In Honour of Dr. A. M. Fagbulu
DATA MANAGEMENT IN
SCHOOLS
AND
OTHER ISSUES
Edited By
Egbe T. Ehiametalor
CONTENTS
Dedication
ii
Acknowledgements
iii
1
The Development and Management of Records in the
Nigerian Education System.
Prof. Nicholas A. Nwagwu
1
2
Computerization of Data in Federal Unity Schools.
O. llori
11
3
Planning Education Without Facts: The Nigerian Case.
M. S. Onwueme
18
4
Record Management in Schools.
N.B. Oyedeji, Bade Adeyemo and S.O.A, Adekoya 25
5
Record Management in Nigeria Universities.
S.O. Olaitan
40
6
Pupils and Personnel Productivity: The Case of College of
Education, Ekiadolor-Benin. J.O. Afe
57
7
Managing Pupils Attendance Data for Computerisation Mon
Nwadiani
67
8
Maintenance of School Buildings. Eric Arubayi
77
9
Space Management in the Nigerian Institutions of Higher
Learning: Suggestions for Institutional Administrators.
Currie J. Udonkang
90
10
Keeping Guidance Records in Secondary Schools: Principles,
Issues and Prospects. I.N.S. Nwokwule
97
11 Towards Effective Safe Keeping of Student Appraisal Data in
Guidance and Counselling. Albert Osa Ehiozuwa 107
12
Role of Accounting in School Administration.
A.R. Anao
115
13
The School Budget. Egbe T. Ehiametalor
130
14
Purchasing and Storage in Schools. Kola Adeyemi 148
15.
Resource Management and Utilisation for School
Effectiveness. Segun Ogunsaju
162
16 A study of Record Management in Secondary Schools in
Ughelli North and South Local Government Areas.
B.O. Ogonor and F. Ojoh
169
17
Issues and Problems of Education Data Management.
D.O. Durosaro
178
18
Alternative Method of Financing Vocational and
Technical Education in Nigeria. S.I. Akinseinde
196
19
20
21
22
23
24
The Financing of Education in Nigeria.
J.A. Aghenta
205
State Financing and Subsidisation of Education.
A.O. Ikelegbe
215
Each One Teach One or Fund the Teaching of One: A
Strategy for Mass Participation in Education.
Akpovire Oduaran
227
Science Curriculum Development at The Senior Secondary
School Level in Nigeria: The Challenge of Promoting Self
Confidence in Students. Martina A. Adeyemi
235
Control of Public Education in Nigeria Since Independence.
M.A. Ogunu
250
Issues in the Control of Education. M.E. Ijeoma
260
Author Index
268
Subject Index
270
CHAPTER 17
ISSUES AND PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION
DATA MANAGEMENT
D.O. Durosaro
INTRODUCTION
Apparently, in Nigeria, the business of education is gradually getting
transformed from being a mere welfarist issue to a matter of economic
expediency. This calls for a data-based planning of the system.
Education data are simply the information gathered about the
operations of the education system ["Education data could be qualitative or
quantitative. The qualitative data relate to information on objectives,
structures, curriculum .and pedagogy while the quantitative data relate to the
numerical measures of resources utilised . in the system. The quantitative data
could be in form of stock or flow statistics. The stock statistics give idea of
numerical measures of resources as they exist at a particular point in time
while the flow statistics give idea of the numerical measure of resources as
they flow into, through and out of the educational system (Patukuri, 1981).]
For the purpose of this paper, education data management refers to the process
of collection, analysis, storage and retrieval of information relating to the
operation of the educational system. All these data mentioned are useful tools
for practical planning of education.
An educational plan may simply be seen as a set of decisions, a
scheme or programme prepared now for implementation in the future for the
accomplishment of the educational systems objectives (Osaro, f988). The need
for planning the educational system is derived from the fact that the society is
not static and education must respond and adapt to the changing technological,
economical, political and social environments of the nation.
The current world-wide economic depression does not spare Nigeria.
