Project – Design and Implementation of an automated school information system

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

An automated school information system is a large database system which can be used for managing school daily activities. It is configurable and can be configured to meet most individual school’s needs. It is a multi-user system. Nowadays education plays a major role in development of any country. Many educational organizations try to increase quality of education. One of the aspects of this improvement is managing of school resources (Fulmer, 2019). With growth of internet many of education organizations perform management of education resources online. However, the sites developed by those organizations support a few languages and have to be redesigned in case new languages are required to be added or interface of the entire site is required to be changed. The redesigning process takes a long time since thousand lines of code should be rewritten or modified (Bernhardt, 2021).

School management system is a system of professional, comprehensive, and sustainable school governance that provides various learning opportunities to students without discrimination (Óskarsdóttir et al., 2020; Siu et al., 2019). Facts on the ground show that management is a problem in the administration of education (Mohammadian, 2019 and Tokel, 2019). Literature review reveals that most school management is ineffective and inefficient because it is conducted manually in all its aspects, i.e. curriculum, student, educator and educational staff, facility and infrastructure, funding, management, leadership, evaluation, public relations, and cooperation (Shema, 2019). Moreover, school management is currently experiencing the challenge of globalization and Post Covid-19 pandemic. Globalization demands that school management produce human resources that are adaptable to the global changes of today (Aliyeva, 2020 and Aloraifan, 2021), whereas Post Covid-19 pandemic has forced 1.6 billion schools to shut down while still required to continue the learning process to achieve the goals of schooling (United Nations, 2020).

Considering the important role that schools management plays in a nation’s human resources development, it is of interest to develop innovations that will make schools management more effective and efficient. A number of research suggests that digital innovations have helped schools in initiating an innovation in schools management system that improves their quality and performance (Alkaabi, 2018; Ilomäki and Lakkala, 2019; Sahlberg, 2020 and Shema, 2019). Digital transformations facilitate the transmission of information through the use of big data. As a collection of a huge amount of heterogeneous information, big data have enabled schools to collect, manage, and preserve rich digital contents for a long period of time (Starkey and Eppel, 2019; Reinders and Mongkut, 2021), despite the difficulties that they still have in integrating the digital technology into their management (Widyanti, et al., 2019 and Godwin-Jones, 2021). To overcome this problem, schools have to innovate to change the manual management system into a digital, cloud, and cellular-based system to improve the operational efficiency and manage the institution effectively (Eloranta, et al., 2020).

The use of automated information systems for schools was one form of information technology adopted to fill the gap, due to its ability to generate data and its efficiency and effectiveness to save time and facilitate the development of alternative solutions for sophisticated problems.

However, Automated Information System for Schools is a system that holistically manages academics of the students, manages students, attendance, parents, class information, subject information, manages examinations, students’ scores, fee collection, manages expenses, hostel information, transportation, system settings, generate reports, role managements and logout button. This system ensures input and output are flexible and editable.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

As computers became an integral part of schools at the end of the 1990s, schools began to digitize student data and use databases to organize student records, from standardized test scores to health records to demographic information. However, despite the widespread use of databases in Nigerian schools, they are merely information storage systems, without making applicable information readily available to essential users. To help promote students achievement and success, schools must have access to complete, accurate, and timely information about students. The problems encountered in the study are:

1. Use of paper based documentation system for performing various tasks.
2. School administrators apply their knowledge of smash and blunder approach in scheduling classes and a subject (preparing the timetable) which wastes manpower and much time unnecessarily that does not utilize the current technology.
3. Exam score of students are prepared manually by the record officer and teachers. Report cards are produced by the class teachers.
4. Attendance of students is recorded by the class teachers. In order to control absentees and know the number of days that a student has been absent from the school during the school days the attendance officer has to collect the attendance slips from the corresponding class teachers and compile it which is also a time taking process.

Due to the inefficiency of the current manual system, the need arises to automate school information system in order to efficiently handle students’ attendance, to produce exam scores, report cards and the various reports satisfying users.

1.3    Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to design and implement an automated school information system. While specific objectives are:

1. To design an interface system that will be user-friendly using object-oriented programming language.
2. To develop an online registration system using PHP and MySQL programming languages
3. To design a system that facilitates attendance record keeping using MySQL database.
4. To design a system that facilitate various report generation using MySQL database.
5. To build a system that allows teachers, parents, school community and Education bureau officials to view reports on students using object-oriented programming language.
6. To implement a workable automated school information system using PHP and MySQL database.

1.4    Significance of the Study

This study will benefit the following groups and sector in the society.

• Ministry of Education: The study is of great benefit to the ministry of education to manage the students and schools information.
• Students: It will be of significant to the students to know and enable them have information concerning their academic information and progress.
• Parents: It will also benefit the parents or guardians to know the progress reports of their wards or children.
• Public: It serves as benefit to the general public on the automation of school information system.

1.5    Scope of the Study

The scope for this study covers the Design and Implementation of an Automated School Information System for Gosfem Broombreed International School, Port Harcourt.

1.6    Limitations of the Study

The study is limited to the followings:

• Time: the period given towards the design of the system was not quite enough as it requires time to code a system as robust as school information system.
• Lack of Data: data were not readily available and data collectors were also involved in the operation of the system, so some level of subjectivity is likely. For about half the duration of the data collection, a hike in fuel pump price resulted in transportation difficulties, as well as in challenges in reaching facility personnel.
• Lack of Finance: Finances was not readily available to speed up the coding process, but worked within the available funds at hand to conclude the project.

1.7    Project Layout

The project layout for this research are chapter one which discussed the introduction and background to the study, chapter two discussed the literature review, chapter three explained the system analysis and design of the program, chapter four explained  the system implementation and chapter had the summary, conclusion, recommendations and contribution to knowledge.

1.8    Definition of Terms

Academic: it is used to describe work, or a school, college, or university that places emphasis on studying and reasoning rather than on practical or technical skills.

Computer System: It is seen as a set of integrated devices that input, output, process, and store data and information

Database: It is defined as an organized collection of structured information, or data, typically stored electronically in a computer system

School: It is defined as a place where teaching and learning occurs.

Automation: It is defined as the creation and application of technologies to produce and deliver goods and services with minimal human intervention

System: It is defined as a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole.

Attendance: It is defined as the act of being present at or attending a class, an event or a meeting

Student Score: It is defined as the outcome of assessments related to the performance or level of competence of students enrolled.

Subjects: It is defined as an area of knowledge or study, especially one that you study at school, college, or university.

Project – Design and Implementation of an automated school information system