Abstract

Record keeping is the area of administrative management that is concerned with achieving economy and efficiency in the creation, maintenance, use and disposal of records of an organization throughout its life cycle. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of record keeping in secondary schools in Buea. In so doing, a descriptive research design was used and a sample of 50 respondents (teachers and administrators) was selected from three (3) secondary schools.

The instrument for data collection comprised of a questionnaire and an interview. The finding of the study revealed that the record keeping practices in secondary schools among others are: documents kept in cupboards labeled on their subject matter, vital information stored in the compact disc, and information saved in the computer system.

The study also revealed that challenges such as unstable power supply, untimely supply of records and inadequate knowledge on the use of modern technology among others are some of the difficulties faced in the process of record keeping.  Also, seminars, workshops, ongoing schooling, conferences, use of record manuals, use of computers, external hard drives and duplication of documents  were the opinions of respondents on strategies to enhance record keeping.

The study therefore recommends that  school authorities together with the delegation of secondary education should increase the number of seminars organized within schools, aimed at training personnnel on record keeping; The Ministry of Secondary Education should install solar energy panel with high capacity as an alternative means of power supply; Secondary school principals should install  Strong anti-virus such as Norton and AVG anti-virus on the computers directed in carrying out record-keeping activities. The study also recommends that secondary education providers should install surveillance cameras around the school to increase the security of record keeping.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Back in the 1930s, many educational institutions had no formal record keeping programs, and most recording was done on papers without proper filing and classification. Many schools kept records in whatever form they felt appropriate without the benefit of retention schedules, deposition guidelines or other formal information life-cycle procedures. Need arose based on government regulations, auditing and internal assessment programs to manage massive volume of records.

Records originated in the ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. Priests who were the administrators in the Mesopotamia economy, kept detailed record of royal activities, crops, stock and commercial transactions (Schubert and Lee, 1983). “Cuneiform writing, wedged-shaped character impressed upon soft clay tablets, was used to record the activities of the time” (Krevolin, 1986).

It is interesting to note that these unwieldy clay tablets were the forerunner present day, sophisticated electronic equipment used for managing records. Written records were mandated by Babylonian law for all institutions (Krevolin, 1986). Written records eventually spread worldwide. The Phoenicians, the great leaders of ancient world, kept detail business record and a simple system of double-entry and book keeping.

As records grew in volume, repositories for their safe keeping were established. Within these repositories records were preserved and arranged in order to facilitate their access and retrieval (Abbot, 1999). Shortly after the French revolution, the national, assembly inn France established what was to become the first national archives repository in any country (Hare and McLeod 1997). This was in recognition that the protection of civil and personal right is enriched in public record and that public records define the relationship between the people and the government.

In 1934, Theodore Schellenberg of the national archive of USA invented the lifecycle concept (Shepherd & Yeo, 2003:5). This concept provided the cornerstone on which modern record keeping is built. The huge logistic operation of World War Two (WW II) were responsible for the explosion of paper work, in both the private and public sector. This result to an increase need for individuals who could establish the requirement and device the policies, strategies and systems so that information could be recorded and stored and made available when it was needed in an appropriate format.

Educational institutions are creating records to help their operations. However, if these records are not kept properly the will not provide the necessary support and information might be lost causing problems for the institutions. Records should be properly kept to provide an efficient and effective administration that guarantees organization operate as efficient as necessary. Record play a significant role in school management commencing its establishment to the stages of development, implementation, evaluation and renewal of its operations and these are essential information for the continuous survival of the institutions.

In the conceptual background we have concepts like; effectiveness which has been defined as the extent to which objectives are met (Erlendsson, 2002).  Record keeping has been defined by Cambridge English Dictionary as the activity of organizing and storing all the documents, files and invoices etc. relating to a company’s or organization’s activities. Record keeping in secondary schools at first was done only manually which led to the misplacement of some school records. Advancement in technology has improved on record keeping in many secondary schools in Buea as schools can easily store information or data using the computer, hard drives, flash, among others and easy retrieval of information when needed.

Looking at the importance of record keeping and its impact to institution’s development and growth in educational institutions, this study will seek to explore the challenges of record keeping and describe record keeping practices in secondary school Buea.

Theoretically, this study can be explained using the record continuum and the record life cycle theory. The record continuum theory was developed by Ian Maclean in the 1990s and published Upward an Australian record keeping scholar, an archival practitioner and later an academic who has played a leading role in shaping Australian archival theory. The theory acknowledges the central role that record-keeping activities have on the creation, capture, organization and ongoing management of record over time and throughout spaces such as organizations and institutional archives.

The life cycle theory for managing record was developed in the United State National archivist in the 1930s. This theory portrays the life of a record as going through various stages or phases much like living organism the stages includes; record creation, maintenance and use,  and deposition. The theory helps organization in effectively managing and maintains records from creation to deposition, ensuring that important records are accessible any time and improving compliance with various rules and regulations.

The study was carried out in Buea which is a town in the South West Region of Cameroon.

Statement of the Problem

As the world is changing, the evolution of technology and modernization are inevitable and we can observe that the things around us are altered. Most often, information or records are not regarded as an essential resource that may affect the effectiveness of schools. This is as a result of the absence of legislative instrument (record keeping policy) to regulate the keeping of records in these institutions.

More so, ignorance has engulfed staffs who are involved in record keeping to the extent that records are moved from one office to the other, where the staffs do not have adequate skills to perform properly classification and filing of school records, time wastage in retrieving documents and loss of vital documents. This causes a halt in operations, mistrust and incurs cost to both the institution and its clients hence the situation must be addressed.

Many principals have complained of falsification of data among staff, and several times, supervisors from the ministry of education and local government education authority have also recorded high falsification of school data by school heads and teachers. For instance it has been observed that principal/school heads do not often provide accurate number of students’ enrollment during P.T.A levy account, among others which in the end affects education planning.

The aforementioned are some of the problems of record keeping in schools that necessitated this study; therefore, this study will attempt to describe the practices and strategies for effect record keeping in secondary school in Buea.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of record keeping in secondary school in Buea.

Specifically, the study tends to:

1. Describe record-keeping practices amongst Secondary Schools in Buea.
2. Identify strategies used by school principals to enhance record keeping.
3. Analyze challenges involved in the process of record keeping in Secondary Schools in Buea.

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