15 The Application And Use Of Information And Communication Technology For Data Collection, Analysis And Storage Among Secondary School Administrators In Ilorin East.

Abstract 

Information and Communication Technology as indispensable part of the contemporary world, it plays an important role in enhancing the quality of education but with the attitude of some school administrators, Information and Communication Technology becomes difficult for data collection, analysis and storage. The paper examined some literature review on Information and Communication Technology, data collection, analysis and storage for school administrators and role of school administrators. Education sector needs accurate data for decision making, therefore, tools and techniques of data collection, analysis and storage are examined for the purpose of the paper. In addition, problem facing school administrators in education data collection, analysis and storage which bring about inadequate and unreliable data were discussed. Finally, recommendations were drawn which include provision of funds that can be utilized to install internet facilities in the schools and proper supervision on education data collection, analysis and storage for the school administration in secondary school.

Introduction

The work of school administrators has changed in the system from old manual and mechanical to electronic data processing storage, output and communication hence importance of ICT use. ICT in school is very important because it performs various school administrative functions such as record keeping on different school data, examination result analysis, preparation of instructional materials for teaching and learning, supervision and general school management.

No meaningful planning can be done without adequate, reliable and accurate data which also is one of the functional role performed by the school administrator that needed ICT knowledge. Once educational planning is based on incorrect statistics the implementers of such plans will have to grapple with the problem of inadequate resource. Experience has shown that unreliable statistics can create problems for educational planners and administrators. In years back, when universal primary education scheme was introduced it was planned on faulty statistics and the period witnessed drawback because of the school administrators and educational planners’ attitude towards data collection, analysis and storage with the application and use of information and communication technology in Nigeria.

This paper therefore, considers the meaning of school administrator and their functions in school settings, information and communication technology, data collection, analysis and storage with tools and techniques of data collection, analysis and storage with their importance. In addition, problem facing school administrators in use of ICT for data collection, analysis and storage were discussed.

School administrator

According to Oluyemisi (2015) affirmed that school as an institution that is designed for teaching  and learning of students with directives from teachers and also go further that school administrators manage the day to day activities and provide instructional leadership. Alabi (2000) agreed that school administrators refers to all those who are concerned with the school in one form of responsibility or the other. Neil O. (1994) see school administrator as human resources available to school constitute their most valuable assets and their greatest management challenge.

According to Adeshina (1980) affirm the functions of the school administrators which include:

• Collection of data about the school staff, students and materials in school
• Induction
• Recruiting adequate and qualified staff
• Compensation
• Appraisal
• Development
• Promotion of staff in the school
• Discipline and motivation of the staff and pupils
• Communication and Liaison
• Organizing and servicing meeting

Information and Communication Technology

Daniels (2002) ICTs have become within a very short time, one of the basic building blocks of modern society. ICT generally refers to computer and computing related activities. Computers and their application play a significant role in modern information management. Pelgrum and Law (2003) opined that near the end of the 1980s, the term computers was replaced by IT (Information Technology) signifying a shift of focus from computing technology to the capacity to store and retrieve information and it was followed by introduction of the term ICT around 1992. Pelgrum W.J, Law N. (2003) According to a United Nations Report (1999) ICTs caver internet service provision, telecommunications equipment and services, information technology equipment and services, media and broadcasting, libraries and documentation centers, commercial information and communication activities. Rosen and Well, (2001) Uzodinmma (2005) agreed that when properly used, ICT holds great promise to improve teaching and learning in addition to shaping workforce opportunities. Oketunji (2000) ICT is an indispensable part of the contemporary world. UNESCO, (2002) ICT generally relates to those electronic devices that are used for accessing, gathering, manipulating and presenting or passing information. Tommey (2001) ICT refers to all the technology used to handle telecommunications, broadcast, media, intelligent building management system processing and transmission systems, network-based control and audiovisual monitoring functions.

Ehikamenor (1993) defined ICT as the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of information by means of computers, office machines and telecommunications. The rapid development of ICT had greatly influenced the delivery of education just as the education sector is reacting to the emergency of the information society.

Data Collection, Analysis and Storage

Data collection is the process of gathering the various qualitative information about the educational system. This could be carried out in variety of ways such as through observation, use of questionnaire or check list, school census, situation and resources appraisal. This can also be gathered through use of ICT e.g radio and video record, computer and internet.

Data analysis is the process of collection, presentation and interpretation of the information contained in the data to aid decision making. These are mathematical techniques that are usually adopted in aiding data analysis for example we could use frequency counter, average, mode, median, percentage ranks for descriptions analysis of educational data. Schools data analysis that are common are teacher / pupils ratio, non-schooling gap, enrolment ratio, promotion, repetition rate, dropout rate, transition rate, admission rate, retention rate, completion rate, graduation rate and wastage rate.

Data storage refers to the process of preservation of data collected in such a manner that will enable easier retriever of such data when needed in future for use in decision making process. Data can be stored in files, on diskettes, flash drives on tapes, on films, slides and picture; these could be in turn stored in shelves, cabinets, cupboards, and cloud or computerized.

