Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 137 ASSESSING THE SATISFACTION OF STUDENTS STUDYING AT ADAMAWA STATE POLYTECHNIC, YOLA By Bulama H. James Department of Computer Science ABSTRACT The customer satisfaction has been interpreted by several scholars in the past. We do not criticize or apprise anyone. However, there is one common motivating factor in understanding customer satisfaction of any group or organization; that it can help in bringing up the performance. We strongly favour that there do exist a trade-off between customer satisfaction and productivity. For the students of Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, the expectations are huge and a number of them are even beyond the reach of the management to fulfil. Therefore, it is imperative to understand their expectations first and then perceptions. Therefore, we have used one of the most renowned technique; SERVQUAL, to understand the gaps between expectations and perceptions. Also, it helped us distinguish tangible and intangible needs of the students. During the interviews, we clearly realized that a majority of them are comparing the polytechnic with institutions that are outside the country and are independent for over 100 years and are part of countries which are fully developed. Therefore, it is meaningless to compare with these institutions at this stage at least in terms of infrastructure and other tangible developments. However, there were a number of issues which the researcher clearly understands as the issues of management and can be handled and controlled with proper governance. Some of the issues, such as “escalation free fee structure”, “conducting exams on time”, “and providing necessary help on time” are basic issues which students have highlighted under reliability. Therefore, it will be very nice to see if a large sample has a similar opinion and then Polytechnic management has to make significant changes even if requires some investment. Also, the responses highlighted in the quantitative analysis brought some very trivial issues, such as drug addiction, thefts, late admissions and admissions of non-qualified students, inexperienced lecturers, etc. These issues are very much in control of the management to handle. However, some new policies, decisions have to be taken by the management to rectify these issues. Overall, as a researcher on the study, I would strongly recommend that small positive steps if taken on continuous basis will lead to monumental changes for the polytechnic. It is understandable that the Polytechnic faces a tough financial situation. The only task for the management is to validate that the things highlighted by a group of few students is actually at large throughout the institute. Adamawa State Polytechnic has to come up with a plan to handle the issues raised in this study. Based on the seriousness of the issues and available funds, the issues have to be prioritized. Key words: Expectation, Perception, service quality, satisfaction INTRODUCTION The Polytechnic, as other institutions has a number of issues and among all those issues; the issue of student's satisfaction & high number of non-accredited program are the ones which the management deserves immediate attention.
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Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 137
ASSESSING THE SATISFACTION OF STUDENTS STUDYING AT ADAMAWA STATE
POLYTECHNIC, YOLA
By
Bulama H. James
Department of Computer Science
ABSTRACT
The customer satisfaction has been interpreted by several scholars in the past. We do not
criticize or apprise anyone. However, there is one common motivating factor in understanding
customer satisfaction of any group or organization; that it can help in bringing up the
performance. We strongly favour that there do exist a trade-off between customer satisfaction
and productivity. For the students of Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, the expectations are
huge and a number of them are even beyond the reach of the management to fulfil. Therefore,
it is imperative to understand their expectations first and then perceptions. Therefore, we
have used one of the most renowned technique; SERVQUAL, to understand the gaps between
expectations and perceptions. Also, it helped us distinguish tangible and intangible needs of
the students. During the interviews, we clearly realized that a majority of them are comparing
the polytechnic with institutions that are outside the country and are independent for over 100
years and are part of countries which are fully developed. Therefore, it is meaningless to
compare with these institutions at this stage at least in terms of infrastructure and other
tangible developments. However, there were a number of issues which the researcher clearly
understands as the issues of management and can be handled and controlled with proper
governance. Some of the issues, such as “escalation free fee structure”, “conducting exams
on time”, “and providing necessary help on time” are basic issues which students have
highlighted under reliability. Therefore, it will be very nice to see if a large sample has a
similar opinion and then Polytechnic management has to make significant changes even if
requires some investment. Also, the responses highlighted in the quantitative analysis brought
some very trivial issues, such as drug addiction, thefts, late admissions and admissions of
non-qualified students, inexperienced lecturers, etc. These issues are very much in control of
the management to handle. However, some new policies, decisions have to be taken by the
management to rectify these issues. Overall, as a researcher on the study, I would strongly
recommend that small positive steps if taken on continuous basis will lead to monumental
changes for the polytechnic. It is understandable that the Polytechnic faces a tough financial
situation. The only task for the management is to validate that the things highlighted by a
group of few students is actually at large throughout the institute. Adamawa State Polytechnic
has to come up with a plan to handle the issues raised in this study. Based on the seriousness
of the issues and available funds, the issues have to be prioritized.
Key words: Expectation, Perception, service quality, satisfaction
INTRODUCTION
The Polytechnic, as other institutions has a number of issues and among all those issues; the
issue of student's satisfaction & high number of non-accredited program are the ones which
the management deserves immediate attention.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 138
The institute has nineteen accredited programs out of the seventy-nine programs offered
(excluding Consultancy and Preliminary programs). The researcher seeks to assess the
satisfaction of the students studying across all departments for both accredited and non-
accredited programs. The satisfaction levels will be assessed using SERVQUAL (Service
Quality), one of the most popular techniques in assessing service quality gaps.
The data will be collected through structured and unstructured interviews with students and
Lecturers. In case of students, they will be asked to rate their expectations on a number of
services and products should be offered by the polytechnics in general and then their
perception on the similar services and products offered by Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola
will be captured through the survey.
Further, the students and Lecturers will participate in a number of unstructured interviews
which will lead to qualitative analysis which can help the management draw more meaningful
understanding of the entire situation at the polytechnic.
Aim and objectives of the study
The research aims to help the working committee to make strategic changes in the overall
functioning of the polytechnic and improve on the already built reputation in the state and
country at large. The problem discussed in this research has been an old problem faced by
polytechnic for more than a decade and would like to correct it to a certain degree through
this research study.
▪ Assess the satisfaction of the existing students with the polytechnic on all 5 elements
covered in the SERVQUAL study.
▪ Identify pain areas and suggest the best possible solutions to improve the satisfaction
of the students.
▪ Identify issues from teachers' perspective.
Strategic & Administrative Importance
The research work will strategically help the polytechnic correct/change some of the
existing policies related with the administration. The management may wish to review some
of its decisions, such as starting late evening classes, make-shift accommodation for students
who gets late to go home while studying, to and fro transportation from a few important
areas, construction of a new facilities area, and a dedicated placements department to help
the students in getting recruited to their preferred area of profession; introduction of
Polytechnics' new “code of conduct”, to manage drug addiction, theft issues, dressing code
among others.
Administratively, qualitative interviews from Lecturers and students will help the polytechnic
to get rid of the areas where it (polytechnic) has been spending more resources and time but
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 139
with minimal marginal benefit. These areas can be slightly ignored and freed resources can
be utilized to focus on more demanding and trivial issues.
SERVQUAL Findings:
The analysis of students' satisfaction at the Polytechnic is done using a popular
performance measurement technique called SERVQUAL. It is a multiple item scale for
measuring perception and expectations of the targeted respondents on a number of service
quality dimensions. Using 22-item instrument, SERVQUAL technique helps in identifying
gaps in the service quality. A large sample of 55 interviews is used to collect data for the
SERVQUAL analysis. The data is collected through online survey hosted on Survey Monkey,
one of the largest surveys hosting company. The data collected through the survey forms the
basis of SERVQUAL findings.
The 22-point SERVQUAL instrument covers a number of service dimensions to quantify,
compare and analyse the difference in the students' expectations and perceptions on service
quality. A rating scale of 1 to 7 is used to understand students' agreement with the service.
General Dimensions of Service Quality (SERVQUAL)
On a generic basis, the students were asked to rate the importance of service quality
dimensions, such as tangibles, assurance, responsiveness, reliability, and empathy in the
beginning of the survey. The students quoted different weights for each service dimension
making sure that the total should add up to 100. It helped the researcher in quantifying the
importance of each dimension against the other dimensions. This also helps to compare the
results of the same dimensions when asked in a different way through the 22 statements asked
in the second part of the survey. To improve the understanding of the students on each service
dimension, the attributes of each service dimension was highlighted in the survey:
Tangibles: It accounts for physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel.
Reliability: It is the ability of the firm to conduct the promised service dependably and
accurately.
Responsiveness: Willingness of the polytechnic to help students and provide prompt service.
Assurance (including competence, courtesy, credibility and security): It constitutes the
knowledge and ability of the staff to inspire trust and confidence.
Empathy (including access, communication, understanding the students): The individualized
attention given by the polytechnic to the students.
(Adapted from Parasurman A, Zeithaml Valerie A, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992)
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 140
The average scores are illustrated in the figure below:
General Dimensions of Service Quality (Contd...)
The students of Adamawa State Polytechnic have clearly pointed out that reliability is the
most important factor in the service delivery for them. A majority of the courses are not
accredited and the management considers that the concern of the students is justified as the
Polytechnic has a number of non-accredited programs diluting students' confidence in the
study at the Polytechnic. Also, most of the programs run by the polytechnic are professional
courses which make the students more conscious about reliability of the program as they
directly lead to employment after the course. Therefore, students have expressed higher
expectations in the reliability index.
Assurance has also been rated very highly by the students among the other service
dimensions. The students demand assurance from the polytechnic management on both the
academic courses and their usefulness in the employment. A lot of students study in the
polytechnic to acquire skills that can immediately help them secure a job after the completion
of the course. Therefore, a high rating on assurance is justified.
Responsiveness is also rated high on the index. The students concern for responsiveness
is reasonable as it facilitates the students in completing the program effectively and in the
timely manner.
The results pointed out that tangibles' is not a very important dimension for the students as
they have rated the dimension lowest among all other dimensions. A number of students in
the polytechnic are concerned about the success of their enrolled program than the tangibles
benefits from the Polytechnic. Also, the students understand that the country's overall
infrastructure is weak but growing. Therefore, the expectations are lower on the building and
other tangible attributes.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 141
Empathy is also another dimension which is not rated higher by the students. There can be
multiple reasons for this response. Some of the students expect that the polytechnic knows
the ground issues and therefore the expectations are slightly lower. On the contrary, Ladhari,
(2008) highlights that people rate their expectations lower on certain service dimensions if
those are met. A number of students might also think that the polytechnic is giving attention
to the students especially the lecturers who are expected to know each student performance
in the class.
Expectations Scores
All the students were asked 22 statements on expectations in the beginning of the survey.
This was important to understand the expectations of the students from the polytechnic in
general so that the quality of service from the Adamawa State Polytechnic can be
benchmarked. The graph highlighted below show the results of this section:
Figure 2: Dimension weights
The expectations of the polytechnic students are consistent across all the service
dimensions. The students rated all the dimensions in the range of 5.0 to 5.4. “Assurance”
has been rated as the top most service dimension by the students. Being a professional
institution, students do expect assurance from the polytechnic on a number of aspects such as
job prospects, international quality standards, quality of education, etc. All these elements
will shape the future of each of the student at the Polytechnic. Therefore, high expectations
on this dimension are understandable.
The appearance of tangibles high up in the table suggested that the student expectations
are significantly high on the physical aspects and infrastructure of the institutions as well.
The Polytechnic has made several improvements in the past which has significantly improved
the look and feel of the campus – many are ongoing. Therefore, we might see a small gap in
tangibles when we compare with the perceptions.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 142
Responsiveness', empathy, and reliability have been rated lower at 5 and 5.1. The
students' expectations on these aspects are lower. There can be a number of reasons for this
development. Either, the students' requirement has been met well on these fronts or they
know that it is difficult for the institutions to score high on these elements due to lack of
government support and country's overall limited resources and infrastructure.
Also, it has been quoted by experts that the expectations get lower when the needs are
being met in those particular areas (Ladhari. 2008). Therefore, there can be a mix of reasons
for this response from the students.
Gap scores
The gap scores are calculated using the GAP model (Parasuraman et al.1985). When we
subtract the expectation scores from the perception scores, it gives us the difference (also
called gap) in the expectations and perceptions. The results are highlighted below:
Figure 3: Average percentage gap breakdown by dimensions
Adamawa State Polytechnic students have expressed mixed feeling for the institution.
