RESEARCH PROBLEM “THERE ARE TREMENDOUS INCREASES IN THE NUMBER OF STUDENT ENROLLMENTS BOTH IN PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS IN UGANDA.” BY NAMARA ALFRED 2022/BU/5902 1.2 Objectives 1.2.1 Main Objective The Main objective is to develop a Students Management Information System that would be used to streamline the key routine operations of Good Times Kawaala Primary School to improve quality and efficient reporting of the school system. 1.2.2 Specific Objectives (i) To study the existing system and highlight the shortcomings within the system. (ii) To analyze the current system and come up with recommendations for the new system. (iii) To design and develop the new system. (iv) To implement and test the new system. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This chapter covers related literature in the domain of Students Management Information System and specific issues about management of information systems. A critical review will be made and existing gaps explored. It is the gap in the literature and specific methodologies which the study will be assessed to come up with specific solutions for the new system. 2.2 Information Management Systems and Services Provision of both private and public services especially in the developed countries has fully been transformed into information systems popularly known as Students Management Information System. Basic public and private services such as; enrollment into higher institutions, health related services, income tax payments, social security benefits, use of public libraries, booking transport to particular destinations, job search services, registration of cars, licensing of documents and other properties, customs declarations, and many others are now on-line (Capgemini, 2007). By 2004, the level of sophistication of information technologies for instance in Europe was graded as mature at a level of 76% of all public and private services. Similarly the users had already become accustomed to e-based systems of service delivery and the trend was on the rise (European Commission, 2004) On the other hand, until now, developing countries are yet to fully implement these communication technological innovations and are still grappling with infrastructure challenges that are basis for functioning of electronic systems and level of technological innovation is far lagging behind that of developed countries. Varieties of reasons are advanced for this failure notably; low internet penetration, and limited communication infrastructure (Opoko, 2005). Nonetheless some institutions are. 2.4 Costs for New Systems According to Panko (2003), studies have shown that there is usually a difficulty situation in selecting the least expensive technology that meets users’ needs. Small firms like schools that have about ten computers would not manage to buy and operate ATM switch. The business analysts would say “Get the best technology you can afford”, but this means budget derive the selection and not the users’ needs. The same author notes, that demand for networking is exploding in that users are in need of more applications, over greater speed and distances. So in developing technological solutions, both technological and non-technological cost involved in designing applications and networks must be Considered and planned for. Though costs must be managed, it is acknowledged that estimating the real costs of fully configured cost of products for networks and software applications. Because of the unforeseen costs involved some firms have opted to do outsourcing for specific IT functions such as emails and registration. Panko, stated that summaries of a multiyear cost analysis items as follows: (1) Base hard ware, (2) Hardware options, (3) Base software, (4) Software options, (5) Planning and development, (6) Implementation, (7) On-going IT labour (8) On-gong user labour). A critical review of this write-up would shows that such development into out sourcing are still not implemented in most firms in Uganda and failure to conduct cost analysis would be a big challenge to many schools that intend to implement technology information systems. 2.5 System Development According to Oliver and Chapman (1998), System development “covers all the development activities of the organization and therefore contains analysts, programmers, and project leaders”. There are other sub specifications that can be categorized while developing a system. For instance system analysts would examine the feasibility of appropriate computer applications, analysis of existing systems, design computer information systems, implement and review. To complement the analyst, the programmer would encode, test the procedures as detailed in the design in specific programming language. In terms of management, some organizations have quality assurance manager who sets standards for development of systems and ensures that these standards are implemented and adhered to. Lastly, operations manager will be responsible for maintaining IT Facilities and services. From review of this literature, it can be observed that development of a system is such a complex process involving many resources in and technical expertise. Though this is an individual academic research, the research will attempted to follow all these process as detailed in the methodology. 2.6 Database Structure As organization move away from flat files (one-dimensional storage system that represent information from single points of view) to databases (which enables collection of data in multidimensional systems with internal and external entries to enable accessibility to information), there is need to deeply understand the subject of suitability of databases. Glenn (2003), presents several perspectives and concepts to databases including that the research benefited from including; a) Schema: a description of the entire database structure that is used by the database software to maintain the database. b) Subschema: A description of only that portion of the database pertinent to a particular user. For instance at school Good Times Kawaala students have different information but not all the information may be needed by teachers. Using subschema, users are given privileges to only subschema they are supposed to access. c) Relation database model: This is the most popular model today which stores data in rectangular tables called relations. d) SQL: A structured query language used extensively by application software programmers for manipulating databases that are viewed in terms of relational model. Because of the relation type of operations in schools and similar institutions, data methodologies that use relation operation are very applicable. This study will be used in most relational databases in implementing the databases. 2.7 Data Dictionary These are computer based catalog or directories containing Meta data i.e. data about data. A data Dictionary includes a software component to manage a Database of data i.e. Meta data about the structure data elements and other characteristics of an organization’s database for example it contains names and descriptions of all types of data, records and their inter relationships. 2.8 Data Independence A very important advantage of using a Database Management System is that it offers data independence. That is, application programs are insulated from changes in the way the data is structured and stored. Data independence is achieved through use of the three levels of data abstraction; in particular the conceptual scheme and the external scheme (Database Management Systems by Gerald V. post). View of a database system Application program View of a database system End users Figure 2.1: Simplified diagram of Database System 2.9 Database Management System (DBMS) According to Raghu Ramakrishna in Database Management System, this is software designed to assist in maintaining and utilizing large collections of data, the need for such systems as well as their use is growing rapidly. A Database Management System (DBMS) is computer software designed for the purpose of managing databases based on a variety of data models. (Codd, E.F [1970] According to Andrew J. Opel, The Database Management System provides all the basic service required to organize and maintain the database, including the following: Moving data to and from the physical data files as needed. Managing concurrent data access by multiple users, including provisions to prevent simultaneous updates from conflicting with one another. Managing transactions so that each transaction’s database changes are an all-or-nothing unit of work. In other words, if the transaction succeeds, all database changes made by it are recorded in the database; if the transaction fails, none of the changes it made are recorded in the database. Support for query language, which is a system of commands that a database user employs to retrieve data from the database. Provisions for backing up the database and recovering from failures. Security mechanisms to prevent unauthorized data access and modification. Databases have been in use since the earliest days of electronic computing. Unlike modern systems which can be applied to widely different databases and needs, the vast majority of older systems were tightly linked to the custom databases in order to gain speed at the expense of flexibility. Originally Database Management Systems were found only in large organizations with the computer hardware needed to support large data sets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_management_system 2.10 Summary of the Literature Reviewed Like other institutions, Schools are increasingly becoming complex organization with several operations that need to be linked to many outputs in an attempt to simplify operations and reporting. Operations such as registration of students on-line are becoming popular especially in the western world. A few tertiary institutions specifically Universities are moving towards networked environments. This means data and access to uploaded information is relatively easy if infrastructure is readily available. Therefore primary schools in Uganda would likewise benefits from similar information systems to aid their operations and continuously improve quality of education hence the need for the current system.
