An Automated Record Management System for a Modern-Day Class Teacher at Sutton Mine Primary School.

Abstract

Since time immemorial the teacher has been burdened with too many activities yet expected to perform optimally. The effect of burden on the classroom teacher is drastic reduction in teacher-leaner contact time. The manual design and maintenance of class record books by the teacher has always been a taxing and time intensive process. The manual system of collecting and processing information has been largely ununiform and of less meaningful consequences to the teaching process. The process has been riddled with inconsistencies, data redundance, exposure to confidentiality violations, fragmentation of records and numerous other ills associated with the manual information systems. However, albeit the importance of data in this day and age, there has never been any initiative to transform the class record books processing. At Sutton Mine Primary School, there are 12 qualified teachers who are also not spared by the scourge of record books generating and maintenance. It was found out that on average, a teacher spends at least a week developing class record books for each new year. This amount of time multiplied by 12 will be 24 weeks of wasted valuable teaching time or 400 learners deprived of two weeks of uninterrupted learning. Realising this injustice, the purpose for this study therefore is to offer a modern way to revolutionise the class record system by leveraging on technological advancements to computerise the process. An integrated class records system which is electronic in nature is being suggested as the solution to problems associated with manual class records keeping. This system is specifically for the teacher and may be describe as transaction processing system for the operational level of the school system. Thus, the project takes the form of an action research because it basically involves identifying a problem and attempting to offer a solution for it. The Sutton Mine Primary School has a stuff compliment of 12 from which a sample of 8 teachers was taken for the data creation or acquisition process. At data aggregation level the data collected was consolidate before it was analysed in the requirements specification phase of the project. The data analysis then paved the way for the design phase before the actual development took place. The solution, termed Integrated Class Records System (InClaRS) was finally developed and put to different test scenarios. After passing the software acid test, the system was finally deployed pending maintenance and further development. It was sufficiently conclusive that the solution offered did achieved its intended purpose.