Although, they have clearly highlighted that their expectations on the top-quality element,
reliability are not met adequately whereas Assurance, another service quality element rated
higher by the students on the expectations, has been met adequately as shown in the figure
above.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 143
The students have expressed deep concern on “reliability” as a service quality dimension.
The gap reported in reliability is 14% which is highest among all the other dimensions. The
students have highlighted concerns on the reliability of the software offered by the institution.
(As highlighted by the students for statement, “Adamawa State Polytechnic students can
download a number of software services free of cost at the click of a button from the online
portal of the polytechnic”). Some of the other main statements where the gap has been
significantly higher are “Adamawa State Polytechnic has a consistent process of admissions
with escalation free fees structure and entry requirements do not change overnight” and
“Adamawa State polytechnic conducts all programs in a timely manner and adhere to all
important dates and schedules as promised to the students”. The students have also raised
concern over the reliability of exam schedules and other important program dates.
Responsiveness' is another very important service quality dimension where the gap has been
significantly higher. Yola has been very slow on a number of aspects related with
responsiveness. Statements such as, “The administrative services of Adamawa State
Polytechnic are prompt and highly responsive. Students can change their accommodation
place, class, or can avail other administrative services without any hassle in a quick time”
have received very low scores. It clearly shows that there are administrative issues leading
to dissatisfaction of students. Although, students have highlighted that the institution have
been successful in maintaining students' record (as highlighted in statement, “Adamawa State
Polytechnic keeps student's record as well as the other course material accurate, up-to-date,
and conveniently accessible to students even from a remote location”) and giving them remote
access using latest software. It shows that the Polytechnic is not too responsive to technology
to that extent, which prompted the students queries on Administration not being real-time
responsive to their requirements.
The negative gap of 10% in empathy as a service dimension is also an area of concern. One
of the major points where the gap scores have been significantly higher is the financial support
to the students from the institution. There was a significant gap of 38% on one of empathy
statement, “Adamawa State Polytechnic award scholarships to the needy students, and keep
low fees levels and provide financial aid to students”
There are a number of students at the Polytechnic who hails from small villages expecting
scholarships as they come from economically weaker families. However, the polytechnic has
not been able to consistently award scholarships to needy students which have diluted
students' confidence in the institution's financial aid programs.
The respondent reported gap in service dimension, tangibles at 7.5%. Some of the important
areas where the gaps were significant include: infrastructure of the institution, variety and
range of programs, student’s health & safety, and accounting standards. Students have raised
concerns in building and infrastructure of the institution. Also, the students have pointed out
that the institution does not have a wide range of courses, which is area of concern for the
students.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 144
Qualitative Analysis: Lecturers “Perspective”
Funding
One pressing issue which has been highlighted repeatedly by the staff across all major
departments are given funds in form of running-cost directly as one of the NBTE's
requirements. The management has complained of some staff of funds misappropriation,
hence to be controlled by the College Directors. However, majority cited this issue as purely
lack of funds – may be/not. The Lecturers claim that most of the departments are over booked
and have more than the stipulated student's strength in each course; but the management has
not complemented this with adequate funding for the departments and excess load
compensation to them (staff). They claim that the management has enough money to
substantiate the issue. However, the management claims another side of the story that the
polytechnic is in crisis and needs more government funding. They are allocating
proportionately to the departments controlled at the various colleges.
Grossly off beam Student – Teacher ratio
Almost, all the students and Staff complained that the classes for every course are over-
crowded and are accommodating students more than the number stipulated in the institution
guidelines. The Staff clearly complained that they find it difficult to focus on every student.
A number of them even cited (I don't even know how many are there and who they are. I
just come and teach and I know that I can't even think of talking to each one of them as it
would probably take me weeks to just say hello to each of them individually) that we do not
end up meeting all the students during the entire course.
Online Library Missing
The staff strongly condemned the management for not creating an online library which
they have been promising for years. The staff demanded some software which gets free
licenses with old applications which often break while working. They complained that the
management shows that it is working towards the problem.
Thefts
There have been numerous cases of burglaries across the institute. Some of the staff even
reported that their staff rooms were mobbed. These activities are more prevalent at night –
Laptops, Desktop computers, Fans in classrooms, food stuff of students even Handsets and
wears are items of high patronage by the thieves. The measures taken by the management of
recent has reduced theft cases.
Infrastructure
The lecturers also complained that the polytechnic buildings are due for renovation. For
over 2 decades, the building has not been renovated. The classes are small and students are
many. The management has been adding additional benches in the classrooms and beds in the
existing hostel rooms which is making the life of the students even more difficult. Its worthy
of note that many infrastructural constructions are on-going – there might be improvement at
later end.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 145
Qualitative Analysis: Students – perspective
Non-qualified students
A lot of students highlighted that the institute crowd comprise a number of non-qualified
students who have managed to enter the polytechnic with entry qualifications that they could
not defend, wasting a lot of time in getting these students up to the mark and often they do
fail at the end of assessment. It clearly leads to dilution in the effort of the Lectures to teach
qualified and intelligent deserving students.
Late admissions
It has been observed that several students suddenly show up in the classes. Generally, these
students are late admissions recruited in the 2nd half of the course. These students' further
make things complicated as they haven't studied from the beginning and often request
lecturers to explain things over and over again. In the end, a number of these students fail.
The management clearly knows this phenomenon but has ignored due to pressure for quest
of admission. They are concerned about getting the admission fee.
Inexperienced Lecturers
A number of students complained about the ability of some Lecturers to teach. They often
get stuck in contradicting statements. Often, they have not been successful in answering
students' questions due to their lack of ability on the subject matter. These cases have been
observed by the entire class but students inform that they often remain quite as they think that
the management will not act and moreover if the Lecture will get to know then he/she will
deduct the marks in the final exams.
Drug Addiction
Drug addiction is rampant among the students and some staff. Lecturers often ignore and
walk-away from such students without taking serious actions. The management if as a policy
can trace the students who get the drugs inside the campus, but no enough commitment on
ground yet. Management is called to take decisive measures to curtail this criminal act.
Conclusion
The overall findings from the SERVQUAL exercise suggested that the gaps between the
expectations and perceptions are not very significant. The Adamawa State Polytechnic has
the opportunity to improve on a number of quality issues to improve the students' satisfaction
levels. One of the most interesting development of this analysis suggested that the students in
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 146
accredited department are not really concerned about the non-accreditation of the courses but
the otherwise.
In fact, the overall results suggested that the satisfaction of the students on this aspect has
been more than the expectations (as per statement, “Adamawa State Polytechnic has most of
its programs accredited and recognized by the government which means students graduating
from the polytechnic have strong trust and confidence in the diploma/degree awarded by the
polytechnic”). This might be an important development for the management. Reviewing the
results of this task, the management might need to rethink their strategy as the students have
shifted their concern from “lack of programs” to “lack of accredited programs” which means
that the students expect that the polytechnic should work towards accrediting more programs
giving them better recognition. Students and Lecturers both expect that the institute should
not lack on technology and issues such as online library and updated software should be heard
and resolved.
The students are also concerned about the IT services especially the software. The Polytechnic
has to find solution to this problem as early as possible as technology is changing at a drastic
pace across the world and educational institutions are expected to adopt them first so that the
students do not feel uncomfortable when they see the same technology at their work place.
There are clear issues on managing things properly. Some of the issues such as drug addiction
can be immediately brought to end to change the image of the institute.
Therefore, with little funds within the budgets, this can be achieved with a few tough
disciplinary actions as well as certain good policies and decisions.
The management can rely on the results as the students answered the SERVQUAL
questionnaire without highlighting any type of personal information. Also, they used
computers in the ICT centre without using their login information to ensure that the identity
of the students is kept confidential. All this was done to ensure that the responses are not
skewed and are in agreement with the real situation at the Polytechnic.
Recommendations
i. More effort to accredit courses that are not accredited.
ii. Develop students' portal to standard.
iii. Speedy completion of E-library for at the desk modern/recent academic resources.
iv. Running-cost to the Heads of Department directly and their activities be monitored.
v. Management to introduce financial aid to the poor and needy students and keep fees
lower.
vi. Provide transportation to and fro for students of identified areas at a subsidized rate.
vii. Staff excess work load be compensated accordingly to keep their moral high.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 147
viii. More surveillance on the activities of thieves, drug pushers/addicts and terrorist actives
on campus.
ix. Additional classrooms, hostels common-rooms and recreational facilities should be
given more attention.
x. Measures be taken to check the entry qualification of the students as many cannot not
measure up with their paper qualification.
xi. Number of students admitted should be reduced to a manageable size.
xii. Inexperience lectures be checked and called to order.
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Gronroos, C. (1984), “A service quality model and its marketing implications”, European
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 18, No. 4, pg. 36-44
Ladhari, R. (2008), “Alternative Measure of Service Quality: A Review”, Journal of
Managing Service Quality, Vol 18, No 1, pg 65-86.
Parasuraman A, Zeithaml Valarie A., & Berry Leonard L (1985), “A Conceptual Model of
Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research”, Journal of Marketing, (Fall),
pg 41-50
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, Valarie. A., & Berry, Leonard. L. (1988). “SERVQUAL: A
multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality”, Journal of
Retailing, Vol. 64, No 1, pg.12-40.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, Valarie. A., and Berry, L.L. (1994), “Alternative scales for
measuring service quality: A comparative assessment based on psychometric and
diagnostic criteria”, Journal of Retailing, Vol 70, No 3, (Spring), pg. 201-230
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. and Berry, L.L. (1994), “Reassessment of expectations as a
comparison standard in measuring service quality: implications for future research”,
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 (January), pg. 111-24.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 148
A REVIEW OF THE IMPACT OF INTERNET BANKING IN FIRST BANK OF NIGERIA PLC
By
Lawal Michael Feyipitan
Department of Banking and Finance
ABSTRACT
For about two decades now in Nigeria, electronic banking is a subject that has been receiving
great attention in the banking industry and among the regulation agencies. And the process
is continuously evolving. The main research instrument used in this study is the two set of
questionnaires administered to bank staffs and bank customers while secondary data were
also used. The simple frequency percentage was adopted as statistical measure. The study
revealed that electronic banking is revolutionizing the banking industry, besides
complementing the traditional physical banking practices and that irrespective of its numerous
advantages there are challenges and problems associated with this form of banking in Nigeria.
The challenges include poorly functioning internet infrastructure and semi-skilled manpower
which sometimes impairs its benefits. It also revealed that patronage of electronic banking is
increasing, and customers satisfaction too is increasing by the day. And despite its challenges
it has led to increased efficiency in the provision of banking services, service cost-reduction
and reduction in time spent by customers when accessing bank services. The biggest
advantage of internet banking is that bank customers can access bank services and products
anywhere to transact business without having to personally visit the bank. When small
transactions like balance enquiry, record of recent transactions, etc are to be processed, the
internet banking facilities proves to be very handy. It concluded that internet banking is fast
bringing about increase in banking activities in Nigeria, improving our banking culture and
consequently assisting in promoting economic growth and development. In the light of the
identified challenges, the study recommended that banks should do more in creating
awareness, continue to send their IT staffs for more training on internet banking to minimizing
or totally eliminate infrastructure failure current users are complaining about.
INTRODUCTION
The economy of most developing countries is cash driven. This means that monetary
transactions are basically made through the exchange of bank notes and coins for goods and
services. Nigeria is largely a cash-based economy with over 90% of funds residing outside
the banking sector as against the developed world where the money in circulation is 4% and
9% in the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) respectively (Ojo,
2004 and Ovia, 2003). The cash base economy is characterized by the psychology to
physically hold and touch cash. However, this trend is gradually giving way to a modern and
sophisticated payment system where currency and notes are converted to data which are in
turn transmitted through telephone lines and satellite transponders. Business organizations
especially the banking industry of the 21st century operates in a complex and competitive
environment characterized by changing factors and highly unpredictable climate. Laudon and
Laudon (1991) contend that banks cannot ignore information system because it plays a critical
role in their competitive edge both locally and globally, they point out that most banks' cash
flow is linked to their adoption of information system. The adoption of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) in the banking sector is generally referred to as electronic
banking (E-banking) and the application of its concepts, techniques, policies, and
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 149
implementation strategies to banking services has become a subject of fundamental
importance and concerns to all banks and indeed a pre-requisite for local and global
competitiveness because, it directly affects the management decisions, plan and products and
services to be offered by banks. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the
automation of process, controls and information production using computers,
telecommunication, software and ancillary equipment such Automated Teller Machine and
Debit Cards. It is a term that generally covers the harnessing of electronic technology for the
information needs of a business at all levels. Laudon and Laudon (2001), assert that
Information and Communication Technology deals with the physical devices and software
that link various computer hardware components and transfer data from one physical location
to another. Harold and Jeff (1995) contend that financial service providers should modify
their traditional operating practices to remain viable in the 1990s and decades that follow.
