1.0 Background of the Study According to Ekanem, (2005), the school Federal Polytechnic, Auchi was foundedin 1973 by the mid-western state of Nigeria. It was an off shoot of the former mid-western technical college established in 1954 as a gift of British government tomid-western state of Nigeria. The polytechnic took off as a multi campusinstitution with its headquarters (main campus) in Benin City, Edo state. The nameof the institution was changed from mid-western Polytechnic in 1973 and itsheadquarters moved back to Auchi a year later. However after a careful study ofthe problems of the institution, the government in 1976 decided to restructure thepolytechnic to a single campus institution based on extended campus at Auchi.Above all, the name was changed from Auchi Polytechnic Auchi to FederalPolytechnic, Auchi in 1993 by the federal government and since then, new coursewere introduced and dully accredited by the national board of technicaleducation(NBTE) both at ND and HND levels. Hence, the department of computerscience was introduced that same year. Also, since the existence of the school results (data) have been processedmanually. I have chosen to make a research or analysis with respect to processingthe department result (data) with an overview of computerization of the manual1
processing that have hitherto been used. Manual processing has its disadvantageenumerated below:There is usually delay in manual method of processing of result ever since thecreation of the department of computer science (Pena-Lopez, 2007).Events have shown that the department students enrolment have increased appreliable with of course a corresponding numbers of grandaunts. The students needtheir result (records) from time to time while grandaunts required their record forofficial duties or further studies is clear therefore that to meet this demand, thedepartment required comprehensive and updated records.The manual method of processing result (data) may be an alternative to acomputerized system. But it is a known fact that the manual method is of course atedious job. Where fatigue can come in and thus we say that the method is prone toerrors (Stella, 2004). Another good reason in the use of computer is that the department will be providedwith a good filling system that will enable them meet emergency situation andhence better services.Computerization of results (data) will enhance access flexibility. The computerscan access data easily and efficiently than in manual processing.Preventing unauthorized users access to the system. The users of computer inprocessing results will enhance file security. It protects data from illegal user.2
Again, the information stored in the computer memory can retain there for a verylong time. Above all the use of computers in computerization of students result is practicallythe best computational process for computing student results’ results.1.2 Statement of ProblemThe following are some of the problems encountered while using the manualmethod for course registration and result processing. A lot of time is wasted due to large volume of data processing that isinvolved and the method used computation. Inability to handle or process a large number of student data results in errorsin students result. The exercise is cumbersome and tedious Delay in the process of computation(Time Constraint) More man power are required The process of updating is tedious (it requires going through each studentrecord one after the other) Error due to over sight.From the above problem, a goal was set by the researcher to solve the problems ofmanual or conventional method of result processing and convert it into an3
automated system for better, effective, and accurate computation of students resultin Federal polytechnic Auchi