ABSTRACT
This research work was carried out to
investigate the effect of inadequate computers in secretarial training in Isoko
North Local Government Council and Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro.
In fact, the availability of computers has
a great positive effect on secretarial training. Lack of it usually affects them vehemently.
In line with this, three research
questions were constructed and structured questionnaire administered, which were
analyzed.
It was discovered that inadequate
computers exist in the Department and only five computers are presently in use
in the selected school together with manual typewriters and few electric
typewriters. Even the few computers
supplied were yet to be installed thereby making the students to graduate
without computer skill.
Low performance of student secretaries was
associated to inadequate computers and would be better if provided with the
needed equipment as they desire more practical training to theoretically
oriented training.
Lack of funds was also noted as
responsible for the lack of equipment and as such, government assistance as
well as external assistance and management assistance are needed for the
procurement of more computers. Students’
payment of equipment levy would also be seen as a way of solving the problem.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title
page i
Approval
Page ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table
of contents vii
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of Problem 5
1.3 Purpose of the Study 7
1.4. Significance of the Study 8
1.5 Research Questions 9
1.6 Limitations 10
1.7 Delimitation 11
1.8 Definition of Terms 11
CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Literature Review 16
2.2 The
effect of non-availability of adequate Computers on students’ performance 25
2.3 The
Relationship between the department of Secretarial Studies, tertiary
institutions and The government in ensuring adequate provision of equipment in
training of students. 29
2.4 Summary of related literature 30
CHAPTER THREE
Research
Methodology
3.1 Design of the Study 33
3.2 Population of the Study 33
3.3 Instrument for Data collection 34
3.4 Method of data collection 34
3.5 Method of data analysis 35
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Analysis of Data 36
CHAPTER FIVE
Summary of
Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Summary of Findings 42
5.2 Conclusion 46
5.3 Recommendations 47
5.4 Areas of Further Research 48
Bibliography 49
Appendix
– Questionnaire 51
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The importance and sensitive position of a
secretary in an organization can never be over-emphasized. In fact, the availability of computers has a
great positive effect on secretarial training.
Lack of it usually affects them vehemently.
They play major roles in both private and
government establishments. Most of these
secretaries are trained in the tertiary institutions of learning in Nigeria,
especially in polytechnics.
The history of the polytechnics in
training secretaries has assumed greater roles in recent time.
Considering the special nature of
secretarial courses, peculiar equipment such as computers and word processors
are normally used in secretarial training.
Lack of exposure to these special equipment makes a graduate of
secretarial studies uncomfortable and unprepared to face squarely the
challenges of the job and office automation as a result of technological
advancement. A secretary has to grow
with the technology in order not to be displaced from her job.
These modern machines, for examples,
computer word processor, accounting machines, dictating machines, duplicating
machines, etc are supposed to be taught in detail, in secretarial department of
Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro to enable the secretarial student be fit in the
modern offices.
Invariably, these equipment are much
desired to give proper orientation to the secretarial students in the
acquisition of their manipulation skill that will go along side to help them
perform their duties in any office, no matter the type of equipment in use
there. Availability of these equipment
is one of the criteria normally considered by the National Board of Technical
Education (NBTE) for the accreditation of tertiary institution to run courses
in secretarial administration and the department can be discredited if it fails
to provide these required equipment needed for effective training of
secretaries.
Now, the fact is, most of the tertiary
institutions today are consequently left with incredible poor financial base to
the extent that they found it difficult to meet the cost of providing the
required instructional equipment for their students. The undoubtedly result is that students of
this department will graduate with little or no knowledge for operational skill
of these equipment, thereby presenting poor image and embarrassment to self and
institution from where he/she graduated.
In line with this, Nolen (1964) observed
that schools lack adequate equipment when he said:
In spite of new or improved office
appliance which have appeared in the market in recent years, many schools lack
office equipment.
Adequate and proper maintenance of
equipment is a necessity for an effective training for instance, it is possible
to teach a student to operate a key punch machine. It will be better to allow students operate
the machines rather than merely studying about them from textbook. Therefore, shortage of fund should not stop
school from providing equipment needed, as project could be sponsored to raise
funds or taking students to business home, familiarizes them with appliances.
In view of this, no availability of
adequate equipment hinders secretarial services and production of experienced
secretaries as the manipulative skill required would be lacking due to
inadequate training of the secretarial students on the actual equipment.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There is the notion that with the
incessant technological advancement in our business environment, the functions
of secretaries are prone to changes too.
Technological advancement could have an adverse or positive effect on
the secretaries.
Secretarial services and occupational
requirements are changing because of inventions in secretarial equipment. Employers now require ability to operate some
office equipment as or pre-requisite for employment. The lack of specific skills in manipulation
of office equipment by secretarial graduates creates employment difficulty to
them.