Woherem (2000) claims that only banks that overhaul the whole of their payment and delivery
systems and apply Information and Telecommunication Technology to their operations are
likely to survive and prosper in the new millennium. Information and Communication
Technology has provided self-service facilities (automated customer service machine) from
where prospective customers can complete their account opening direct online. It assists
customers to validate their account numbers and receive instruction on when and how to
receive their cheque books, credit and debit cards. According to Report of Technical
Committee on e-banking (CBN, 2003), e-banking can be defined as a means whereby banking
business is transacted using automated processes and electronic devices such as personal
computers, telephones, facsimiles, Internet, card payments and other electronic channels. E-
banking is a kind of banking that involves electronic form of money transmission. Here,
banking services are fully automated such that transactions are concluded in a jiffy. He further
states that, e-banking involves the use of computer network in dispensing cash and transfer
of funds.
The following issues and problems constitute part of the operating environment which this
research intend to address:
i. The vulnerability of banks to potential risk of virus attacks; unauthorized access,
fraudulent transactions and theft on adoption of electronic banking in the Nigerian
environment
ii. The deployment of e-banking in the Nigerian rural areas is facing great challenges as
the noble objective behind the deployment seem to be failing.
iii. The unavailability of bank and internet network in rural areas.
iv. The problem of insecurity and congestion of internet.
v. The existing business environment also poses some challenges to the smooth operation
of electronic banking in Nigeria e.g. epileptic power supply, dominance of cash
transactions in the economy and the low level of awareness among Nigerians.
Objectives of the study:
i. The primary objective of the research work is to get users acquainted with the full
nature of internet banking and its benefits.
ii. To highlight and analyse the challenges in e-banking.
iii. To suggest ways of tackling the challenges facing the use of internet banking.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 150
This research work will be of great significance to the following class of people:
i. Banks, financial institutions and various business establishments. This research work
adds to the enlightenment of these class of people on the challenges of internet
banking.
ii. The outcome of this research work will be of tremendous enlightenment and benefits
to current and potential beneficiaries of e-banking, students and future researchers.
The problems encountered in the course of carrying out this work include:
i. Time and financial constraint which limited the scope of coverage.
ii. Environmental constraint i.e. the environment in which the study was carried out was
restrictive as getting respondents respond to the administered questionnaire was a
challenge, coupled with the challenge of insecurity and dearth of literature.
Literature review
The internet is rapidly turning out to be a tool of world-wide communication. The
increasing use of internet earlier promoted producers and entrepreneurs, being used to sell
their products online. It has also become an important source of information and knowledge.
Due to these, many banking and finance organizations have come up with the idea of internet
banking or online banking.
The concept of internet banking has been simultaneously evolving with the development
of the world wide web. Programmers working on banking database came up with the idea of
on line banking transactions, sometimes during the 1980s. The creative process of
development of these services was probably sparked off after many companies started the
concept of online shopping. The online shopping promoted the use of credit card through
internet. Many banking organizations started creating data warehousing facilities to ease their
working staff. The development of these database was widely used during the development
of automated teller machines (ATMs). Sometimes in 1980s, banking and finance
organizations in Europe and United States started suggestive researches and programming
experiment on the concept of home banking. Basically, they made use of fax machines and
telephones to facilitate customers' transactions. The wide spread of internet and programming
facilities created further opportunities for development of home banking.
Nigeria started the long and tortuous journey in November, 1990 when Société Générale bank
launched their first Automated Teller Machine. Agboola (2002) discusses the dimensions in
which automation in the banking industry manifests in Nigeria and a limited of these include:
i. Automated Payment Systems - Devices used here are: Automated teller machine.
According to Idowu (2005), the introduction of this machine serves as the genesis and
bedrock of electronic banking. It has been a common feature in the United Kingdom,
France and Japan banking system, but Nigeria never had experience until Société
Générale Bank blazed the trail in November 1990. Then it was popularly referred to
as "cash point 24" at their Broad Street and Apapa Branches.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 151
ii. Electronic cards - These are:
a. Credit cards. These are plastic cards encoded with electromagnetic identification -The
card is incorporated with circuit on which value is loaded and customers can use the
card to carry out transactions on the ATMs deployed by the issuing banks at strategic
locations as well as point of sale terminals with designated signs of the producer of
such card. Among the companies that are offering this service to banks are Visa
International, which is the leading payment solution system with presence in about
120 countries globally, the Master Card Inc. which is also the second largest credit
card brand.
b. Debit card. This is an electronic card with very advanced feature including the use of
microchip, whereby transaction is validated against the chip rather than a magnetic
stripe. Among the companies that are offering this service to banks are also Visa
international, Master card incorporated and an indigenous company called Smart
Switch Nigeria Ltd.
iii. Automated Delivery Channels - These include:
a. On-line banking. This product basically allows a customer to transact business in any
branch, irrespective of the branch his/her account is domiciled.
b. Internet banking. This refers to the worldwide connection of networks that enables
communication with other entities and individual around the world. It is a super
network connecting millions of computers around the world via telephone lines, cables
and satellite. The World Wide Web otherwise called website is a gateway to accessing,
organizing and moving through the information on the Internet. Every website has an
address is called Uniform Resources Location (URL). To get to any website, the
internet address must be typed in the space for the URL (http://....) entry in the web
browser and having entered the address, one can then use the "search engine" to locate
the required information. Example of website of some banks include:
− First Bank of Nigeria Plc- http:/www.firstbankingeria-com
− Zenith International Bank -Plc http:/www.zenithbank.com
iv. Telephone banking (tel-banking) - This service allows bank's customers to access
banking service via dedicated telephone lines from the comfort of homes, offices etc.
As at present, account balance could be checked, authorized inter-branch money
transfer, transaction alert (withdrawal or savings) and enquiry can be made through
telephone.
From the foregoing, it can be safely deduced that electronic banking can be referred to as
Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), which is simply the use of electronic means to transfer funds
directly from one account to another, rather than by cheque or cash. You can use electronic
funds transfer to:
i. Instruct your bank or credit union to automatically pay certain monthly bills from
your account such as your auto loan or your mortgage payment basic
ii. Use your computer and personal finance software to co-ordinate your total personal
financial management process, integrating data and activities related to your income,
spending, savings, investing, record keeping, bill-payment and taxes, along with basic
financial analysis and decision making.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 152
iii. Use a smart card with a prepaid amount of money embedded in it for use instead of
cash at an expressway road toll, or on college campuses, at the library's photocopy
machine or books stores (Edet, 2008).
Internet banking uses the internet as delivery channel for banking services, including
traditional banking services such as account balance enquiry, printing statement, fund transfer
to another account and bills payment (Frustlang and Nolle, 2000) and the new banking service
such as electronic regular payments and direct credit for salaries.
According to Adewuyi, (2011) as banks increased response to e-banking needs in Nigeria
coupled with the supervisory role of Central Bank of Nigeria, it became inevitable to set up
the Technical Committee on e-banking in 2003 and also the formulation of guidelines on e-
banking based on the report submitted by the committee in the same year (2003). The
guidelines put in place include the following:
i. Restriction of issuance of e-money products to only licensed banks under the
supervisory purview of the CBN or eligible subsidiary companies of it.
ii. Any bank or company intending to serve as issuer of e-money to seek and obtain prior
clearance and approval of CBN.
iii. The bank or subsidiary company to submit a detailed feasibility report covering areas
such as the scheme structure, documentation including prototype (sample card)
products, clearing and settlement arrangements, security and system control, float
management business plan and contingency plans i.e. disaster recovery plan and
contingency system.
iv. The promoter of e-products to enter into contractual agreement with the Nigerian Inter
Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) for the clearing and settlement of e-money products.
v. The electronic banking service should be offered in Naira only. Where such a service
is to be provided in foreign currency, it should be to only holders of ordinary
domiciliary accounts and-conform to all other foreign exchange regulations.
vi. Electronic Banking products and services should comply with the Money Laundering
Act 1995 as amended and "Know Your Customer Rules" (KYC).
vii. The CBN, through its Banking Supervision Department would appraise the product
or service as well as the applicant, bank's overall financial condition and its
compliance with the CBN rules and regulations based on the latest available returns
and examination report on the bank.
viii. Banks wishing to provide transactional and /or enhance existing electronic banking
services shall submit to the CBN, an application describing the services to be offered
/enhanced and how it fits into the bank's overall corporate objective and strategy.
ix. To disclose to the CBN and National Drug and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)
any single transaction, lodgement or transfer of funds in excess of N500,000 and
N2million or their equivalent for individuals and corporate bodies respectively in line
with the provisions of Money Laundering Decree 1995.
The main advantages of internet banking therefore are as follows:
i. It saves time spent in banks.
ii. It provides ways for international banking
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 153
iii. It provides banking throughout the year 24/7
iv. It provides well-organized cash management for internet optimization.
v. It provides convenience in terms of labour and time (being all the resources needed
to make a transaction).
vi. Taking advantage of integrated banking service as banks may compete in new
markets, can get new customers and grow their market share.
vii. it provides some security and privacy to customers by using state of the art encryption
and security technologies Idowu (2005) viewed the advantages e-banking in Nigeria
from three (3) perspectives:
a. The Bank
i. Facilitation of decision making
ii. Availability of essential information at finger tips
iii. Improved service delivery
iv. New product development
v. Savings in space and running costs
vi. Relevance among league of global financial institution.
b. The Customer
i. Quality services enjoyed
ii. Great reduction in time being spent in banking halls
iii. Confidentiality
iv. Bank statement, balance etc obtained ease
v. 24/7 service delivery.
vi. Account could be accessed almost anywhere in the world
c. The Economy
i. Creation of jobs and specialization
ii. Improvement in commerce
iii. Technological development
iv. Data bank for National planning
Before the emergence of modern banking system, banking operation was manually done.
This manual system actually led to a slowdown in settlement of transactions. It involved
posting transactions from one ledger to another which humans handled. Figures and counting
of money were computed and counted manually resulting in human errors since humans
cannot be 100% accurate. Most banks then used only one computer in handling transactions
leading to the sluggish nature of banking.
Nigeria did not embrace electronic banking early compared to developed countries.
Nigeria adopted electronic banking system in the early 2000s (Adewuyi, 2011). Before the
introduction of electronic banking system, the use of raw cash was said to have bred
corruption through the “cash and carry syndrome” usually linked with the swift movement
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 154
of “Ghana must go” bags. Some analysts said the bags were a major aid to corrupt practices
as dubious persons sought to bribe their way through to avoid been checked in some sensitive
places (Anyanwaokoro, 2001).
However, the electronic banking in Nigeria came with some challenges. Checks revealed that
for some civil servants, their salaries hardly arrive on time as efforts to electrically transfer
their salaries into their accounts most times fail according to Ibrahim (Feyipitan, 2014). One
bank will tell you it has transferred your salaries but the supposed recipient bank will tell you
it has not received anything leaving you even more confused. Olekah (2009) while
acknowledging the initial hiccups that dogged the system, advised stakeholders against being
discouraged as such “teething problems” are normal.
Telephone banking allows banking transactions in which a customer of a financial institution
can access banking services using a telephone as a link to his financial institution's computer
centre (Anyawaokoro, 2006). Services rendered through telephone banking includes account
balance, funds transfer, change of pin, recharge of phone account and bill payment.
