Introduction

While research on school improvement is now into its third decade, systematic research on what the principal actually does and its relationship to stability and change is quite recent. Some of the earlier implementation research identified the role of the principal as central to promoting or inhibiting change (Sammons, 1999; Goleman, 2000), but it did not examine the principal’s role in any depth or perspective as regards to the utilization of new technology for record-keeping. During the 1980’s research and practice focusing on the role of the principal-ship, vice-principal-ship, and other school leaders mounted, resulting in greater clarity, but also greater appreciation of the complexities and different paths to success.

In realizing the educational goals, record keeping in management is very crucial. Records, according to Emerson (1989) are those documents in whatever medium, received or created by an organization in the course of business because of the information contained. Record keeping is the art of keeping school records, which by educational law must be kept by every educational institution at all levels, for the effective and smooth running of the school administration. Records give details about the students and entire staff in the schools. Record keeping in educational management and utilization are very vital to the continual existence of the school as an organization. Such records, if made available and put to use at the appropriate time, will enable both principals and teaching personnel to know something about their students, and through this, will be in a better position to assist the students academically, morally and socially. In addition they would be able to present the information to whoever may need it (Ajayi, 1997).

Over the years, keeping records has always been done manually. In schools, manual record keeping in management has been characterized by a lot of problems, such as lack of skills in the interpretation of scores from assessment instruments, lack of skills in records and preparation of reports, lack of facilities for record keeping, and shortage of teaching personnel that double as administrative workers (Rosen & Well, 1995). Principals, vice-principals and teaching personnel are faced with a tedious task of keeping the students’ attendance, record books, cumulative report cards, and students’ performance in cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. Also, it has been widely claimed that there are assault on papers; some countries, like the USA during the administration of President Hoover, established the Task Force on Record Management (Emerson, 1989). The goal of record keeping in management is to achieve efficiency in the creation, utilization and maintenance of records. However, these goals cannot be realized unless they are properly and adequately organized in such a way that storage and presentation allow for easy accessibility.

The computer is an electronic machine capable of inputting, processing and outputting information based on a logic supply. Computer literacy is the ability to identify and operate the software and hardware of a computer so as to achieve a desired goal. Computer literacy is also the ability to use a computer for record keeping in educational management. The growth in the number of courses offered in secondary schools and the proliferation of students’ records has generated some challenges for both the school administrators and teaching personnel. The committee on the National Policy on Computer Education recommended the procurement of at least one computer for school administration (Lawal, 1997).

The Literacy Assistance Center (LAC) is of the view that computer technology plays a role in nearly every aspect of life in assisting adult education programs and in preparing students to become full participants in the 21^st century. The LAC’s instructional technology initiatives offer resources for integrating technology into the classroom (e-learning). Samuel and Ede (2005) observe that when the computer is properly used, information holds great promise to improve teaching-learning activities and in addition, to shape workforce opportunities. Also, in the rapidly changing world of global market competition, automation and increasing democratization, basic computer education is necessary for individuals to have the capacity and capability to access and apply information.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has indicated that the ability to access and effectively utilize information is no longer a luxury but a necessity for development. It is not uncommon to find that many establishments in Nigeria including educational institutions, still keep records only in files and tuck them away in filling cabinets where they accumulate dust, and that many of these files are often eaten up by rodents and cockroaches; thus, rendering information irretrievable (Samuel & Ede, 2005). They are of the opinion that most Nigerian schools still go through the laborious exercise of manually registering students, maintaining records of students’ academic performance, keeping inventory lists of supplies, doing cost of accounting, paying bills and printing examination questions and reports, among others.

Computer phobia is the fear of impending interaction with the computer that is disproportionate to the actual threat presented by the computer. Researchers have carried out research on computer phobia, or anxiety as the case may be, and using the computer as a program or instructional management tool for teaching personnel (Fletcher & Deeds, 1994; Kotrlik & Smith, 1989; Oetting, 1983). Results from different research have shown that no differences existed in computer phobia among teaching personnel from various vocational fields, and that the level of computer skills was a significant explanatory variable of computer phobia (Kotrlik & Smith, 1989; Oetting, 1983). Four variables were identified as a significant proportion of the variance in computer phobia, namely; principal’s support of computer use, computer availability at school, perceived mathematical ability and whether the teaching personnel had received formal computer training (Oetting, 1983).

Russell (1995) explains six stages that naïve users go through when learning to use the computer. These include: awareness of the computer, what it can do, learning the process, familiarity and competency of the usage, adaptation to other context about or on the computer, and creative application to new contexts. Understanding these stages of learning to use computer empowers the learner through knowledge that the feelings of tension and frustration will be overcome (Russell, 1995). These findings present a powerful message for school reform and sustainable education.

Statement of Problem

Despite all the research on computer phobia or anxiety (Russell, 1995; Kotrlik & Smith, 1989), not much work has been done on the utilization of the computer for record keeping in educational management in secondary schools and the level of literacy of the school users. To this end, this study therefore investigated how often secondary school administrators make use of the computer for administrative purposes and the phobia level of the school administrators in utilizing the computer as the new technology. Hence, this study will produce answers to the following research questions:

1. What is the level of principals’, vice-principals’ computer literacy and phobia?

2. What is the level of availability of computer for usage in the selected secondary schools?

3. To what extent do computer literacy and phobia influence principals’ and vice-principals’ computer utilization for record keeping?

