STUDENT RECORDS AND THE EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE SOUTH WEST AND LITTORAL REGIONS OF CAMEROON

Аннотация

This study was designed to examine student records and the effective management of public secondary schools in the South West and Littoral Regions of Cameroon. The study was guided by two objectives which examine the impact of students’ admission files and students’ attendance registers on the effective management of secondary schools. This is supported by the system theory by Bertalanffy (1968) seeorganizations as interdependent and interrelated where there is constant interaction among the members of the organization may be very useful to this study. This theory is relevant to this study as it shows that students’ record keeping in relation to school management should not be treated as an independent aspect of school management but, it should be treated with needed attention to the overall management of the school system. The Triangulation research method specifically the descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The instruments use for data collection were a questionnaire (closed ended questions) for academic staff (teachers) and an interview guide for administrators (principals and bursars). The sample for this study consisted of 302 teachers and 24 principals/bursar. The proportionate stratified sampling and purposive sampling techniques was adopted for the study. Data from close ended questions was analysed using SPSS 23.0, with the aid of descriptive and inferential statistical tools while the interview was analysed thematically. The Spearman’s rho was used to test the research hypotheses formulated for the study. Findings reviled that students’ admission files play a role on the effective management of secondary schools and that students’ attendance registers play a role on the effective management of secondary schools. Hypothetically, there is a positive significant, relationship between students’ records keeping and the effective management of secondary schools with (R-value =0.129*, p-value < .025 < 0.05). The positive sign of the correlation value implies that the management of students’ records will contribute to a certain extent in the effective management of secondary schools. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that students’ records especially admission files if completely compiled immediately at the beginning of the school year may be of great impact to the records management system of the school and effective management of the school.