Electronic card, according to Anyanwaokoro (2006) is a physical plastic card that uniquely
identifies the account holder and can be used for financial transactions on the internet,
automated teller machine (ATM) and point-of sales (POS) terminal, to authorize payment to
the merchant (seller). The various types of electronic cards include debit card, credit card,
releasable cards require visiting banks for replenishment. Debit cards are linked to local bank
accounts and offer immediate confirmation of payment while credit cards linked to a credit
line can be used for accessing local and international networks and are widely accepted in
most countries. The underlying infrastructure and operational rules are often provided by
global trusted schemes (such as visa and master card) in addition to local lines. Debit cards
are the dominant card mechanism in Nigeria, they are also known as ATM cards and ATM
usage is wider than POS transactions given the current limited deployment of POS terminals.
Internet banking has created many new challenges for bank management and regulatory
and supervisory authorities. They originate not just from increased potential for cross border
transaction but also for domestic transaction based on technology application which raises
many security related issues (Feyipitan, 2014). The Basel Committee on banking supervisions
Electronic Banking Group (EBG) (2001) has defined risk management principle for electronic
banking. They primarily focus on how to extend, adopt, and tailor the existing risk
management framework to the electronic banking setting. There are serious implications of
internet banking. It is a common argument that low transaction costs potentially make it much
easier to conduct cross-border banking electronically. For many banks, cross-border
operation offers an opportunity to reap economies of scale. Such cooperation may need to be
extended to similar supervisory rules and disclosure requirements (for efficiency and to avoid
regular arbitrage) and some harmonizing of legal, accounting and taxation arrangements. The
flip of this technological boom is that electronic banking is not susceptible to, but exacerbate
some banking risks-particularly governance, legal, and operational banking. In addition, it
poses new challenges for bank management and regulatory and supervisory authorities. In
response many national regulators have already modified their regulation to achieve their
main objectives.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 155
Study Methodology
Methodology refers to those techniques associated with scientific models that elicit responses
to predetermined questions (questionnaire and interview) recording, editing, tabulating a
phenomenal event and performing experiment (Asondolo, 2008).
The population for this study included members of staff of First Bank Nigeria PLC and their
numerous customers. The random sampling was employed while the sample size for the study
is forty (40). The data used in this research work were primarily gotten from administered
and retrieved questionnaires. The questionnaires were self-administered. Meanwhile the
research sourced its secondary data from relevant journals and internet articles to make this
work more meaningful. In analysing and interpreting the data collected for this research
work, tables and percentage (%) techniques employed.
Data Presentation an Analysis
Data Presentation
Total of forty questionnaires were distributed to both customers and employees of First Bank
Yola Branch and all forty were returned answered. Result gotten from the respondents are
presented below in a tabular form for graphic presentation and understanding.
(1) Bank Customer Respondents
Table 1 Do you know about internet banking?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Yes 35 88
No 5 12
Total 40 100
A good number of bank customers are aware of internet banking.
Question 2: Is your bank account made internet complain?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Yes 30 75
No 10 25
Total 40 100
If 88% of bank customers are aware of internet banking and 75% of them have their account
internet compliant, then internet banking is well embraced and fast gaining ground in Nigeria.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 156
Question 3: Do you sometimes have challenges in using the service?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Yes 30 75
No 10 25
Total 40 100
Unfortunately, the entire 75% of our respondents who have their accounts internet compliant
do have challenges sometimes while deploying the service.
Question 4: Are the challenges faced on-and-off thing?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Yes 30 75
No 10 25
Total 40 100
Again, a good number of bank customers regularly face certain challenges while internet
banking.
Question 5: What are some of the challenges?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Infrastructure 40 100
Manpower - -
Total 40 100
Obviously, all the challenges faced while using the internet comes from infrastructure failure.
Question 6: How did your service provider respond to resolving the challenges?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Perfectly - -
Good 30 75
Poorly 10 25
Total 40 100
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 157
75% of the respondents rated the response of their bankers in resolving the internet challenges
that confronted them as good, 25% rated it as poor and none was satisfied enough to rate it
perfect.
Question 7: How efficient is the service you received?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Excellent - -
Good 30 75
Poor 10 25
Total 40 100
Response here confirmed the opinion stated under Table 6.
Question 8: How would you rate the satisfaction you have whenever your service provider
solve the challenges you face while banking through the internet?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Excellent - -
Good 30 75
Poor 10 25
Poorly - -
Total 40 100
Once again, the response here confirmed the opinion stated under Tables 6 & 7.
Question 9: Do you feel safe using internet banking service?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Yes 18 45
No 22 55
Total 40 100
Only 45% of bank customers feel safe while using internet service while the remaining 55%
feel otherwise.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 158
Question 10: Is it convenient for you using internet banking service?
Response No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Yes 35 88
No 5 12
Total 40 100
From this Table 10, most users of internet banking service (88%) find convenience while an
insignificant 13% of them feels insecure while banking on the net.
Question 11: Would you say you prefer the internet banking system to the normal traditional
banking system?
Responses No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Yes 35 88
No 15 12
Total 50 100
The table above that 88% of the respondents prefer internet banking to the traditional banking
services.
Question 12: How often do you use the internet banking services?
Responses No of Respondents Percentage (%)
Regularly 15 38
Occasionally 25 62
Total 40 100
Unfortunately, only 38% of bank customers use the internet banking service regularly while
a very significant 62% say they use the service only occasionally.
(2) Bank Staff Respondents
Question 1: Does your bank have the infrastructural capacity to support internet banking?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Yes 40 100
No - -
Total 40 100
The table above shows that the bank has the facility to support internet banking.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 159
Question 2: How would you rate the level of security provided for internet banking?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
High 25 63
Average 15 37
Low Nil Nil
Total 40 100
From the above 62% of the respondents are of the opinion that there is a high level of security,
38% of the respondents are of the opinion that it is at the average level.
Question 3: What has your bank done to ensure that customers better appreciate and adopt
internet banking service.
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Advertisement 40 100
The grass root mobilization 40 100
Provide literature material 40 100
Total 40 100
The bank has used a combination of advertisement, grassroot mobilization and bills/fliers in
their attempt to improve or boost customers' use of internet banking.
Question 4: How often does your customers use the internet banking facilities?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Once 7 17
Twice 10 25
Frequently 23 58
Total 40 100
From the record of the bank, more than half of their customers frequently use internet banking
facilities.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 160
Question 5: How good is your internet service banking?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Good 35 88
Fair 5 12
Poor - -
Total 40 100
35% of the respondents are of the opinion that the service is good while 12% are of the
opinion that the service is fair. No one rated the bank's internet banking service as poor.
Question 6: What is good about the internet banking service your bank provides?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Quality 20 50
Easy to use 20 50
Total 40 100
Half of the respondent sees the quality of the bank internet service as the main selling point
while the other half said it is the easy to use nature that makes it attractive.
Question 7: What are the problems while providing internet banking service?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Infrastructure 40 100
Manpower 40 100
Technical know how 40 100
Total 40 100
The bank staffs are of the opinion that the problems facing the deployment of internet banking
is a combination of challenge of infrastructure, manpower and technical know-how while
providing internet baking service.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 161
Question 8: What are the major problems you faced while rendering this particular service
on the customers' side?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Level of literacy 40 100
Willingness to accept - -
Change 40 100
Total 40 100
The above table shows that while the bank seeks to provide internet banking service, the
problems they have with some of the customers are both illiteracy and unwillingness to adopt
the new banking platform.
Question 9: Does your customers prefer internet banking to the manual traditional banking
service?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Yes 37 93
No 3 7
Change 40 100
Total 40 100
The table shows that 93% of the respondent says customer prefer internet banking to the
normal banking service.
Question 10: Does internet banking enhance staff productivity?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Yes 40 100
No - -
Total 40 100
100% of the respondent in this table said that internet banking improves staff productivity.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 162
Question 11: Does internet banking make banking operation more efficient?
Response No of Respondent Percentage (%)
Yes 40 100
No Nil Nil
Total 40 100
The above table shows that internet banking operation more suitable.
DATA ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION
The use of internet banking remains indispensable from the responses obtained from the
banks. Regarding the challenges faced while using internet compliant services, users
acknowledged there are challenges in this regard. The users have faced one problem or the
other. Some of the challenges identified includes the problem of poorly functioning
infrastructure and unskilled manpower which affects internet banking in the country.
However, the internet banking product services being provided are found satisfactory by
customers and are also enhancing bank staffs' productivity. By implication banks are doing
quite a lot to ensure that customers better appreciate and adopt internet banking as a better
option to the traditional method of providing service. It is clear that internet banking is
increasing or making bank work easier. The major finding of this study came from the data
analysed. With the use of internet in banking so many advantages are accruing to bank staffs
and bank customers. This has gone a long way in making banking more attractive in the
country at large. Moreover, findings revealed that the use of internet banking will go a long
way in reducing or totally eradicating present shortcomings that characterises manual
banking. It will increase speed of service and abolish human errors.
The biggest advantage of internet banking is that people can access the service setting
anywhere to transact business and due to this, more and more account holders does not have
to personally visit the bank. With the help of internet banking many transactions can be
executed by the account holders through the internet. When small transactions like balance
enquiry, record of recent transactions, etc are to be processed, the internet banking facilities
proves to be very handy. The concept of internet banking has thus become a revolution in the
field of banking and finance.
As it stands, this study concludes that internet banking is fast bringing about reasonable
increase in banking activities in Nigeria, improving our banking culture and consequently
assisting in promoting economic growth and development. However, despite the continuous
efforts to increase regulatory efficiencies, the rising cases of internet related frauds
originating from Nigeria have made the internet banking environment very complex. The
banking industry in the country does not also at present enjoy that level of global integration
that should allow for a full benefit of internet banking system. Even the level of public
confidence in the bank is not such that can guarantee effective customer patronage of internet
banking services. In addition to this, the banking industry is struggling with cases of poor
access to the requisite facilities and few customers actually transact their business through the
internet. A situation where banks will have to invest much on acquiring information
technology software without attracting enough customer patronage necessary to justify the
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 163
huge expenditure does not make for a progressive chance for rapid grow in internet banking
in Nigeria.
In the light of the above identified challenges, the findings in this study revealed that banks
still have to do more in the area of creating more awareness among the general public and
more particularly at the grass root. This will help to ensure their customers are better
informed regarding internet banking services available and the inestimable advantages of
using such platform. The banks should also continue to send their IT staffs for more training
on internet banking. This will help in increasing and further enhancing the level of internet
bank services provided and their reliability, and thus minimizing or totally eliminating the
infrastructure failure present users are complaining about. Also, the banks in the collaboration
with their ISPs should arrange for seminars and workshops for both staffs and customers of
their banks in order to update them on latest innovations in the field of internet banking. This
will go a long way in enhancing efficiency.
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Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 165
THE PLACE OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN THE ATTAINMENT OF MILLENNIUM
DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDG)
By
Bulama H. James & Daniel Peter
Department of Computer Science
ABSTRACT
An information system consists of at least a person or a certain psychological type who faces
a problem within some organizational context for which he/she needs evidence to arrive at a
solution, where the evidence is made available through some mode of presentation. If the
Millennium Development Goals are to be attained, stakeholders in all the sectors-Education,
Health, Water etc need to understand and manage information for proper guidance in its
implementation. The paper presents a general overview of the theory in the sphere of the
Management Information System (MIS). The information needs of the various management
levels are pointed out and the stages in the development of MIS are defined.
Key Words: Information Technology (IT) Management Information System (MIS),
Information System (IS), Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Artificial Intelligence
(AI).
INTRODUCTION
We are living in a time of great change and working in an information Age. Managers
have to assimilate masses of data, convent that data into information, form conclusions about
that information and make decisions leading to the achievement of the organization’s
objectives. For an organization, information is an important resource as money, machinery
and manpower. It is essential for the survival of the enterprise.
Before the widespread use of computers, many organizations found difficulties in
gathering, storing, organization and distributing large amounts of data and information
Development in computer technology made possible for managers to select the information
they require, in the form best suited for their needs and in time they want.
This information must be current and in many cases is needed by many people at the same
time. So it have to be accurate, concise, timely, complete, well presented and storable.