The nation is only trying to cope with the serious decline in her financial
income through cut-backs on domestic expenditures for all sectors, education
inclusive. The continued survival of our education
system now depends greatly on the ability of our educational managers and
policy makers to utilise the existing resources efficiently and
effectively. This justifies the current introduction of some theories of
economics that were in the exclusive preserves of commerce and industry into
the business of education. By and large, in contemporary sense, educational
178
planning in Nigeria has some short-comings. A major shortcoming is
inadequate database available to our educational decision makers. The use of
quantitative data for decision making in education has become imperative for
three major reasons. Firstly, there is an explosive growth in the size of the
education system in recent times. Primary education enrolment grew four
times the original size, secondary education eleven times while enrolment in
our universities has risen thirty times the original size between 1975 and 1980
(Adesina, 1983). Secondly, owing to our declining resources, there is
increased dependence on foreign donors who in turn demand for quantitative
data to ensure accountability and thirdly, there is increased complexity of the
education systems programmes and objectives. The assumption is that if better
information could be made available, better management and resource
allocation decisions would flow. However, there are some knotty issues and
problems facing education management information system in Nigeria.
ISSUES IN EDUCATION DATA MANAGEMENT
Several issues are associated with the management of education data
in Nigeria. This paper would however examine a few major issues of interest.
These include the issues of availability of education data; accuracy of the
available education data; mistakes in the analysis of education data owing to
level of training of analysts; the general attitude of Nigerians to record keeping
and difficulty of retrieval of data on time when needed.
The issue of availability of data is very crucial to education data
management in Nigeria in the sense that some of the vital records needed are
either not kept or at best poorly kept. This is quite noticeable at all levels of
the 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 might be used against them. Even in the schools, the needed
information may not be found either because they have not been obtained by
the school or they have been lost due "to poor storage. Many of our schools,
particularly in the rural areas suffer from natural disasters like fire, storm,
flood and termites, as a result of which they loose their school records. Even
where some of the records are kept, they are placed in the care of poorly
trained or totally ignorant record clerks, the records might have become mixed
up to the extent that retrieval may be very difficult when required for use.
These reasons do account for the usual delays in receiving some of the data on
time when needed to serve as guides to policy makers.
Another vital issue in the management of education data in Nigeria is
that of the inaccuracy of the data available . This issue of inacuracy of data
may arise in the education system due to a number of reasons. These include
that the head teachers don't keep the records accurately deliberately in order to
influence financial allocation to their schools. It may also he that owing to
ignorance about record keeping, the head teachers have not collated the data of
their schools accurately enough. Moreover, some people are not very friendly
179
with figures and errors could easily occur in adding the numbers. It is often
possible also to discover some discrepancies between the records of. the
schools and the overall summaries in the Ministry of Education. This error
could occur simply in the process of transfer of the data from the school
summary to the ministerial summary sheets, the baste issue here is how wide
should the error margin be in order to be tolerable for use in decision making.
Moreover, there is the issue of low level of training or lack of
expertise of our head teachers in the process of education data analysis. This is
evident in the usual mistakes observed in the analysis of school records. Even
in the marking and recording of daily attendance of pupils in the register,
errors could be observed in some schools. This is because some of the teachers
are not sure of how to analyse and interpret the data. This calls for the need for
training and retraining of our teachers and head teachers in the art of record
keeping and analysis. Depending on the level at which the records are required
for use, the record keepers should have some basic skills of descriptive
analysis of the education data. This will help the record keepers to understand
why the records are kept and they will appreciate keeping the data accurately.
Further, another issue that seems very crucial to education data
management in Nigeria is that of storage and retrieval of data. Apart from the
fact that our people don't maintain a good culture of record keeping, the few
records that we are compelled to keep are usually not adequately stored and
that creates the problem of retrieval to users. Until recent times when we have
some modern data storage facilities like computer, microfilm and tapes, our
education data are usually kept in files and folders and filed up in drawers or
even on bare floors in stores. This method of storage encourages loss of data
and it hinders retrieval. Even the modern data storage facilities are too costly
to get to the reach of most educational institutions. There is the need for an
intervention strategy with the aid of international co-operation to tackle this
issue. It is gratifying to note the efforts of UNESCO in collaboration with
Federal Government of Nigeria towards computerising schools data through
regular school census schemes. However, there are some major problems
hindering proper education data management In Nigeria. These are examined
in the next section.
PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION DATA MANAGEMENT
The problems confronting education data management in Nigeria are
numerous. In this paper, these problems would simply be classified into four
as follows:
(a)
Problem of data collection;
(b)
Problem of data inaccuracy;
180
(c)
(d)
Problem of data analysis; and
Problem of data storage and retrieval.
The problem of data collection arises in education data management because
of the secrecy attached to personal matters by the Nigerian Public. Even some
vital information, particularly those relating to educational finance, are made
secret. This problem is not limited to private individuals only. Even the
government too is found to be hoarding some vital information on cost of
education. Also, in most states of Nigeria, there are no comprehensive digest
of statistics that could supply enough data to educators, education researchers
and policy makers. There are no statistics unit in most establishments to help
gather and store the necessary data. The school head teachers are the major
providers of the national level data and they have insufficient data based
management information system.
The problem of data inaccuracy is one major handicap to education
data management, in that many educators and ministry officials do express
doubts about the quality of the data available. Some past researchers have
found that low data quality was very severe problem that beset national level
education data system in some third world nations (Chapman and Boothroyd,
1988; IEE, 1989).
The problems of data analysis is also very major in education data
management in Nigeria. This is so because of the low level of training of our
school managers in data analysis. Case studies of education data flow in the
third world nations showed that in many countries, there are more data
gathered than are analysed or even used in policy making (Imboden, 1980).
This problem arises partly because the analyst don't have adequate knowledge
of computer technology. In most cases, they resort to manual calculations
using the simplistic approach.
This paper tries to raise some vital issues and examine some of the
major problems relating to education data management in Nigerian Primary
Schools with a view to preferring suggestions to aid improvement of existing
practice and highlighting areas of future researches. In order to guide the
study, the following questions were raised:
(i)
How do Nigerian primary school headteachers rate the need to
collect the following education data: Student enrolment, number
of teachers, teacher background/qualification data, educational
costs, availability of textbooks, student progression, student
attrition and graduation?
(ii)
What are the major problems confronting primary school head
teachers in relation to education data collection?
(iii)
How accurate are the school data when compared with the
records of the Ministry of Education in the states?
181
(iv)
What is the variation in the percentage of error between school
data and ministry's data across states?
(v)
What are the major causes of inaccuracies of education data in
the schools?
(vi)
What are the major problems facing primary school head
teachers in terms of education data analysis'.
(vii)
What are the major problems experienced by primary school head
teachers in relation to education data storage and retrieval?
METHODOLOGY
The primary school headteachers in Nigeria formed the population for
this study. Nine states of the federation were used based on stratified random
sampling. The former regional boundaries of North, West and East formed the
strata. The states sampled include Abia, Bauchi, Enugu, Kwara, Lagos, Niger,
Ondo, Rivers and Sokoto. A total of 900 primary school head teachers were
randomly sampled. One hundred headteachers were picked randomly from a
list of schools in each state.
A questionnaire styled problems of Education Data Management
Questionnaire (PEDMQ) was used for data collection. The instrument is an
adaptation of an earlier version of questionnaire on Education Data Quality
(QEDQ) used by Chapman (1990). The adopted version was face-validated
and pilot-tested. It was found quite valid and reliable for the study.
