SYSTEM IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA
Hypothesis 2: There is no significant difference in the scores of public and private school principals’ on their level of possession data based management
competencies
Table 4: Chi-square analysis of principals’ level of possession data based management competencies by school type
Public (N=158) Private (N=259) X2 P-Value Remark Pass Failed Pass Failed
11. Item 54 103 176 83 44.53 .00 S
12. Item 38 120 171 88 69.15 .00 S
13. Item 69 89 68 191 13.49 .00 S
14. Item 59 99 81 178 1.62 .20 NS
15. Item 65 93 79 180 4.91 0.2 S
16. Item 58 100 184 75 47.49 .00 S
17. Item 78 80 103 156 3.68 .05 NS
18. Item 49 109 173 86 50.47 .00 S
19. Item 46 112 72 187 .08 .77 NS
20. Item 79 79 205 54 38.39 .00 S
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The analysis in table 4 shows that there is a significant difference in the scores of public and private school principals on their level of possession of data based management competencies as seven out of the 10 items listed had p-value less than the stipulated 0.05 level of significance. The null hypothesis of no significant difference was therefore rejected
Discussion Level of competency possessed by public and private secondary school principals’ in Web based/Networking competency
The result showed that the public school principals are moderately competent while private school principals are highly competent in web based/Networking.
Some of the items in this cluster deal with internet communications, browsing, chatting, text messaging, e-mail and other types of social networking. This is quite surprising because social networking is the in thing now. ICT facilities have been provided in all schools in the state yet the principals of public secondary schools are still not at home with their use as such not competent. This finding is supported by Abiogu (2011) in his study when he observed as saying that to some extent, the government have provided computer systems and laptops with internet connectivity to the schools. Granted the provision of these facilities and seminars and workshop organized yet the desired result has not been possible in most public schools unlike some private schools.
The findings of Egboka (2012) disagreed with this by saying that although many teachers have been trained to gain knowledge and understanding of ICT to support effective teaching; have participated in ICT based conferences and have been train on how to keep individual records of students for uploading to the institution portal but no empowerment have been provided. Supporting the findings of Egboka, Ellioth, (2004) in his study says that access is not synonymous with competency and basic skills needed to be develop. On the contrary private school principals showed high level of competency in web based/networking. Adeniyi (2009) in his report attributed this development to the young caliber of the management team of most private schools who are mostly the young people with knowledge and interested in social networking such as Facebook, WhatsApp, E-mail, Twitter, Instagram. The findings of Iwuagwu (2010) supported the view when he says that many private schools have gone very far ahead of public schools, such that admission forms, school results and adverts are posted and published on their web sites.
Unfortunately, the public secondary principals are majorly older people who did not have formal training in computer studies and as such are incompetent in the use of computer based learning skills. This finding is supported by the study of Okorafor, Maduuko and Achigbo (2011) they observed that this ‘net’ generation is so computer competent (digital savvy) that in general they are more proficient with the medium than most of their teachers. Many of the principals shared out some of their official duties which they ought to have done them themselves by using their
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laptop right before them in the office rather than the school typist who still continues to use manual typewriters even now. This in agreement with the findings by Oguike (2010) which says that principals should afford themselves the opportunity of making use of the computer system in doing some of their official duties other than shifting it to another or using the traditional analogy system. This constitutes to waste of time, divulging of official and confidential information.
Level of competency possessed by public and private secondary school principals’ in Data base management
The result here revealed that principals of private school are not competent while public school principals are moderately competent. This finding was not quite surprising because the issue of development of school portal and data base is a recent introduction in secondary schools in the state. The findings of the present study is supported by the findings of Ihuoma (2011) when he says that with the introduction of portal for the submission of school data and productivity returns without adequate training in computer programming of the principals will retard the goal of database management being advocated for. For the fact that the private school principals showed they have skills for the arrangement, organization, locating, accessing and retrieval of data and communication is a credit to the measure of data competency but does mean being competent. The findings of Ohanaka (2011) supported this view that data base management requires a computer specialist who has been trained in data programming. But inputting data into the data base of any institution does not necessarily mean being competent. On the contrary, Nwabueze and Anyira (2011) observed in their study that with the provision of software for data management among other things in the computer system, users of different portal can access, send, open and recognize different file/format (PDF) like the acrobat and adobe reader. This will enable principals manage their data base. If they can do this, they possess data literacy skill. This is in line with the findings in a study of Bruce (2003) which states that data literacy skills have to do with how data is being sourced or located, how to access data that is required and evaluate the accessed data to suit the demand of the information seeker. This is also in line with the study of Omenyi (2007) when she says that it requires the school managers as well as other personnel in the school with rapid, accurate access to wide variety of data stored in the school computer relating to students and staff personnel management, financial transactions of the school, academic records and other administrative information database to import these data with easy and as such does not require much specialty.
The test of hypothesis presented in table 3 showed that there is no significant difference in the competency score of the public and the private school principals in Database management.
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Conclusion
From the analysis, interpretation and discussions of result of this study as regards the research questions and hypotheses, the following conclusions were drawn:
From the findings it is show that the private secondary school principals possess high level of ICT competency in web based/networking but moderately competent in database management. While the public secondary school principals are moderately competent and web based/networking but not competent in data base management. Also there are much significant difference in the ICT competencies possessed by public and private secondary school principals in database management. Also in web based/networking that there are significant different between the two schools. This difference may be as a result of differences in policies, ideologies and management’s interest of the private secondary schools and lack of seriousness, inadequate training and retraining of principals of the public secondary school towards the implementation of MIS in their schools.
Recommendations
For there to be a good management of information system in the secondary schools, there is an urgent need to organize frequent in service trainings, seminars and workshops for principals in the secondary schools in the state by computer professionals. This will enable the principals to possess certain level of ICT competencies. Irrespective of the type of secondary school, ICT competency is very much needed at this digital information age and global competitiveness and Anambra state secondary schools need not to be left
.
Laptop or desktop computers should be made available by the government to the principals at a reduced price or in of form of loan to be gradually deduced from their salary to enable them, learn to use them in administration.
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