Most firms nowadays depend on IT. But personal computers (pcs) themselves will not
improve organizational productivity: this only comes about if they are used efficiently and
effectively.
The information system is the mechanism to ensure that information is available to the
managers in the form they want it and when they need it. It is designed to support their work
through providing relevant information for their decision-making. Computer systems can
clearly aid organizations in the processing of data into accurate, well-presented, up-to-date
and cost-effective information. Weather that information is also concise, relevant, timely and
complete will depend largely on the capabilities of the people involved in its processing and
selection.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 166
Defining the terms
Technology is a general term for the processes by which human beings fashion tools and
machines to increase their control and understanding of the material environment. The term
is derived from Greek words tekhne, which refer to an art or craft, and logia, meaning an
area of study; thus, technology means, the study, or the science of crafting.
Information technology (IT) and computers can be view as tools enabling the rapid
Capture, manipulation, storage and communication of information. They may help the
managers to administrate and control, to make decision but not to lead. IT is a term that
covers the hardware and software used for storing, processing or communicating information.
It is through IT that companies can define, gather, store, manipulate, and communicate data
to smooth the flow of information
Although the term data and information tent to be used interchangeably, there is a real
distinction between the two concepts. Data are row, unanalysed numbers and facts about
events. Information, in contrast, results when data are organized and analysed in some
meaningful way.
Strategy concerning computer technology application may be viewed as IS strategy and IT
strategy. IS strategy is concerned with ascertaining an organization's demand for application
and overall development of organization system, whereas IT strategy will concern itself with
how those demands are actually satisfied (Barnatt, 1994). In other words, company's
requirement will determine the means sought to fulfil their technological solution. The
information strategy will provide the foundation for the IT strategy. In a good company, IT
strategy should be licked to the business strategy. The term management information system
(MIS) made its first appearance in U.S navy resources.
The MIS idea spread rapidly throughout the administrative systems community,
encouraged by spate of subsequent reports and conferences sponsored by the American
managers, not because it was full of information in technology sense, through the distinction
soon blurred as the idea of MIS spread.
MIS is very system, which provides information for the managerial activities in an
organization. For about a decade, from its introduction in 1959 to the end of the 1960s, this
very broad definition of MIS spread rapidly and was endorsed by industrial corporation,
consultants, academic researchers, management writers, and computer manufacturers.
The “term management information system” [MIS] is synonymous with computer-based
Systems. Used broadly, it is seen as the system satisfying all the information needs of
Managers. MIS is the study of providing information to people who make choices about the
disposition of valuable resources in a timely, accurate and complete manager at a minimum
of cognitive and economic cost for acquisition, processing, and Retrieval. Another definition
emphasizes the use to which information is put, rather Than the way it is produced:
“A system to convert data from internal and external sources into information and
communicate that information in appropriate form, to managers at all levels in all functions
to enable them to make timely and effective decisions for planning directing and controlling
activities for which they are responsible.” (Bee and Bee, 1999)
Others, however, give it more limited scope. They see it as a system collecting and analysing
data and producing reports. Its purpose is to help managers solve structured problems. But it
should also fulfil a number of other purposes:
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 167
• It should provide a basis to analyse warming signals that can originate both externally
and internally; this is the main function of data base;
• It should automate routine operations thus avoiding human work in the processing
task;
• It should assist management in making routine decisions;
• It should provide the information necessary to make non- routine decisions;
• It should serve as a strategic weapon to gain competitive advantages.
MIS may be viewed as a mean for transformation of data, which are used as information in
decision-making processes. Figure 1 shows this understanding about information as data
processed for a definite purpose. (Lucey, 1997)
Information flows Data floods MISprocesses
Users processes
Decision
There are so many definitions of MIS. For the purpose of this research, MIS can be defined
as a system providing management with accurate and timely information necessary to
facilitate the decision–making process and enable the organization's planning, control, and
operational functions to be carried out effectively. So, in this way MISs increase
competitiveness of the firm by reducing cost and improving processing Speed.
MIS is by its very nature an electric discipline. It is the study of providing information to
people who must make choices about the disposition of valuable resource in a timely,
accurate, and complete manner at a minimum of cognitive and economic cost for Acquisition,
processing, storage and retrieval.
The beauty of MIS is that it ties together a whole set of operations that general managers
already thought were important (such as reporting, financial controls, and production
scheduling) and bound them to the existing but disruptive technology of computer, thus
blurring distinctions between the technical and the managerial.
Differing information for different management levels
Efficient MIS enables management to plan co-ordinate, and control. It provides information
needed for strategic planning and for day to day operations. The various levels of management
typically require the information they received to be formatted in different ways. These
different levels of management decision-making can be described as follows; strategic,
tactical and operational. So, the information could be:
• Operational information largely internal, mainly historical, detailed information on a
daily or weekly basis, often quantitative, high precision, narrow in scope.
• Tactical information-internal and external sources, with concern on the current and
future performance, aggregated (summarized), information on products, sales,
investment profits etc.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 168
• Strategic information - largely external [information on economic conditions,
technological developments, the actions of competitors], forward looking, qualitative;
information is important, precision is unimportant, wide ranging, incomplete.
Decision are impossible without information and managers are constantly seeking more and
better information to support their decision making, hence the growth of IS. It is a term that
today is often taken to mean networks of computers, but strictly speaking should also include
non-computerized channels of communication such as regular meetings or even phones. Of
course, neither the word “information” nor most of the things to which it was applied were
new. As one might expect, information was originally the event that took place when a person
was informed of something. In the early twentieth century, the term “information” was
frequently associated with communication (especially in the public relations), with
intelligence (in the military sense), and with the acquisition of knowledge. It continued to
imply that a human recipient was being informed (just as the word “education” today implied
that a person is being educated).
The design of the MIS must take into account the information needs of the various managerial
levels, as well as the routine transaction-processing needs of the total organization. For
example, as shown in table 1, the information sources for operation control are found largely
within the organization, while the information sources for strategic planning tend to be outside
the organization. However, the value of information is offset by the cognitive and economic
costs of acquiring, processing, storing, and retrieving it.
TABLE 1. Information Requirements by Decision category
CHARACTERISTICS
OF INFORMATION
OPERATIONAL
CONTROL
(FIRST LINE)
TACTICAL
CONTROL
(MIDDLE
LEVEL)
STRATEGIC
PLANNING (TOP
LEVEL)
Source Largely internal Largely external
Scope Well defined,
narrow
Very wide
Level of aggregation Detailed Aggregate
Time horizon Historical Future
Currency Highly current Less current
Required accuracy High Low
Frequency of use Very frequent Less frequent
To survive, every organization collect information, communicate it internally and process it
so that managers can make decisions quickly and effectively in pursuit of organizational
objectives in a changing, competitive environment. The IS the nervous system which allows
an organization to respond to opportunities and avoid threats. It is widely acknowledged that
firms with the best and most effective ISs are those that have clear and well thought out IS
strategy.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 169
INFORMATION
Management decision making
Management process
Financial indicator
Competitor activity
Customer satisfaction and cost of sale
Customer database Production statistics Research and
development
The speed at which organizations gear up to the new policy - MDG conditions and maintain
a responsible MIS will play a major role in determining their success or failure in this
changing environment. It can give an organization sustainable advantage by improving
administration performance.
The ability to use computers creatively to collect, organize, distribute, and control
information is spelling the difference between success and mediocrity in organizations
ranging from education to health issues. Computers are changing the way the business is done
in every sector.
Almost all business organizations normally have some kind of information system for
management. Accounting rules, stock control and market monitoring systems are the most
traditional and common examples. The power of technology has transformed the role of
information in all aspects of livelihood. Now information has become recognized as the
lifeblood of an organization (Figure 2). Without information, the modern organization is
dead. (Papows, 1998)
Figure 2. Information — the life- blood of the organization.
Stages in the development of Management Information Systems
Organizations have always had some kind of management information systems, even if it was
not recognized as such. Developments in the new technology have gone through several
stages.
Stage 1: EDP. When computers were first introduced into organizations, they were used
mainly to process data for a few business function - usually accounting and billing. Computers
were located in electronic data processing (EDP) departments, because of the specialized
skills needed to operate the extensive and complex system.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 170
Organizational data (from EDP department)
ExternalManagers
Reports
MIS
Figure 3. Diagram of MIS
Stage 2: MIS. The growth of EDP departments spurred managers to focus more on planning
their organizations' information system. As the EDP departments' function expended beyond
routine processing of masses of standardized data, they began to be called management
information system (MIS) departments. Figure 3 is a diagram of MIS (Kroenke, 1987). MIS
uses data created mainly in the EDP departments and it can be developed only when there
already exists such department. It does not make any changes in these data. MIS could obtain
information from internal and external sources.
Stages 3: DDS. Later on, where remote terminals were introduced, more than one department
began to use the same system. At this stage the MIS has grown beyond a data processing role
and included the provision of a number of decision support systems (DSSs). While the MIS
control routine operations using data processing methods, the DSSs is seen as supporting
decision on “less routine issues” and solving “semi – structured” problems.
Stage 4: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE and EXPERT SYSTEMS. One of the fastest
growing areas of information technology, artificial intelligence uses the computer to simulate
some of the characteristics of human thought. The term artificial intelligence (AI) means the
simulation of human thought process in order to select best mode of behaviour, e.g. taking a
decision or responding to a situation. Expert system is a major application of AI. They act
like a human “expert” in analysing unstructured situations. Expert system is also called
“knowledge-base” systems since they are built on a framework of known facts and responses
to situation. It is believed that we are moving rapidly from industrial-based society to an
information-base one. The application of computer technology to management information
and decision support systems has certainly had an effect on how managers perform their tasks
on how organizations behave.
Conclusion
Importance of information as an instrument for social, economic, educational and health
development cannot be over emphasized. Understanding it (information) will positively
enhance the effective performance of all stakeholders.
Computers and MISs are one of the important organizational resources. A great number of
enterprises – Education medical etc – could not operate properly and successfully without the
implementation of MISs in the new changing environment in the attainment of the MDGs.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 171
The modern IT will become the main force determining the pattern of the 21st century and
giving great opportunities in all spheres of our life.
MISs have great contribution to increase competitiveness and effectiveness of managers in
decision-making process and solving of different problems which appeared in managing an
organization.
REFERENCES
Barnatt, Chr, (1994). The computers in Business Blueprints. Oxford: Blackwell publishers.
Bee, R; Bee, F. (1999). Managing information and Statistics. Trowbridge: Crown well press.
Benett, R. (1995). Management. London; Pitman publishing.
Jackson, I. (1996). Corporate Information Management. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
International
Knight, J. (1999). Computing for Business. Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.
Kroenke, D, Dolan, K. (1987) Business Computer systems. Cal, Santa Cruz.
Luccey, T. (1997). Management Information systems. London.
PA consulting Group, (1990). IT: The Catalyst for chance. London: W H. Allen & Co Plc.
Papows, J. (1998). Market Leadership in Information Age. London; Nicholas Brealey
Publishing.
Strategies for jobs in the information society (2000). Luxembourg: Office for Official
Publications of the EC.
Wilson, D. (1993). Managing Information: for continual improvement. Oxford: Butterworth
Heinemann Ltd.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 172
THE QUESTIONS OF INCUMBENCY AND WHO SHOULD FINANCE POLITICAL PARTIES
CAMPAIGNS
By
Veno M. Yongo
Department of International Relations
ABSTRACT
The craze for the incumbent elected political office holders to consolidate their stay in office
beyond their present term of office and the quest of so many political organizations to
transmute themselves to full blown political parties is the focus of this paper. Thus, the paper
critically examined the equation and the role of the incumbents in the political engineering of
Nigerian political space. It also looked at the quest for creation of more political parties,
their sponsorship and the motives behind the craze. The paper concluded with a number of
recommendations on the questions, one of which is the strict obedience to electoral law and
of course the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
INTRODUCTION
The wheel will soon come full circle as the four years of the last democratic elections will
end. Come 2019, fresh national elections would hold. But the big question on people's lips
is where are the gains of this mandate of almost two decades of democratic experiment after
the end of military terrorism into politics? With practically and I think virtually nothing
tangible to show so far by the present regime as positively affecting the lives of the masses
as an account of the mandate given to them on the 29th May, 2015, the drums of re-elections
have since been beating all over the country by the incumbents.
