will make them eligible for high school. My teaching philosophy involves nurturing the cognitive development and emotions in each student of the middle school so that the individual interests and passions are identif ied. The middle school has a combination of gifted children as well as slow learners. My teaching philosophy is giving personal assistance to children who are slow learners and providing guidance to their parents during a counselling session. Being a teacher to children who just entered middle school is challenging for children of this age are prone to be independent. As a teacher, it is important to monitor the performance of each student and inform the parents about this performance. Middle schools form the foundation of high school and students and their parents should develop cognitive and emotional skills which will enable them to handle the pressure of high school. Middle school is a combination of children from the diverse cultural background and as a teacher promoting cultural tolerance is of prime importance for children of the middle school. Cultural biases are discouraged among children who include a bias towards sex, race, language and religion. As a teacher, it is of prime importance to ensure that learning becomes fun for children of middle school and they are not over-burdened with home works and assignment tasks. Teaching methods like teaching with the help of modern technology and visual aids are practised in the classroom and the research has made me gain insights about the fact that children often learn by interaction among each other. My teaching philosophy involves making the classroom more interactive by encouraging discussion among children o n various topics of subject matter and by advocating learning through playful activities. References Akos, P. (2002). Student Perceptions of the Transition from Elementary to Middle School. Professional School Counseling, 5(5), 339-345. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.otago.ac.nz/stable/42732374 Bryman, A., Bell, E. (2014).Research methodology: Business and management contexts. Oxford University Press Southern Africa. Flick, U. (2015).Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research project. London: Sage. Forrest, C. B., Bevans, K. B., Riley, A. W., Crespo, R., Louis, T. A. (2013). Health and school outcomes during children's transition into adolescence.Journal of Adolescent Health,52(2), 186-194. Hanewald, R. (2013). Transition between primary and secondary school: Why it is important and how it can be supported. International Journal of Students psychology, 1(2), 45-48 Liamputtong, P. (2013).Qualitative research methods. London: Routledge. Matthews, B., Ross, L. (2014).Research methods. Sydney: Pearson Higher Ed. Mizelle, Nancy B., and Judith L. Irvin. "Transition from middle school into high school." Middle School Journal 31.5 (2000): 57-61. Panneerselvam, R. (2014).Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd Privacy Act 1993 No 28 (2017), Public Act Contents New Zealand Legislation. (2017). Legislation.govt.nz. Retrieved 21 September 2017, from https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0028/latest/DLM296639.html Shoffner, M. F., Williamson, R. D. (2000). Facilitating student transitions into middle school. Middle School Journal, 31(4), 47-52. Shoshani, A., Slone, M. (2013). Middle school transition from the strengths perspective: Young adolescents character strengths, subjective well-being, and school adjustment.Journal of Happiness Studies,14(4), 1163-1181. Smith, C. (2015). Revenge porn or consent and privacy: An analysis of the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015. Data Protection, 1(2), 23-34 Wang, M. T., Dishion, T. J. (2012). The trajectories of adolescents perceptions of school climate, deviant peer affiliation, and behavioral problems during the middle school years.Journal of Research on Adolescence,22(1), 40-53.