Inadequacy in the provision of enough and
modern equipment in Secretarial Department in Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro
and Isoko North Local Government Council, constitute a great problem and
hindrance in the training, as students would not be opportune to manipulate the
required equipment necessary for their programme thereby making them not
conversant with the equipment. And at
the office, it leads to low production due to lack of modern machines. Secretarial services also hampered as a
result of lack of knowledge of manipulation of equipment by the students of
this course (secretarial studies or administration) on graduation.
This project work will however, attempts
to examine the inherent effect of inadequate modern equipment on the
performance of students on their academic, opportunity for securing a job and
level of productivity in office.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The reasons for embarking on this project
is to investigate the problem of inadequate computers in the performance of
students of secretarial studies in Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro and Isoko North
Local Government Council, it’s effects on students and workers performance and
the possible solution of solving them.
The study would further identify the
impact of technological advancement of the secretarial performance to
practitioners of the profession, secretarial students and prospective students
of secretarial administration.
In the course of this study certain
variables which were believed to constitute the problem of inadequate equipment
were identified and analyzed as follow:
i.
To identify whether the
secretarial department is lacking the necessary equipment that enhance secretarial
functions.
ii.
To examine if the non
availability of adequate equipment affects students and workers performance.
iii.
To determine the effort
made between the department, institution and government in ensuring adequate
provision of equipment in the training of students.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research work, just like every other
worthwhile study is significant to the extent that it will enable the tertiary
institutions in Delta State to examine whether what it has in secretarial
department is able to satisfy the needs of the organizations, where students
are expected to work on graduation.
From this study, the department and school
authority will know about some of the technological advancement equipment
commonly used in offices and make effort to purchase them where they are not
available. It will also strengthen the
link existing between the employers of labour and the school for effective
implementation of secretarial services.
Finally, it will be of significance, as
students secretaries would be conversant with the most relevant and modern
equipment, if adequately provided.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The main objective of providing adequate
computers and modern equipment in tertiary institutions is to train competent
secretaries who will perfectly fit in their job and be able to face the
challenges of advance technology in terms of modern equipment commonly used in
most offices today.
Therefore, the research will focus on the
extent to which inadequate equipment in secretarial department affect the
performance of students secretaries.
As a result, the following questions would
be addressed:
i.
Is the secretarial
department lacking the necessary machines that enhance secretarial functions?
ii.
Does non availability of
the adequate machines affect students performance?
iii.
What is the relationship
between the department, tertiary institution and the government in ensuring
adequate provision of computers/modern machines in training of students?
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This research work will be limited to
Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro and Isoko North Local Government Council, Ozoro,
owing to some militating factors encountered by the researcher such as:
Time Constraints: The time in which this study would be
completed for submission is quite short and as such, time is not in the favour
of the researchers.
Finance:
Due to the prevailing economic situation in Nigeria, the researcher face
some financial problems in carrying out the research work.
1.7 DELIMITATION
The scope of this project is based on the
tertiary institutions in Delta State, particularly in the following places:
i.
Delta State Polytechnic,
Ozoro
ii.
Isoko North Local
Government Council
1.8 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
For the purpose of this research, the
following are some of the frequently occurring words defined in the sense in
which the researcher intend the reader to understand their usage in this
research work:
Office:
Office is a nerve centre of every organization.
It is a place where clerical work is carried out. It could be a position filled by
somebody. However, Neuner and Keeling
defined office as “the focal point for correlating the services and profit
making activities of a business enterprise”.
Office Equipment: These are equipment which are used in
business office to facilitate operation and procedures. Briefly, these include all the labour saving
devices used in an office which go by various names such as office appliance,
office machines, etc.
Secretarial
Training: This is a programme designed by a school to
acquaint the students with both practical and theoretical aspects of their
studies in the offices where they are expected to work after graduation.
Computer: A computer is any device that can receive,
store a set of instructions and then act upon those instructions in a
predetermined and predictable fashion.
This definition implies that both the instructions and the data upon
which the instruction act can be changed, a device whose instructions cannot be
changed is not a computer. When the
output is used to make decision, it is called information. It’s main functions are storage and
reproduction of text.
Word Processor: This is a configuration of machines or
equipment made up of software and hardware.
The main functions of word processor are storage of information and
retrieval of such information.
Subsequently, it helps in the edition of
documents or texts. It has an in-built
dictionary of varying sizes which will highlight any error in a word included
in the dictionary. It has the ability to
print out more copies of documents at the same time.
Dictating
Machines: These are a recording machines, which vary in
nature. They could be battery or
electrically operated. The secretary is
expected to be familiar with their mechanisms.
Some of them are portable cassettes for travellers, desk-tape or central
system dictating machines and some have remote control and auto transmission
facilities.
Duplicating
Machine: this is a machine that is used to make copies
of written, printed or drawing materials.
Duplicating machines is associated with making copies from the masters,
which may be, paper or metals. It is
therefore necessary for all secretaries or secretarial staff to know how to
produce copies from the masters paper or sheet by operating the machines.
There are different processes of
duplicating, some of which are spirit process, offset litho process, and
stencil process.
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