The fate of our country and our lives are in the hands of the men and women we elected
through a process bedevilled by many irrelevancies which consequently led to the emergence
of the last regime. The ones we will elect come 2019 have started their bids and because of
this, the matter of campaign expenditures demands attention. The chapter VI Section 222{c}
of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shows that an annual grant will
always be made available to the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC} for
onward disbursement to the political parties for discharge of their duties. In the same chapter
VI of the constitution, is a feeble provision on how the electoral commission will check the
excesses of the political parties. Thus, the questions of incumbency and who should finance
political parties' campaigns with the realities on ground.
This problem is more serious than many people realize it. Multi-billion naira campaigns have
actually encourage a free-for-all system of fund raising that has corrupted the political terrain
of this country and worse more, has so confused the voter that it is impossible for him to
know what financial obligation and commitment are carried into office by the men and women
who govern the country. One is push to ask the reason why an elected public officer who
spends billions of naira while campaigning would not swindle the public by stealing funds at
his disposal at the end of the day. If our elected leaders are to maintain the freedom of thought
and action that we expect, we need a much closer control of incumbency factor and campaign
expenditure than has ever existed before.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 173
Despite the fact that the 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria have shown vaguely
the tendency of government financing of political campaigns; there are argument from all
quarters on whether political parties or individual contestants be left to finance their
campaigns. These arguments are more pertinent now with the seemingly good gesture of the
government towards reviewing the constitution. One of these arguments was put forward by
a former Senator, Sen. Sulaiman Makonjoula from Kwara state who said that “funding of
political parties is done all over the world and is the right thing that ought to be done.” He
said, “The moment government hands-off, it allows money bags to hijack the parties. As it's
often said that he who pays piper calls the tune.” For him, “You put your money where your
heart is.” For this reason, he said “If the government fund political parties, operators within
the parties would operate at about the same level”. That “the idea of people controlling the
party and using the party for their selfish interest is out of it”. So, he concluded by saying
that, “I will strongly support government funding political parties in Nigeria.” (Sunday
punch, March 11 2001). But in what looks like a counter argument to that position, Chief
Bimbola Ogunkelu, the then minister of Cooperation and Integration in Africa in an interview
with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday 8, April 2001 said that Nigeria
had not fought corruption to the extent that “when government funds political parties, those
entrusted with managing them will not just spend the money and not bother about winning
election. He showed that few political parties may be okay, that by the time government
announces that is going to fund political parties, that we will be surprise how many parties
will seek registration - the situation we have already seen with the high number of registered
political parties that we have today. At the last count, we have more than forty (40) political
parties now and more are seeking registration as he said, everybody will want to get a piece
of the action without any interest in governing the country.” These are therefore, few amongst
the arguments for and against government financing political parties’ campaigns; But I think,
I will lean to the latter argument. This is because, the number of elected political offices that
ranges from Federal, State and Local governments in this country are too many to be finance
by the government without corruption and suppression of both new political parties and
candidates by incumbents. Thus, government will succeed in Wasting its scarce resources as
they always claim, despite the fact that parties and individual contestants would also raise
their money and what we are running away from will still be the order of day – hijacking of
political parties by the highest donors and reckless fund raising everywhere and eventually
multi-billion naira campaigns will continue and that means greater advantage to incumbents
who will certainly come back to their offices to exacerbate stealing of public funds; and so,
the noise about fighting corruption will be more of a charade. Therefore, the seemingly
convincing gesture of government funding political parties' campaigns is bound to be abused.
Today the world is caught up as it were, in a creeping web of incumbency factor by regulation
and control of election to perpetuate themselves in power. Nigeria is no exception. Many
Governors, Local Government Chairmen, National and State Assembly Members in the north
have launched campaigns that are for the incumbents who still have another term to continue
in office beyond 2019 or any specified. The situation is not any different in other parts of the
country as almost all elected officers according to them, have secured ticket for the second
term of office, in fact, some people and groups have declared and have commence campaigns
for the second term bid of PMB. There have been complaints of harassment and intimidation
by the incumbents against any opposition. Politicians now take incumbency factor as their
political last card for winning elections come 2019. This is very dangerous, politically tactless
and it exposes our politicians as being immature for them
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 174
to seek re-election on the basis of incumbency rather than performance. This is because; the
bid by the incumbents for second term has done incalculable damage to our national image
and has retarded our progress towards political and economic development and growth. With
just less than practically two years to the next election, the country is still characterized by
greater material poverty, unemployment, high level of illiteracy, low life expectancy, high
infant mortality, poor funding of education, unsafe drinking water where little is found and
myriads of social vices with rampant corruption, tribalism and political victimization. Some
governors have turned their states into personal property by rejecting any form of checks by
the legislators. With such an abuse, couple with gross financial mismanagement marked by
uncontrolled spending and unprofitable overseas trips, has expose our country to international
disgrace. Thus, under these conditions of economic austerity and political hopelessness, the
well-meaning Nigerians must be on guard as this great country is already in jeopardy with
the set of “crooks” we have as leaders, that instead of paying attention to the solution of these
national exigencies, the incumbents are busy embezzling government funds for political
parties campaign purposes and this is only to steal money once they got into power again.
So, what is the justification for funding political parties' campaigns of such people? After all,
incumbents serve the interest of nobody except himself and besides, most incumbents are
enemies of progress. Another advantage to the incumbents, if government would finance
political parties' campaigns is that, it would make it near impossible for a new political party
to get started. This is because the incumbents will readily destroy the plans of the new political
parties just registered by heralding non-existent achievements in the media – a way of
blocking any prospects of good programmes that may be announce by the new political
parties. The press, that is both the print and electronic media which are supposed to be the
watch dogs of the society, a vehicle for keeping government on track have succumbed to total
control of the incumbents and the resultant effect is that instead of information dissemination,
what we now see is information regimentation of those I would called political neophytes
who want to come back to continue their acts of profligacy with public funds after years of
waste. In his reaction to what may be term as a “debase'' media, the then Speaker of the
House of Representative, Alhaji Umar Ghali Na'Abba while speaking at the opening
ceremony of a workshop organized for news executives by the National Broad-Casting
Commission (NBC), said “news on television is now largely about what people in power do
and where they and their families go, while questions are not asked about their policies and
programmes.” He said government owned broadcast stations, “have been transmuted into
propaganda tools for incumbents in their feverish and desperate bid to return to power in
2019.” Pointing out that “unabashed display of sycophancy at the state and federal levels
pervades the air waves, just as the opposition parties are denied their constitutionally
guaranteed rights to fair and equitable hearing.” In a clear comparison to the events leading
to the 1983 military intervention, the former speaker claimed that the media were “heavily
deployed” by the parties in power to manipulate the electoral process, noted that there were
“obvious signs that this scenario may repeat itself in 2019.” This is in conformity with what
Enahoro once said to the media on the collapsed of the first republic:
Let us remember to our shame that whatever
Or whoever ruined our first republic did so
With the active collaboration and convenience
Of the greater part of Nigerian press
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 175
This impression as shown is contrary to the vibrant press known during the pre-independence
struggle. The patriotic press vanished at independence; the press became partisan mostly
along religions and ethic lines. The military regimes compounded the issue by assuming the
ownership of major dailies and complete control of electronic media. This has since then to
this day remain endemic to Nigerian Media; this was actually makes manifest during the evil
days of the late maximum dictator Gen. Sani Abacha who completely hijacked electronic
media in his bid to transform himself from Military to civilian rule. Thus, journalists are
compelled to be on the side of government and generally anti-masses in their reporting. What
the masses watch or hear on radio now is the bogus achievements of incumbents and the
“Sale” of their political ideas and personalities. In this situation, how will new political parties
and fresh candidates survive? Of course, their future looks cloudy and perhaps doom for
failure.
Incumbents have also greater means for obtaining publicity by distributing government funds
in reckless ways in the name of democratic dividends, but actually, the motive behind the
whole idea is to bribe the masses to vote for them for the second term. This will lead us to
the question of what is it decides who wins election in Nigeria. In Nigeria, I got nauseated
whenever I think of election, because it is only money that decides who wins election. That
means that, politics in this country is not driven by any ideology. Issues, policies and
programmes are of no significance. The only ideology is the ideology of “pocket book”. No
wonder somebody said “Nigerians would vote for the devil himself if he brings money.”
Therefore, the incumbents who are preparing for 2019 election and knowing fully that
achievements doesn't speak for candidates but money, are busy rapaciously amassing public
funds to spend such on campaigns- a prospect of buying the electorates over. So by
implication, elections in Nigeria are to a remarkable degree based on how much money one
has, which consequently means that the government political office holders who have an eye
on the next election will do everything humanly possible even through dubious means to make
much money, so as to prepare them for winning. Thus, they are now expanding their political
tentacles by setting up monstrous and funding of political machineries who will aid their
bidding and that is the more reason why they would go to any length to amass money to
themselves and their associates who will actually be the brain behind their success.
The result of this is that, the business of government will be neglected and what will happen
rather as we are seeing now is awarding and signing contract forms that have no direct bearing
on majority of the people. The consequences are that, the exigencies of the country's needs
will suffer procrastination while our incumbents are busy attending political meetings towards
the perfection of their bidding plans; and as procrastination is the enemy of time, they will at
the tail end of the mandate given to them as we have already started seeing, engage in last
minutes or what can be refer to as the “rush hour” to do one thing or the other to convince
the gullible people in the polity that they have done what they promised. Some of them will
even have the effrontery to claim to have left some projects undone and will wish to come
back and complete them. For this hazarding guess, I strongly urge the electorates not to allow
themselves to be taken for a ride again. This is because, the situation in the country seems to
be akin to the one somebody saw and make a statement some years back which was held as
Sedition; But because of what is happening now, one may be tempted to repeat the same
statement on the present set of politicians that we have if care is not taken – where the accused
said.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 176
Down with the enemies of the people, the exploiters of the weak
and the oppressors of the poor. The days of those who have
enriched themselves at the expense of the poor are numbered.
The common man in Nigeria can today no longer be fooled by
Sweet talk at election time and treated like rubbish after the booty
Of office has been shared among the politicians {OBI VS STATE (1961) ANLR 156}.
I think any sane person in Nigeria will want to agree with this statement. If so, what do we
do then to curb the excesses of incumbency factor, reckless political fund raising and political
parties' campaigns expenditure?
In my stance against government financing of political parties, a prospect for funding political
campaigns, I suggest the following measures to be taken. That instead of funding political
parties’ campaigns, government should control rather the sources of finances and
expenditures of each political party and individual contestants. In this sense, there should be
sincere efforts to limit by law the amount of money to be spent, to restrict the possible sources
of funds, to regulate the size of individual contributions and to require publicity for all sizable
contribution. For instance, the Electoral Commission set up in Britain only few years ago,
fixed the total expenditure of the political parties, including individual contestant's expenses
to maximum of 16 million pounds. With restriction, the ruling party could not exercise the
advantage of incumbency to use government funds to engage in sophisticated campaigns or
bribe voters. In the same way, the need for collecting large campaign funds would vanish in
Nigeria if the National Assembly will provide an appropriation for the proper and legitimate
expenses of each of the parties, an appropriation ample enough to meet the necessity for
thorough organization and machinery of the parties.
There is also the opinion that if only a few wealthy individuals or organizations make political
contribution, the influence of the few will be too great. In contrast, if many people contribute
with logical restriction by law on the number and amount for each member, the office holder
would not be obligated to give special consideration to the wealthy members of the party –
after all everybody have contributed equal amount of money - a feat claimed by the APC-
PMB Campaign organization in 2015. For this therefore, drive should be made in this sense
to increase and equalized numerous small contributions in the theory that he who pays the
piper calls the tune. Numerous small contributions from all members of the party will
stimulate the interest of the citizens, since most people tend to take a greater interest in parties
and candidates they support financially. This is a prospect of making political office-holders
accountable to the people and it will also stem corruption in public offices.