The data gathered were analysed descriptively and used to provide
answers to the questions posed earlier on in the study.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
To guide the presentation of the findings of the study, the research
questions raised earlier were tackled one after the other. The first research
question asked: "How would Nigerian Primary School headteachers rate the
need to collect some education data? The relevant data for answering the
question are presented on table I
182
TABLE I
PRIMARY SCHOOL HEAD TEACHERS RATING OF THE NEED TO
KEEP SOME EDUCATION DATA
______________________________________________________________________________________________
STATES
TYPES OF DATA
Abia Bauchi Enugu Kwara Lagos Niger Ondo Rivers
%
%
%
Students Enrolment
75
88
72
Number of Teachers
80
79
Teacher Backgroun/Qualification
85
Educational Costs
%
%
%
%
68
70
90
85
90
82
90
80
80
85
90
92
62
58
60
52
Textbooks
40
60
58
Student Progression
20
30
Student Attrition
48
Student Academic Performance
Student Graduation
%
Sokoto All States
%
%
66
82
77
95
80
89
85
89
90
95
92
89
40
55
40
60
30
51
60
59
40
60
50
55
54
40
50
30
20
45
40
20
33
20
40
45
25
12
20
25
18
28
90
92
95
86
92
90
88
79
90
89
20
15
25
20
15
30
35
25
20
23
__________________________________________________________
183
According to the data on the table, the average of the responses from
all the states show that the head teacher used rated the keeping of both
.students academic performance (89%) and teachers background/qualification
(89%) records as those extremely important. Next to those two, the head
teachers rated the keeping of data on number of teachers (85%) as second.
They also rated the keeping of student enrolment data (77%) third, and the
keeping of data on textbook (54%) was rated fourth in their order of
importance. The need for keeping data on student graduation (23 %) and
student attrition (33 %) were rated lowest. These findings were contrary to the
investigators expectation. Since attendance register appear to be the daily
routine data kept by the teachers one expects that it would make them rate the
need to keep the student enrolment data highest. The findings also help to
explain why in most cases schools don't have data on student attrition and
student graduation. They probably don't see the need for keeping them.
The next research question asked: What are the major problems
confronting primary school head teachers in relation to education data
collection?
Table 2 presents the relevant data for tackling the question.
184
TABLE 2
MAJOR PROBLEMS CONFRONTING PRIMARY SCHOOL HEAD
TEACHERS IN RELATION TO EDUCATION DATA COLLECTION IN
NIGERIA.
________________________________________________________
STATES
PROBLEMS
Abia Bauchi Enugu Kwara Lagos Niger Ondo Rivers
%
%
%
Non availability of information
45
60
30
Loss of record in natural disaster
32
48
Inadequately trained record keeper
60
Lack of co-operation from public
%
%
%
%
25
20
45
15
20
15
20
30
50
65
70
55
40
35
20
30
No statistics unit in school
28
40
30
Not sure of data to collect
12
28
18
%
Sokoto All States
%
%
25
25
33
20
40
35
29
60
70
66
50
61
15
40
10
25
30
27
25
30
40
30
20
28
30
12
20
25
10
15
25
18
________________________________________________________
185
The table shows that major problems facing education data collection
varies from state to state. For instance, in Abia State it was inadequately
trained record keeper while it was non-availability of information in Bauchi
State whereas the major problem in Enugu, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ondo,
Rivers and Sokoto States was inadequately trained record keepers. The table
further shows that on the average for all states used, the major problem facing
education data collection was inadequately trained record keepers (61%). The
next major problem to this was non-availability of data (33%) coupled with the
fact that there were no statistics unit in the school (30%). The third major
problem faced by schools in education data collection was the loss of data in
natural disaster such as flood, storm, fire and termites (29%). the study also
discovered that in some cases, the head teachers were not sure of what data to
collect (18%).
The third research question tried to find out: How accurate were the
school data when compared with the records of the Ministry of Education in
the States?
Table 3 presents the necessary data to use in answering the question.
186
TABLE 3
PERCENTAGE OF ERRORS BETWEEN SOME SCHOOLS’ DATA AND
THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATIONS' RECORD ON TIME
________________________________________________________
STATES
EDUCATION DATA
Abia Bauchi Enugu Kwara Lagos Niger Ondo Rivers
Sokoto All States
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Students Enrolment
3.2
16.5
1.7
0.6
2.4
11.3
6.5
3.8
3.5
5.4
Number of Teachers
1.6
5.6
1.6
2.5
1.8
1.9
2.1
1.6
2.6
2.4
Educational Costs
25.4
—
40.5
15.8 16.2
—
25.