Social Work Rationale Essay On Goals And Contexts Example For Students

Social Work Rationale Essay On Goals And Contexts 1. When analysing an artwork what is to be gained from considering the social context in which it was created? Are there possible drawbacks to this methodology? Provide clear examples to substantiate your argument. When analysing artwork, in any form, there are often times social contexts in which can be interpreted. Not always does the history behind the painting need to be revealed to fully understand the concept of the artwork, yet it is helpful in determining if the artwork is truthful in its representation. Although in analysing artwork it is likely that there are drawbacks to considering the social context. To illustrate this point, Im going to use the visual arts as my medium of choice. Understanding the social context can be an important tool. An advantage of knowing the history of the painting or sculpture can really enrich our knowledge, being in the 20th soon to be 21st century, about some of the social periods from previous times. It can demonstrate how traditions were carried out, how they had an impact on the different social classes. Its a visual teaching aid of a sort. Even in the time period of which the artwork was created can be used as a tool to show how the life was in different parts of the world. It was also used as a hammer in the realist movement to show the upper classes that life for the poor was horrible. The visual arts is the only medium in which the pictorial image creates a universal language in which anyone, regardless of nationality or social class can interpret. The text which is created by this language often creates a context which is left open to interpretation. Contexts are created by the artist, critics, judges, the public, essentially, any one who views the work and forms an opinion relating to it. The contexts stem from subject or content of an artwork, and are usually facts regarding the content. Yet, the contexts almost always have backgrounds themselves, therefore making the original contexts, texts. This will be more clearly illustrated later. The chain is seeming to be a never ending process. There are always more conditions to the previous ones. All context, therefore, is in itself, textual. This concept of all context in itself textual is a post-structuralist strategy. A man named Derrida is a man who has developed this idea that the post-structuralist concept of every statement made, can be interpreted in infinite ways, with each interpretation triggering a range of subjective associations. Every statement has an association, therefore its a sort of domino effect. He also says that no matter how precise a work strives to be, the absolute meaning can never be found due to this never ending sequence. To better illustrate this concept, I have chosen a painting from the mid-nineteenth century. It was painted by a french artist in 1854 named Jules Breton. It is called The Gleanersfigure 1. The gleaners were impoverished women who picked the left-over wheat from the farmers fields after they had been ploughed to bake bread for their families. In this painting there are numerous women whos arms are brimming with wheat. The women are beautiful, healthy looking. The children even seem happy running around playing next to their mothers. There are many contexts which can be extracted from The Gleaners. A major influence would be the revolution in France in 1848. Perhaps the gleaning laws enforced in 1851, even the physical health of the gleaners. For arguments sake, lets take the physical health of the gleaners to show how a statement can trigger other associations. The physical health of the gleaners in the 1850s could be researched in the reports from the army conscripts. The conscripts were usually poor men who wanted a secure and stable job. These reports showed that most of the men were of poor health and diseased. These reports can be associated with who was writing the reports, officers? The associations never cease. We can never fully determine what the health was of the gleaners because every context we take will lead to another context. The key point in this image is the womens arms being full of wheat. If I were a bourgeoisie in the 19th century viewing this painting, I would think very little of it. It is exceptional in technical accuracy. Lenacpeo: The Years Together (A Fictional) EssayFrom the formalist perspective we can look at everything but the content: colour, how the shapes relate to one another, do the forms fit in space, etc Yet another drawback. If the viewer is concerned with the context of the form and not the content, then the context is skewed again. The formalist perspective concentrates on form, basically. The curve of the gleaners backs bend with accuracy. The shadows created by the figures and the amount of wheat that they carry that the sun in setting in the west. We dont know for sure what Jules Breton wanted to convey when he painted The Gleaners. We can assume certain circumstances and backgrounds, but the key word is assume. When determining a social context of a work of art its strictly an assumption and is only one of the many, many contexts that can be derived. Yes, works of art, especially realist works, can give the twentieth century some sort of clue as to what life was like in the 1850s. Yet, we cant take everything we view as the truth. It has to be at face value. If one were to look at Bretons version of The Gleaners and then at Courbets version, we would see exceptionally noticeable differences. So what are we supposed to assume as the truth? The answer is we dont choose either one as the truth. We have to look in between and find a happy medium in which we can understand and be satisfied with by either doing background research on the painting or simply not regarding either to be truthful and just moving on. Its very hard, nearly impossible to fully understand a social context for a work of art. In this instance, with the gleaners, through documentation, we can determine which work of art was a little embellished towards pleasing the critics. Sooner or later we have to just look no further along the association line than is absolutely necessary. The vision can get too cloudy if the context wants to be understood completely. There are various and numerous drawbacks to considering the social contexts. The major one, being stated, is that all context is itself textual. Its too hard and labourious to attempt to comprehend the mannerisms and customs of the eighteenth century. We werent there to experience it so we have to be happy with just reading and viewing about it. Then there is the subjective aspect. There are different viewers, different intentions from the artist. Who determines what the message was? Is it the artist, or the viewer? Is one more important than another? Its all very subjective. Perhaps the artist intended one central idea yet the viewer captures another. Which one is more correct? The formalist perspective is the opposite to the post-structuralist concept. The formalist focuses on the form and colour, whereas the post-structuralist is based on concept and circumstance. So there is another way to look at things. These concepts can be applied to almost any art medium. It is not necessarily restricted to the realist period or even the visual arts. Literature is an art form which is easily examined and studied through these concepts. In fact, most of the philosophies and theories have been derived from and for literary sources. It is easy to juxtapose literary sources with visual art due to the visual arts being a wordless book. Many things can be said about a work of art without any facts being known about it. But the one thing that I am confident about, is the social contexts in which art works are created are complicated and subjective.