Another thing is that, if government must help political parties at all; such help must not be
direct to the political parties, but must be done in a control way or centrally done. For
instance, a part-time campaign contribution board can be set by government. This board will
be composed of say three members of each political party appointed by the president and
confirmed by the senate. This board would select an impartial administrator from within
themselves, who will direct government funds supplied to them to suppliers of such legitimate
political expenses as radio and television time, newspaper advertising and few other things.
This will mean, no individual party or individual contestant would be allowed to buy radio
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 177
or television time or newspaper advertisement. This will actually remove to some extent,
dominance of incumbents in complete hijack of electronic and print Media. In the same way,
primaries of the political parties and especially in Nigeria where party machinery may not be
trusted to treat each entrant equally and fairly, I would suggest that the National Assembly
make a law by allowing a fixed sum of money per candidate for intra-party modest campaigns.
Finally, there are strong indications of growing political maturity in Nigeria. So, it will be
true to say that the Nigerian future electorates and general populace of today are more likely
to be rational, more sophisticated, more articulated and more conscious of their political
rights and obligations than were those of the past republics. Though, our democracy is more
or less a quasi-one, leaders should complement the convincing gesture of the electorates by
having the basic understanding of the government, to comprehend the complex issues facing
the country and to have the will and courage to make faithful decision, to marshal support
for national policies after irrevocable decisions have been made to bring Nigerians out of the
abyss of corruption that is inherent in the system. This would give electorates more hope and
courage to actually vote out the wrong people and vote in the right ones.
Suffice to say finally again that if government dare to finance political campaigns, the suppose
government of the people for the and by the people would at the end of the time do little or
nothing to the masses, because that would only serve the interest of the incumbents to the
detriment of the mass majority of the people who will continue to languish in material poverty
and as a result, the electorates will perhaps, lose interest again in the system and consequently
the incumbents will take the advantage of the ignorance to gather more money, to facilitate
their come back, to continue their evil act of “Lootocracy”. I will therefore, conclude that
funding political parties’ campaigns will not go well for the country at this revival time,
because it will not check corruption, but rather exacerbate it. Thus, the paramount thing now,
is full control by equalizing the strength of all political parties in terms of financial stand, so
that, issues, policies and programmes would determine who wins elections come 2019.
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Lipjhart, A. (1992) “Parliament versus Presidential Government.” Oxford England Oxford
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of the contribution of electoral commissions to the strengthening of democracy.
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Ibrahim J. & Ibeanu, O (ed) (2009) “The 2007 Nigerian Election and Subversion of Popular
Sovereignty” Abuja Nigeria. Centre for Democracy and Development.
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Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 178
Mahajan V. D. (1988) “Political Theory: Principles of Political Science” New Delhi, India
S. Chand & Co. Ltd. Ran Nagar.
http://www.soc.titech.ac.jp/uem/governance.html
http://wwwbritcoun.org/governance/ukpgov.html
http://www.soc.titech.ac.jp/uem/governance.html
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 179
EFFECTS OF MATHEMATICS ANXIETY ON STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY
SCHOOLS, ADAMAWA STATE
By
Elishama, Lakam John
Department of Statistics
ABSTRACT
An inherent fear of mathematics by students in secondary schools nowadays has affected their
performance in SSCE. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of mathematics anxiety on
students' performance at SSCE in Demsa local Government Area, Adamawa state. The study
found out that students' negative attitude toward mathematics, inadequate instructional
materials/resources, parent's perception of mathematics, lack of supervision and inspection
of mathematics teachers are sometimes the root causes of mathematics anxiety amongst
secondary school students in Adamawa state. Consequently, this makes the students to remain
passive in the classroom during instruction, thereby affecting their performance in SSCE and
consequently posing a threat to their future career. The way forward as recommended by this
study are; students themselves must complement the effort of teachers in curbing mathematics
anxiety by looking at mathematics with positive feelings. Parents should be enlightened on
the importance of their involvement in the education of their children. Guidance and
counselling units should be set up in our secondary schools, frequent supervision and
inspection should be done by the state ministry of education, zonal office as well as the
principals. Adamawa state government should fund secondary school education towards the
purchase of resource materials and as well train mathematics teachers to enhance student's
performance in SSCE.
INTRODUCTION
Brief history of the teaching of mathematics in Nigeria started with Arithmetic, a component
of mathematics at the primary and post primacy schools (Fajemidagba, Salmon and
Ayinda,1999). Arithmetic was compulsory for every primary school pupil and most be passed
before a pupil could obtain the “Primary School Leaving Certificate.” The same condition
holds for the teacher training colleges either grade II or III. Mathematics still remains one of
the core and compulsory subjects for Nigerian students at both primary and secondary
schools. Recently, mathematics has become a determining factor to gain admission into most
Nigerian Universities as it must be passed up to credit level before one gains admission.
Mathematics as a school subject is recognized as the foundation of science and technology,
without which a nation will never become prosperous and economically independent.
In spite of its importance to the students' advancement in academics and daily living, many
students feared mathematics. Given the right to choose, many secondary school students could
out-rightly avoid mathematics, this is because many of them have developed some element
of fear (Phobia) about the subject many be, as a result of uncomplimentary remarks made
about mathematics by the parents, other significant adults at home, the mathematics teachers,
the society or other factors which this study will find out.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 180
Since most of the students have lost hope and psychologically defeated due to mathematics
phobia, this affects their level of interest and passion in the subject despite the effort put in
by government and various stakeholders of education to make mathematics compulsory and
one of the leading core subjects in the secondary school curriculum. Consequently, it leads
to greater percentage of the students engaging in examination malpractice.
The term “Phobia” is curled from Greek word probos. It is an irrational, intense persistent
fear of certain situations, activities, things or people (John, 2009). When fear reaches an
extreme pitch, it becomes a phobia. There is a general impression that mathematics is difficult
by nature, and because of this impression, this research work will unravel the effects of
mathematics phobia on students' performance in secondary school certificate examination
(SSCE).
However, students reason that mathematics is highly structured and is so abstract and require
special intellectual attitude. Thus, students flee the subject as something esoteric. The inherent
notion held by many Africans that mathematics is a very difficult subject which is capable of
making one “mad” is at the centre of the phobia which students exhibit for mathematics and
which had claimed may casualties over the years. The question is how then would any person
in fairness expect our poor and innocent children to be courageous as to face something which
is capable of making even an adult mad? The students would prefer to do something else no
matter how difficult rather that to attain mathematics classes.
Significance of the study
Causes of Mathematics Anxiety amongst Secondary School Students
Phobias are learnt as the consequence of either a traumatic event associated with a particular
situation for objects or because an important role model has shown fear (John, 2009). In most
situations the fear-inducing event is a threat to the individual's self rather than a threat to is
physical well-being.
Generally, people with mathematics anxiety often realized that these fears are irrational, but
they find that facing or even thinking about facing these feared situations brings panic attack
or severe anxiety. According to John (2009), “there are four broad source of mathematics
phobia.” This include:
i. Parents and other Significant Adults at home
According to him “Parents and other adults are the first individuals a child comes into contact
with in life. These individuals serves as sources of mathematics anxiety through:-
▪ Their attitude toward mathematics
▪ Uncomplimentary remarks about mathematics.
▪ Their expectations from the children.
He went further to say that “there give the child no hope of doing well in mathematics.
ii. The Mathematics Teacher
John (2009) says that “the teachers is seen by his students as an all-knowing person who
never makes mistake. Students have much confidence in their teacher and they take what
teacher says is final”. The teachers according to him contribute to mathematics phobia
through:
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 181
▪ His attitudes toward mathematics
▪ Uncomplimentary remarks or notion about mathematics.
▪ Inadequate training and lack of adequate mastery of the mathematics content.
▪ Improper planning and poor delivery techniques (method)
▪ Unhealthy relationship between the teacher and the learners.
▪ Personal characteristics of the teacher.
▪ Punishing students for failure to solve mathematics.
iii. The Child
Other aspects of the child's contribution to mathematics phobia according to John (2009)
includes the following:
▪ Their attitude toward mathematics
▪ Difficulty in abstracting from concrete mathematical concepts
▪ Lack of self confidence in performing mathematical tasks
▪ Bad company (friends and pairs) seeing maths as a threat to the image of themselves
as component individuals, especially when they set unrealistic goals for themselves.
iv. The Society
The notion of the society concerning mathematics could increase the level of mathematics
phobia amongst the students. These include according to John (2009):
▪ Seeing mathematics as the subject for the geniuses
▪ Seeing mathematics as a situation that can make an individual as mad or appear stupid
and clumsy.
▪ Emphasis on scholastic achievement
▪ The desire for scientific and technological growth.
Teachers have important part to play in learning of mathematics by being effective, most
especially if the students can learn with greater ease and perform well with his help than
without his helps. Tshabalala (2014) says “A quack doctor is capable to handle an individual
at a time but a bad teacher can ruin not only the individual but also a nation.
Wikipedia Free Encyclopaedia (2014) stated that students often develop mathematical anxiety
in school, often as a result of learning from teachers who are themselves anxious about their
mathematical abilities in certain areas.
STAN, (2002) as cited by Ojimba, (2012) was of the view that prominent cause of poor
performance in mathematics are:
▪ Acute shortage of qualified professional mathematics teacher.
▪ Exhibition of poor knowledge mathematics content by many mathematics teachers.
▪ Overcrowded mathematics classrooms.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 182
▪ Undue emphasis on the coverage of mathematics syllabus at the expense of meaningful
learning of mathematics concept.
▪ Inadequate facilities and mathematics laboratories.
The above-mentioned items are possibly the causes of mathematics phobia amongst secondary
school students in Demsa Local Government Area which this research work will find out.
Effects of Mathematics Anxiety on Students Performance in Secondary School
Certificate Examination (SSCE)
Performance on standardized mathematics test is affected by one's confidence (Dar Nimrod
& Heine, 2006). This means that a student who does not have confidence in his/her
mathematical ability is automatically phobia driven. Consequently, the performance in
standardized test (SSCE) may not be encouraging. In addition, research have shown that a
parent perception on mathematics influences their child's perception and achievement in
mathematics (Yee & Eccles, 1998). This means that if a parent makes it apparent that they
do not influence the way in which their child views mathematics, then the child will not
perform well in the subject. In other words, the child would likely develop phobia for
mathematics. It is only when you develop interest in doing something that you can succeed
in it.
Mame (2002), in Atwood, (2014) defines mathematics anxiety “as a feeling of tension,
apprehension, or fear that interferes with mathematics performance.” This implies that
mathematics anxiety (phobia) affect students' performance in mathematics either internal or
external examinations. According to Antthony and Agnes (2009), “Students' achievement in
mathematics test depends on how much interest the students have in the subject. How then
can student who is phobia driven in mathematics perform well in SSCE?
Haimoniwitze (1989) cited by Gegba and Sheriff. (2015) indicated that the cause of most
failure in schools might not be due to insufficient or inadequate instruction but by resistance
by the learner. They said that this argument suggests that favourable attitudes towards
mathematics should be developed for achievement in the subject to improve. Mwamwenda
(1995) in Gebge and Sheriff, (2015) argued that the achievement of students in a subject is
determined by their attitudes rather than inability to study.
Effects of Mathematics Anxiety on Students' Future Career
The research would like to look at the influence of mathematics on students’ future career.
Mathematics anxiety otherwise known as phobia according to Tobias, (1993) has been defined
as feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of numbers and the
solving of mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and academic situations.
This means that mathematics anxiety can cause one to forget and lose one's self confidence.
Mathematics is an important subject with broad applicability to everyday life, yet mathematics
is often considered as a difficult subject in schools (Pradeep, 2012). However, the students'
interest and weakness in mathematics learning could affect the efforts of various sectors in
achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of making Nigeria a fully developed
nation before 2020 (Ibbid).
