Assessment of the Effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) On Students Administration

Assessment of the Effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) On Students’ Administration

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

Student administration is one of the most tasking responsibility because every administrative task area is needed to be effectively managed. It is an imperative aspect of university administration. This involves various activities commencing from the admission process to learning activities till processing of results and performance analysis. These services are also targeted at ensuring that students are assisted to be well informed about the learning processes and other activities they have to undergo in institution. There is no doubt, that the rapid growth in educational institution has made Student Administration become more complex, due to the enormous rise in the number of students in the universities as well as the multiplicity of programmes have made university management to handle a very large quantity of data which must be accessed speedily to provide information for the university administration, National University Commission (NUC) and Ministry of Education for effective management. Hence, the use of ICT in the management of student administration in universities becomes imperative. (Ugomma, Ochai and Obasi, 2014). The 21st century has witnessed a great transformation and advancement which led to the development in the administrative system of Nigerian Universities. The application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and their adoption in human endeavour has necessitated a change of procedures and methods that relates to what we do and how we manage our daily affairs in order to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the management of organization and national affairs. ICTs are now vital to support the business of educational institutions, and support the full academic lifecycle. This include managing of student’s initial enquiry about courses, application, module selection, monitoring and support for the delivery of a course, assignment handling, examination, room booking, timetabling, library systems and learning management systems. These are usually done through a central IT system United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2012). ICT facilitates efficient storing and retrieval of data, instantaneous transmission of information, processing information and data faster than the earlier manual systems, speeding up governmental processes, taking decisions expeditiously and judiciously, increasing transparency and enforcing accountability. It also helps in increasing the reach of government both geographically and demographically (Kolhe, 2016). Thus, the information and communication technology has brought a sweeping change that has eliminated the geographical barriers between nations and also improved global interconnections of countries as if countries were living next door. The Federal Government of Nigeria has since 2001 taken noticeable step to put the country on track in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development and utilization in governance. In March 2001, the Nigeria government launched her National information technology Policy and thereafter, began the implementation with the establishment of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). Before 2011, different agencies were responsible for various aspects of ICT development in Nigeria. In 2011 Nigeria created a new Ministry of Communications Technology at the Federal level. The ministry is charged with the responsibility of coordinating ICT development, and drive the nation’s e-government agenda (Omeire & Omeire, 2014). The goal of the Framework and Guidelines for ICT adoption in Nigerian tertiary institutions is to provide a flexible and comprehensive general framework for the deployment of ICT tools in Nigerian tertiary institutions for the effective and efficient support of the core business processes of teaching, learning, research and administration. (NITDA, 2019) Technological revolution is what is changing our institutions of higher learning at a high speedy rate. The National Universities Commission (NUC) has brought changes into the administration of higher institutions that will enable Nigerian Universities to compete with others across the globe. In compliance with the directives, majority of the Nigerian Universities deployed the student’s administrative software that would enable students carry out their registration processes through the electronic media (Aimufua and Fatokun, 2007). The online service delivery found its way into the Nigerian education system over a decade ago, from early 2003. Prior to this time, library services, registration/accommodation of students, examinations and other student services were done manually involving the filling of several forms. However, almost all the educational institutions have moved into digital era, of menu-driven ultra-robust specialized online service delivery. The electronic internet has presented itself as a veritable source of information and channel of communication that has enabled student, staff and researchers access all sort of relevant data and information (Faiku, Awoleye, Oyebisi, 2020). It is crystal clear that the application of electronic internet services in all facets of life has become a subject of fundamental and concerns all operating within Nigeria. It is therefore certain that ICT has created a new window for the administration of university system in Nigeria. The application of ICT on student administration is an antidote to student personnel problems that would have been difficult, if not impossible to solve through human effort (Ugomma, Godwin and Obasi ,2014). Commenting on the areas of educational administration where ICT can be implemented for efficient working of institutions, Ahmad (2011) opined that ICT can be used to maintain the personal record information of the students. ICT according to him can also be useful in maintaining the record of enrolment and attendance/leave information, fees management and examination performance and analysis can be done efficiently through ICT. The university took a bold step and established its ICT infrastructure in August 2002 with a fast set-up radio based on wireless local-loop technology. To meet the current challenges in the provision of Internet facility to the University Community, the university established the Information and Communication Technology Directorate (ICTD) which is a centrally organized, service oriented unit responsible for the day-today implementation and attainment of the university ICT objectives and policies such as delivering of services. The primary tasks of the directorate are management and maintenance of common ICT systems and end-user support (Gbaje, 2010). Furthermore, The University had a vision of establishing a costeffective Information and Communication Technology (ICT) base that would support the emergence and sustenance of a competitive world-class teaching, learning and research environment that would break new grounds in dissemination of knowledge and information of the highest quality. In line with this vision,the university switched the student registration and accommodation to the electronic means during the 2006/2007 academic session and afterward an electronic library was also established (MTN University connect) to ease the student research and learning. The University deployed 37km optic-fibre network linking the major University campuses. (SAD, 2017).

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No. of Pages: 130

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