4. Is there any significant relationship among computer phobia, literacy, and principals’ and vice-principals’ computer utilization?

Method

The descriptive survey research approach was used for the study, since the response cannot be manipulated. Correlation analysis was used to compare the relationship between computer phobia, literacy, and principals’ and vice-principals’ computer utilization, while regression analysis was used to calculate the influence of the principals’ and teaching personnel’s computer phobia and literacy on computer usage for record keeping in selected secondary schools. Also, descriptive statistics like mean and bar charts were used to identify the availability level of computers in selected secondary schools as well as the level of principals’ and vice-principals’ computer literacy and phobia in the selected secondary schools.

Sample and Sampling Techniques

Simple random sampling techniques were used for selecting schools to study and respondents within the selected schools. First, a sample of 100 secondary schools was selected from 165 secondary schools in Ibadan local government area, Ibadan municipality, Nigeria. Then one principal and one vice-principal were randomly selected from each school for a total sample of 200 respondents (principals and vice-principals).

Instrument

The researcher designed an instrument named Principal Questionnaire (PPQ) for data collection. PPQ is made up of four parts which include background information of the principal and teaching personnel, ways of keeping records in schools, number of available computers that are functioning for use, and items on principals’ and vice-principals’ computer literacy and phobia. Many of the items in the instrument are four-point Likert scale type, which were later coded numerically (4, 3, 2, 1), so as to facilitate the analysis. The draft of the questionnaire was randomly given to 10 principals for validation. Items were validated using test-retest reliability. The reliability coefficient was 0.82.

Results and Discussion

Research Question 1: What is the level of principals’ and vice-principals’ computer literacy and phobia?

Table 1: Description Statistics of Principals’ and Vice-Principals level of Computer Literacy and Phobia

Source: survey report 2008.

Fig1: Bar Chart on Principals’, vice-principals’ level of Computer literacy and Phobia in Selected Schools

Table 1 and Figure 1 above show the level of principals’ and vice-principals’ computer literacy and phobia. The level of vice-principals’ computer literacy is higher than that of the principals; also, the vice-principals’ level of computer phobia is not as high as the principals’ level. This implies that principals have more anxiety to operate the computer than the vice-principals.

Research Question 2: What is the level of availability of computers for usage in the selected secondary schools?

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics of the Functioning Computer in Selected Secondary

Schools

Source: survey report 2008.

Table 2 above reveals the level of availability of computers for usage in the selected secondary schools. The average number of computers in the selected schools is 6.45, which is rather too low for the 100 secondary schools. This implies that secondary schools are not having enough computers for utilization. The average number of the functioning ones out of the available ones is 80.78, while 19.22 are not functioning at all. Of the functioning ones, the average number for administrative use is 21.50, while 78.50 is for students’ use.

Research Question3: To what extent do computer literacy and phobia influence principals’ and vice-principals’ computer utilization for record keeping?

Table 3: Summary of the Multiple Regression Analysis

Table 3 above shows the combination influence of principals’ and vice-principals’ computer phobia and literacy on computer utilization for record keeping in selected secondary schools yielded a coefficient regression of 0.325, a multiple R square of 0.1513 and Adjusted R square of 0.1502. This implies that about 15% of the variance in computer utilization for record keeping can be explained by the combined influence of principals’ and vice-principals’ computer literacy and phobia. The table also reveals that the analysis of variance for the multiple regression data produced the F-ratio of 21.12 which is significant at a 5 per cent level. This indicates that the effectiveness of the predictor variables (computer literacy and phobia) in influencing principals’ and teaching personnel’s computer use for record keeping could not have occurred by chance.

Research question 4: Is there any significant relationship among principals’ and vice-principals computer phobia, literacy, and computer utilization?

Table 4: Inter-correlation among Variables

* sig. at 5 per cent level.

Table 4 above reveals the inter-correlation among the variables: principals’ and vice-principals’ computer literacy, phobia and computer utilization for record keeping in school management. The correlation coefficients were found to be statistically significant at the 5 per cent level. This implies that there is inter-relationship between principals’ and vice-principals’ computer phobia, literacy and computer utilization for record keeping in the selected secondary schools.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Computer phobia appears to be a psychological indicator for computer use, because it affects the principal and vice-principals in the utilization of computer for record keeping in schools. Computer literacy has a significant relationship with computer phobia which reflects on the usage.

Results from this study have further shown that for proper record keeping in secondary schools, principals and vice-principals should embrace the utilization of the computer as the new technology. The computer can also improve principals’ and vice-principals’ techniques of research work as well as the teaching-learning activities. The cumbersome exercise of searching by hand through the library’s card catalog or periodical indexes can be made easier by typing a few words pertinent to the topic into a computer, and such can be retrieved in just a matter of minutes. Computers hold records in a more compact and easy accessible way than the manual processing for record keeping. Computers can generate information for decision making on students’ performance more flexibly and quickly.

It is therefore recommended that schools should have a fully computerized record center. Enough computers should be provided in schools for administrative purposes and students’ use. Sources of power should show more concern in the procurement of computers in schools. Schools should join the World Links of Development, a program initiated by the World Bank in 1997. The program has been providing computer laboratories and bringing Internet connectivity to schools in developing countries. The program links schools around the world in order to improve education. Computer training should be organized for principals, vice-principals and teaching personnel as well in schools.

References

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Goleman, D. (2000) ‘Leadership that gets results’, Harvard Business Review, March-April, pp. 78-90.

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