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 183
Adebayo, (1997) in Edukugoh (2010) stated that knowledge of mathematics promotes the
habit of accuracy, logical, systematic and orderly arrangement of faults in the individual
learner. It also, he said, encourage the habit of self-reliance and assists learners to think and
solve their problems themselves. Mathematical knowledge indeed equips individual with the
skills to solve a wide range of practical tasks and problems they may encounter in life (Sa'ad
& Usman, 2014) Saint Paul Public School (2007) as reported by Sa'ad and Usman (2014)
commenting on importance of mathematics that the study of mathematics helps the mind to
reason and organize complicated situations or problems into clear, simple and logical steps.
The reality, they noted, is that in a society such as ours, high paying jobs often demand
someone who can simplify complicated situations and reduce them to the level everyone can
understand. They therefore insisted that by knowing more mathematics, students give
themselves the competing edge they need to vie for such high paying job. This supports the
fact that any student who is mathematically phobia developed may not have a brighter future.
Mathematics is no longer important just in so far as it is a basic requirement for entry into
institutions of higher learning. It is now more than ever before an essential ingredient in the
education of every Nigeria child especially in this technological era.
Students need to be encouraged to acquire, and be provided with, the necessary academic
skills to enter mathematics and science related profession. Mastering mathematics has become
more important than ever before in the world. Students with a strong background in
mathematics have an advantage over those students who struggle when competing the Job
Market (Gegba, Sundai & Sheriff, 2015). In the job market they say, workers who have a
strong mathematics and Science background are more likely to be employed and even more
than those with lower achievement even if they have not gone to college. They argued that
to compete in our 21st century global economy, it is critical have highs school, knowledgeable
and proficient in mathematics.
Statement and Purpose of the Study
The lackadaisical attitude of the students toward mathematics in our secondary schools have
reached such an extreme pitch, that every lover of education growth and development of
Nigeria cannot afford to keep mute on the happening in the mathematics education.
This study work intends to:
i. X-ray the causes of mathematics phobia among the Secondary School Students in
Demsa Local Government Area.
ii. Investigate the effects of this phobia in mathematics on the students' performance in
SSCE in Demsa Local Government Area.
iii. Make some suggestions and recommendations on how best to fight mathematics
phobia so as to improve students' interest and performance in mathematics in Demsa
Local Government Area.
Research Questions
In the course of carrying out this project work, the following questions have been
formulated to provide the needed information to achieve the set objectives of the study:
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 184
i. What could be the possible causes of mathematics phobia among secondary school
students in Demsa Local Government Area?
ii. Is there any effect of mathematics phobia on students' performance in SSCE in Demsa
Local Government Area?
iii. What impact has mathematics phobia on students' future career in Demsa Local
Government Area?
Design and Procedure for Data Analysis
In this study, a survey research design was followed. This type of design was used because
it allowed the researcher to study small sample and later generalized the findings to the whole
population. Osuala, (2005) was of the view that in survey research, small sample is studied
and the findings generalized to the whole population
Data collected was analysed using t-distribution at 2.262 significant levels.
Where
µ = Population mean
n = Sample population
The decision rule is, where the computed value of t did not exceed its critical (or table) value
the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted; and when
the computed value of t is equal to or more than the critical (or table) value the null hypothesis
(H0) is accept.
Presentation of Data
This section focuses on the presentation of the data collected from the respondents. Research
Question 1: What could be the possible cause of mathematics phobia among secondary school
students in Demsa Local Government Area?
Table 1: Showing responses obtained from research question one.
S/No
Question
Response Total
Agreed Disagreed
1. Students themselves are the cause of
Mathematics phobia in Secondary
School
21 4 25
2. Inadequate quality teachers are the
major cause of Mathematics phobia
25 0 25
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 185
3. Inadequate teaching materials of
Mathematics can cause Mathematics
phobia
17 8 25
4. Lack of frequent supervision and
inspection of Mathematics teachers by
both the school administration and
ministries of education is one of the
causes of Mathematics phobia
17 8 25
5. Anxiety and fear toward Mathematics is
as a result of lack of parental
involvement
15 10 25
6. Students’ negative attitude toward
mathematics is caused by using
inappropriate or poor method
10 15 25
7. Overcrowded or large classes is the
cause of Mathematics phobia
10 15 25
8. Parents and other significant adults at
home are one of the causes of
Mathematics phobia
10 15 25
TOTAL 131 65 200
Source: Field work 2016
Hypotheses 1: t-Score for a possible cause of mathematics anxiety among secondary
Description
of item
Responses Row
result
Percentage t-score
value
Decision
Rule
Cal. Tab
Causes of
Mathematics
phobia will
have no
significant
impact
among
secondary
school
Agree 131 65.5 0.240 2.262 Rejected
Disagree 69 34.5
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 186
Research question 2: Is there any effect of mathematics Phobia on students’ Performance in
S.S.C.E.
S/No Question Responses Total
Agreed Disagreed
1. Mathematics anxiety affects
students
25 0 25
2. Performance in S.S.C.E is
affected by one’s confidence
18 7 25
3. Parent’s perception on
Mathematics influences their
child’s perception
14 11 25
4. Students’ achievement in
outcome of Mathematics tests
depends on how much interest
the students have in the subject
21 4 25
5. Positive attitudes toward
Mathematics increases students’
performance
23 2 25
Total 101 24 125
Source: Field work
Table 2: Showing responses obtained from research question two
Hypotheses 2: t-score for effect of mathematics phobia on students' performance in SSCE
Description
of item
Responses Row
Result
Percentage t-score Value Decision
Rule
Cal. Tab
There is no
significance
between
mathematics
phobia and
students’
performance
Agree 101 80.5 0.462 2.262 Rejected
Disagree 24 19.24
Source: Research questionnaire, 2016
Research question 3: What impact has mathematics phobia on students' future career?
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 187
Table 3: showing responses from research question two
S/No Question Response Total
Agreed Disagree
1. Mathematics anxiety has a negative
influence on students’ future career
18 17 25
2. To compute in our 21st century
global economy, it is critical that
students should have a high school
knowledge and efficient in
Mathematics
21 4 25
3. In the Job market, people who have
a strong Mathematics and science
background are more than those
with lower achievement even if they
have not gone to college
15 10 25
4. Mathematics phobia may discourage
the habit of self-reliance
13 12 25
5. Mathematics is an importance
subject with broad applicability to
everyday life
Total 92 33 126
Source: Field work, 2016
Hypotheses 3: t-score for impact of mathematics phobia on students' future career.
Description
of item
Responses Row result Percentage t-score value Decision
Rule
Cal. Tab
There is no
significant
difference
between
Mathematics
phobia and
students’
future career
Agree 92 73.6 -0.231 2.262 Rejected
Disagree 33 26.4
Source: Research questionnaire, 2016
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 188
Answering of the Research Question
Research Question 1
The result of the analysis of research question one showed that students themselves,
inadequate qualify teachers, inadequate teaching materials, lack of frequent supervision and
inspection of mathematics teachers by both the school administration and ministry of
education, anxiety and fear toward mathematics, student negative attitude, are some of the
main causes of mathematics phobia among secondary school students in Demsa local
government area.
Therefore, the findings of this study tally with the findings of Tata, (2014), Tshabatala,
(2013) in Tata, (2014), Umameh, (2011), Wikipedia free Encyclopaedia, (2014) who found
out that students negative attitude toward mathematics, poor teaching method, inadequate by
the school administration and ministry of education are some of the main cause of
mathematics phobia.
Research Question 2
The result of the analysis of research question two shows that mathematics phobia, one's
confidence in mathematics, students' interest in mathematics and positive attitude toward
mathematics affect students' performance in Demsa local government this because the
students will remain passive in the class.
Therefore, the findings of this study tally with the findings at Yee, (1998), Don-Nimrod,
(2006) Agnes, (2009) and Tata, (2014) who found that mathematics anxiety (phobia), one's
confidence, parents’ perception of mathematics, students’ interest and attitudes effects
students’ performance in mathematics.
Research Question 3
The result of the analysis of research question three shows that mathematics phobia has a
negative influence on students' future career in Demsa local government area. It is also
necessary for students in Demsa local government area to acquire high school knowledge and
efficiency in mathematics to compute in the 21 century. The research revealed that people
who have a strong mathematics and science background in Demsa local government area are
more likely to be employed and earn more money than those with lower achievement even if
they have not gone to college. It also revealed that mathematics phobia can discourage self-
reliance in Demsa LGA. The research also shows that mathematics in Demsa LGA is an
important subject with broad applicability to everyday life.
Summary of Major Findings
It is disheartening to note that with all the importance attached to mathematics in Nigeria's
education system, poor performance is recorded in public examination (SSCE) in recent time.
This poor performance in mathematics is one of the major reasons for decline in Science and
technology courses and development, even though there is emphasis on 60:40 ratio in favour
of science in the area of admission into higher institution (Tata, 2014).
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 189
The findings of the research revealed that mathematics phobia affects students' performance
in secondary school certificate examination in Demsa L.G.A. The causes of mathematics
phobia are many and cut across all stakeholders in education. This emanates from the schools,
students, teachers as well as government itself. One's confidence in mathematics, parental
perception of mathematics students' interests and inadequate instruction resources are some
of the contribution factors of poor performance in SSCE in Demsa Local Government Area.
The knowledge of mathematics promotes self-reliance and offers opportunity to compute
favourably in the labour market to earn a living. Mathematics has great influence in the
students' future career in Demsa local government area as it encourages the habit of self-
reliance and assists learners to think and solve their problems themselves. Mathematical
knowledge in deed equips individuals with the skills to solve a wide range of practical tasks
and problems they may encounter in life.
This research titled “effects of mathematics phobia on students' performance in SSCE in
Demsa local government” will enhance better performance in SSCE and influence future
career of students in Demsa local government area and the nation at large. To achieve this
objective the study was based on the following:
▪ The causes of mathematics phobia amongst secondary school students;
▪ The effects of mathematics phobia on the students' performance in SSCE in Demsa
local government area.
▪ The effects or influence of mathematics phobia on the students' future career.
The data collection methods adopted were structured questionnaires and interviews. Data
analysis involved converting series of recorded observation into descriptive statement and
established their relationship. Recommendation for the improvement of students’
performance in SSCE was made.
Conclusion
Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were made:
That students' negative attitude toward mathematics, inadequate quality and qualify teachers,
inadequate instructional resources lack of supervision and inspection of mathematics teachers
are some of the main causes of mathematics phobia among secondary school students in
Demsa local government area.
Mathematics phobia affects students' performance in SSCE in Demsa local government area.
It makes students remain passive in the classroom during instruction. Developing hatred, fear
anxiety for mathematics, parents' perception of mathematics, students' interest among others
affect performance of secondary school students in SSCE.
The future career of students in Demsa LGA is affected by their performance in mathematics.
People who have a strong mathematics and science background are more likely to be
employed and earn more money than those with the lower achievement. It is also necessary
for students in Demsa LGA to acquire high school knowledge and efficiency in mathematics
to compute in the 21stcentury. It also encourages self-reliance and equip individuals with the
skills to solve a wide range of practical tasks and problems they may encounter in life.
Scietech Journal, Volume 5, 190
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were provided:
mathematics teachers should have adequate mastering of the subject content, plan their lessons
very well before going into the class and should also select the best delivery techniques, avoid
discouraging statements about mathematics for such can kill interest, scare students from
liking and performing well in mathematics.
Students themselves must complement the effort of teachers in curbing mathematics phobia
by viewing mathematics with positive feelings.
Parents should be enlightened on the importance of their involvement in the education of their
children and its attendance benefit in the performance of students. Parents and society in
general should change their perception of mathematics.
Guidance and counselling units should be set up in our secondary schools and they should be
guiding and counselling students in the educational, personal and social issues affecting
students. This will definitely help them to change their view with regard to mathematics and
can help in improving their performance in it.
Frequent supervision and inspection by the state ministry of education, Demsa Zonal office
as well as the principals should be carried out in order to see and asses the teaching of
mathematics and other subjects in the study area,
REFERENCES
Agnes, E.M. & Anthony, N.N (2009). Analysis of students' performance in Junior
Secondary School Mathematics Examination in Bayelsa state of Nigeria. Retrieved online.
Attwood, T. (2014). Why are some students so poor at mathematics?
Dar-Nimrod, I. & Heine, S.J (2006). Exposure to Scientific Theories Affect women’s