35.8
—
________________________________________________________
187
26.5
The table shows that there were some differences noticed in the data
on enrolment, number of teachers and educational cost kept in both the schools
and the Ministries of Education in the States. For example, in terms of student
enrolment, the average error margin between the data kept by schools and the
universities record was found to be 5.4 percent. Also, for the number of
teachers, the average error margin between data kept by school and that of
ministries among the states used was found to be 2.4 percent. The error margin
between data kept by schools on educational costs and there kept by Ministries
in the states sampled was found to be 26.5 per cent.
This finding has some implications on the operation of the system.
These include that the use of the data may add an unwarranted credibility to
erroneous positions in policy making. It may also result in some substantial
resource wastage. Chapman (1990) pointed out that quantitative data have four
primary uses at the states level of aggregation. These uses include describing
the states of a programme or system, identifying trends, monitoring the
progress of particular programmes or projects; and developing projections for
use in planning. In light of these uses, it would be inappropriate to base
specific projections or resource allocation decisions on data characterized by
errors.
The fourth research question asked: What is the variation in the
percentage of error between school data and ministries' data?
The answer to this question is contained on table 3. According to the
table, the error in student enrolment data between school record and Ministry's
data varies between 1.7 percent and 16.5 percent among the states sampled.
The error in number of teachers between school record and ministry's record
varies between 1.6 percent and 2.6 percent. Also, the error in educational costs
data between schools records and ministry's record varies between 15.8
percent and 40.5 percent among the states sampled for the study.
The next research question stated: What were the major causes of
inaccuracy of education data in the schools?
The data relevant to this research question is presented on table 4.
188
TABLE 4
MAJOR CAUSES OF INACCURACY OF EDUCATION DATA IN
PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
STATES
CAUSES OF INACCURACY
OF DATA
Abia Bauchi Enugu Kwara Lagos Niger Ondo Rivers
%
%
%
%
%
%
Sokoto All States
%
%
%
%
Ingnorance on part of the head
teachers
22
25
30
25
22 30
21
18
20
24
Head teachers careless in
recording data
48
60
-30
25
4 5 40
25
33
22
36
Errors deliberate for financial
purpose
12
10
15
10
12
8
18
20
10
13
Errors occur in transfering data
from schools to ministry's record
40
35
20
30
35
40
30
40
50
36
Errors occur in adding numbers
60
50
65
70
55
60
70
66 61
________________________________________________________
189
62
It is obvious from the table that the major causes of the inaccuracy of
education data in our primary schools were in the following order: Faulty
adding of figures (62%), faults in transferring data from school to ministerial
record book (36%), carelessness of head teachers (36%); ignorance of head
teachers about how to kept die records (24%) and deliberately committed
errors by the head teachers in order to influence the financial allocation to their
schools (13%).
The next research question also stated: What are the major problems
confronting primary school head teachers in terms of education data analysis
in Nigeria.
According to table 5, the greatest problems confronting head teachers
190
TABLE 5
MAJOR PROBLEMS CONFRONTING PRIMARY SCHOOL HEAD
TEACHERS IN RELATION TO EDUCATION DATA ANALYSIS IN
NIGERIA.
________________________________________________________
STATES
PROBLEMS
Abia Bauchi Enugu Kwara Lagos Niger Ondo Rivers Sokoto All States
______________________________________________________________________________________________
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Inadequate Training
80
79
90
82
90
80
95
80
85
85
No Computer Awareness
60
50
65
70
55
60
70
60
55
61
Not Keen on Using Figures
75
80
72
68
70
90
82
66
68
75
No Access To Computer
Facilities
28
35
18
12 25
20
18
22
34
______________________________________________________________________________________________
191
24
in some Nigerian Primary Schools was that of inadequate training in
quantitative analysis (85%). The next problem highlighted as next to this was
that some head teachers were not keen on the use of figures (75%) probably
because they are scared by figures or because they are too poor in
computation. Lack of computer awareness was rated third (61 %) on the table
among the problems facing the headteachers in education data analysis while
the lack of access to computer facilities was rated least (24%).