Importance of Data Collection, Analysis and Storage

Information on education is a key for school administrators and educational planners which give them opportunity ahead the planning stage of educational system. Durosaro (2007) enlisted the importance of educational data for school administrators as follows:

Data collection, analysis and storage is very important in educational system that play vital role for educational planning for adequate plan of future, there is need to know present and what was the past.

Data collection, analysis and storage is used for day to day decision making and educational planners and school administrators, need to guide their decision so that it will help to know what they need at a time.

Data collection, analysis and storage enable the school administrators to identify area of staff training and retraining needs. For example, when students’ performance is not encouraging is through data collected, analyzed and stored by the school administrators would enable the school to know what they needed for correction.

It helps educational system to evaluate and review the curriculum in other to know if system is achieving setting down goals.

Data collection, analysis and storage helps to aid projection of resource requirement. In school for head teacher to project the needs of students and staff there is need to know the certain data on students, teachers, equipment and what would be the fund needed.

Tools and Techniques of Data Collection, Analysis and Storage

There are different techniques or tools used in data collection, analysis and storage by the school administrators for taking action on educational planning in academic and administrative matter. These include:

• Questionnaires: Is a method of gathering answers to questions whereby the respondents just fill the materials forwarded to him/her by using any of ICT facilities in other to get specific information on a variety of issues in education.
• Interview: It is a method used by school administrators to collect information from others in face to face contact, the information collected through direct verbal interaction between two individuals usually the communication is used for education planning. Communication gadget can also be used to record information gathering from interview.
• Observation: Can be viewed as a process whereby individual or group of people are commissioned to watch and record the happening or events, or even study behavior patterns in setting of interest (Daramola 1992). Video recorder can be of use for the observation.
• Checklist: A checklist consist of behaviors that make up a certain type of performance e.g reading & skills, it is used to determine whether or not an individual’s behaves in a certain way when asked to complete a particular behavior is present, when an individual is observed the planner places a check opposite it on the list.
• Socio metric devices: Are designed to measure the social structure of a group and to appraise the social status of each individual with respect to other members of this group. In his approach, each group member is asked to select persons in the group most preferred by him on the basis of a specified criterion.
• Mean: This is arithmetic average of a set of data. It is obtained by summing up all the scores and dividing by the total number of cases. This provides important information such as average performances of students in a particular subject and also from the basis for self-assessment of the subject teachers and the teaching methodology.
• Median: It is middle value in a set of values, dividing the data in to equal parts. Daramola (1992) median means a measure of position rather than of magnitude. If the number of items is odd, the median is the single score in middle. But with even scores, it is the average of the two scores in the middle.
• Mode: It is the most frequently occurring value in a set of observations. A distribution may be unimodal, bimodal, trimodel or multimodel
• Percentage: This is one of the techniques used in data analysis that refers to the proportion or rate of a particular value in relation to 100. And it is used to convert value to a uniform standard for ease of comparison, is very useful in scoring and measuring students’ performance in school subject.
• Rank ordering: This can be ascending or descending or it is usually in ascending order in schools, from the best student to the best in asset of score. Ranking involves assigning integral number of variable in order of importance e.g 1st, 2nd, 3rd … e.t.c. ranking would give the relative performance of the students relation to others in the class.
• Shelves: data collected about students and members of the staff could be stored or recorded in files and properly arranged or labeled in the shelf for easy retrieval.
• Cabinets: This has lock for safe keeping of important data or information. Important information would be kept in the cabinet for safe keeping and stealing of such documents e.g examination questions, report sheet and information about individuals’ student and staff.
• Microfilm: this also one of the techniques used in data storage that important events are recorded (tapes) could be projected through the use of microfilm. It uses to preserve significant historical events in the life of the school and education at large.
• Computer and Cloud: Educational data could be stored safely in the electronic storage system called computers. e.g desktop, laptop and it can be extracted and saved in diskettes, disc or flash drives for individual future use and internet facilities which can allow information to go on cloud.
• Map and graphs: Data could be also be stored or preserved in map or graphical form which could be displayed in school or ministry of education for visual needs in form of pictograms pie chart, bar chart and histogram.

The about explained tools and techniques of data collection, analysis and storage could be easily used in secondary school when the use and application of Information and Communication Technology is well implemented and it will give end result for the school administration. Uzodinmma, (2005) agreed that when ICT properly used, it holds great promise to improve teaching and learning in addition to shaping workforce opportunities.

