Data management practices of head teachers in kosofe education zone

Thesis Overview

<p> <strong>INTRODUCTION</strong><strong><br>Background of the Study<br>One of the most serious setback to educational development in<br>Nigeria is none availability of data or lack of authenticity where available<br>Nwagwu, 2003). In the blue print put forward by the implementation<br>committee on the National Policy on Education (2004) it was noted that:<br>Difficulties are encountered in Nigeria in obtaining such basic data like<br>the population of students, the population of teachers, the number of<br>instructional materials available in schools, tile number of school building<br>to be renovated and many others (lgwe, 2004). The state ministries of<br>education lack accurate data which affects its policies and programmes<br>and this is as a result of fabricated data supplied to the ministry by the<br>school head teachers (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004). According to<br>Ikpe (2002), statistical data on educational expenditure are not always<br>available and if available, they do not give a sufficient breakdown to<br>make the data valuable for most planning purposes in the ministry of<br>education. Uyanga (1993), opined that educational planners all over the<br>developed economics of the world, sets future educational target based on<br>objectives identification, peoples aspiration, problems of the society,<br>needs and gaps in the field of education. This is made possible through a<br>careful examination of the past and present efforts of stakeholders in<br>1<br>2<br>education. In the absence of data, the said examination degenerates into<br>“the rule of thumb”. Aghenta (2000), put it (hat most data obtained from<br>head teachers are not factual but ambiguous, they are not accessible on<br>demand and this has caused failures in some programmes carried out by<br>the government. The administrators of the current Universal Basic<br>Education (UBE) programme needs accurate data to be able to plan,<br>organize and administer the programmes effectively. They are bound to<br>take various decisions which should he useful to the children, school<br>system and the society. This is decision sometimes becomes impossible<br>in the context of accurate data. From the above observation it is<br>imperative that there is need for data management awareness to the head<br>teachers who are the custodians of data in their various schools in<br>Nigeria.<br>Data are simply referred to as statistics. Data are numerical<br>measures of phenomena and they are used in the process of scientific<br>decision making.</strong> <br></p>