The last research question sought to find out what are the major
problems experienced by Nigerian Primary School Headteachers in relation to
education data storage and retrieval?
The data to be used in answering the question are shown on table 6.
According to the table, the problem rated highest was lack of fund to
procure good storage facilities for data (79%). The problem of loss of data
owing to natural disasters like flood, fire, storm and termites was rated second
(69%). The problems that was rated third is inadequate training of the record
keepers (66%) while lack of awareness of some modern storage facilities was
rated fourth (62%).
192
MAJOR PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY NIGERIAN PRIMARY
SCHOOL HEADTEACHER CONCERNING EDUCATION DATA
STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL.
________________________________________________________
STATES
PROBLEMS
Abia Bauchi Enugu Kwara Lagos Niger Ondo Rivers Sokoto All States
______________________________________________________________________________________________
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
Lack of funds to purchase
good storage facilities
70
90
80
95 85
79
70
82
60
79
Lack of awareness of some
modern storage facilities
65
60
Problem of natural disasters
Causing loss and damages
60
50
55
72
50
75
60
70
60
59
62
68
70
80
65
86
72
69
Inadequate training of
record keeper
50
60 80
66 55
70
80
70
65
______________________________________________________________________________________________
193
66
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
From the findings of this study, it seems very obvious that a crucial
step in improving data-base decision making in Nigeria is that of identification
and finding solutions to some of the major constraints to data collection,
accuracy, analysis, storage and retrieval. This study tried to examine the major
problems faced by our school administrators who are the major providers of
the data used in education management with a view to suggesting solutions.
To reduce some of the constraints identified in this study, one may
suggest that the record keepers should be trained or retrained in the modern
system of keeping records. This effort should concentrate initially at the school
level. The teachers need to he taught the improved systems of recording school
level data accurately. There is also the need for the Ministry of Education to
design the data collection forms in very simple and unambiguous ways.
Moreover, some of the data may not be found in the schools because
the teachers did not deem them useful. The head teachers need to be educated
about the usefulness of each of the records being kept in the school and
possibly incentives should be given to the schools to encourage them to keep
good records.
Some of the errors in the data are due to the head teachers' inability to
do simple arithmetic calculations needed to enable them complete the data
forms. Hence, there is the need to provide them with hand calculators.
Moreover, it was discovered that in Nigeria, the school head teachers
have very little use for the data they collect. This is simply because they are
not involved in very serious resource allocation decision making at the school
level. Most crucial decisions are taken for them and simply passed down with
written guidelines for implementation. There could be some improvement in
the education data management if more attention is given to finding more
ways of making the headteachers use these data at the school level.
In addition, there is the need to create some computer awareness at
our school level by helping them with access to computerising their record
keeping. This ensures better storage, more accurate analysis and quick
retrieval of data when needed.
194
REFERENCES
Adesina. S. (1982). Demand for Primary And Secondary Level Teachers In
Ogun State. Lagos: Educational Industries Ltd.
Chapman, D.W. (1991). Education Data Quality in the Third World. A five
Country Study. International Review of Education 37(3) pp 365 - 379.
Chapman, D.W. (1990). “The Role of Education Management Information
System in Improving Education Quality.” In Chapman D.W. and C.A.
Carriers (Eds.) Improving Educational Qualify: A Global Perspective.
Chapt, Z, Westpart, Conn: Greenwood Press. Chapman, D.W. and
Boothroyd, R.A. (1988). "Threats to Data Quality in Developing Country
Settings." Comparative Education Review. 32(4) pp 416 - 429,
Durosaro, D. O. (1988), Statistical Needs for Educational Planning in Nigeria,
Mimeograph Department of Educational Management, University of
llorin.
I E E S (1989). Policy Research Initiative on Education Management
Information Systems: Final Report Improving the Efficiency of
Education System Project, Tallahassee, Florida State University.
Imboden, N. (1980). Managing Information for Rural Development Projects,
Paris. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Patukuri, A. (1981). Analysis of Educational Data. Mimeo, Department of
Educational Management, University of Ibadan.
195