PROBLEM CONFRONTING SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS IN USE OF ICT IN DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS AND STORAGE

Research has revealed that several schools were not efficiently implementing ICT to support teaching, learning and management in school. Laaria, (2013) assert that some schools had developed guidelines on how to implement ICT but no attempt was made to implement them due to different attitudes of school administrators. This prompted an investigation of challenges that hindered efficient implementation of ICT in data collection, analysis and storage in public secondary schools in Ilorin East of Kwara state, these are:

1. Unreliability of data collection through use of ICT: Data collection for educational planning may sometime be reliable. The reliability of demographical data, for instance may be affected by internal migration, if people are migrating in large number. The geographical distribution of the population affected to the extent that school may be located in area where there will be little patronage and no electricity to power computer.
2. Non availability of data: Is very disturbing to policy makers of education in Nigeria in the sense that some vital records needed are either not or at best perfectly kept. This quite noticeable at all levels for our educational system. It seems the majority of Nigerians don’t keep records neither are they very willing to give out information for fear that such information may not be found either because they have not been obtained by the school or they have been lost. Non availability of data is also as a result of school administrator because their attitude towards the data is bad and careless.
3. Political Constraints: This affect the collection of demographic data for example most of the school administrators inflate figure because of benefit they will drive from high figure to the government which is corruption in the educational system, this generated controversies. There are also reported cases of inflation of students’ enrolment at the school for external examinations to obtain more funds from government and supervising bodies. When planning is based on such inflated data or figures, this result will lead to inefficiency in the educational system.
4. Lack of society co-operation: To the part of school administrators there is lack of social co-operation when it comes to releasing data, researchers’ often encounter this problem because of administrators’ attitude who result in unnecessary bureaucracy with the eventual disposition that educational statistics are regarded lost.
5. Lack of management information system: Management information system is very key for collection of data in educational system but there is no adequate management information system. The school administrators are primary source of the state and national level. There is insufficient data based management information system.
6. Low level of training or lack of manpower: Some school administrators lack ICT training due to the fact that some of them rose through the ranks without any formal training in the use of ICT in their school administration and may therefore not have the knowledge of imputation of school data required for educational planning. In the making of daily attendance of students in the school error could occur in using computer for their daily activities.
7. Scare of figure: This is one of the problems facing school administrators in using computer for data analysis because when it comes to interpretation or computation of figures people are scared and make poor analysis of data. Many people are not very friendly with figures and errors could easily occur in adding, multiplying or subtraction of numbers.
8. Lack of funds to process analytical facilities: This is another problem facing school administrators in educational system that, there is need for modern technological equipment like computer and internet for effective processing of data which require fund to facilitate the work effectively.
9. Poor storage and retrieval of data: Poor storage and retrieval of data is another problem facing school administrators because of ICT facilities are absent in schools, which leads to loose and hinders retrieval of data. The ICT gadget like computer is not available in most educational institutions especially at the primary and secondary schools information is still kept on file. This makes retrieval of such statistics problematic.
10. Problem of natural disaster: This is another problem facing school administrators in data collection, analysis and storage many of the schools particularly in the rural areas suffer from natural disaster like fire outbreak, storm, flood and termites which lead to loose of data.

Recommendations:

The following recommendations are hereby suggested based on the problem facing by the school administrators in Ilorin East secondary schools on use of ICT for data collection, analysis and storage:

School administrators should guide that reliable and adequate data are obtained through the use of Information and Communication Technology so that it will be useful for education planning when carefully handle on data collection, analysis and storage which will help a lot to have adequate data for school administration.

School administrators can solve the issue of non-availability of data collection, analysis and storage with Information and Communication Technology by providing modern equipment to use for data usage in the school. It will assist the school administrators to keep proper record and be available when needed at any time of use.

There should be thorough supervision on school administrators for data collection, analysis and storage to guide against the inflation of figures. This will assist the government to have proper planning for education on students’ enrolment and general needs of educational system for effective achievement of educational goals.

There is need to address the adequate training of school administrators in the application and use of Information and Communication Technology like computer education; data can be collected through internet and analyzed with computer and stored for easy retrieval.

Government should assist in provision funds that can be utilized to install internet facilities in Ilorin East Secondary Schools so that it will help in  data collection, analysis and storage. It will also help to know how other countries are operating their educational system.

Computer should be provided to all schools for easy collection, analysis and storage of data because it will assist in proper keeping of records and retrieval. Computer should be well available in school for training programs for teaching and non-teaching staff that will need computer to store information.

Data collected by school administrators should be published regularly to remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks always encountered in the process of obtaining educational data from government sources or schools.

Conclusion

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) seems to be the faster and easier way in making information available to school administrators and implementations in school. There is need to create room for some information technology awareness at our schools by helping them to have access to computer and computer literacy, because it will ensure better application and use of ICT in our school.

References

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Daramola (1992). Importance of data collection in Education System.

Durosaro, D. O. & Shehu R. A. (2007) Workshop manual on: data collection, collation and analysis in Schools, Publication of Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board, Ilorin

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Uzodimma, U. (2006), “The use of information and communication technology in secondary schools in Nigeria: problems and prospects, In D.N. Ezeh & N. Onyegegbu (Eds), Information and communication technology in service of education (pg 151-158) “, Enugu: Timex.

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Correspondence can be directed to:

Saka Garba

Research Student

Department of Educational Management

University of Ibadan, Ibadan Nigeria.

email: garbasaka1@gmail.com

phone no: 07033044497, 08059224133