Records Management in Government Secondary Schools: The Case study of Kaduna North Local Government, Kaduna, and Kaduna State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Records management is the area of administrative management that is concerned with achieving economy and efficiency in the creation, maintenance, use and disposal of records of an organization throughout its life cycle.Implementing good records management practices in school would provide information for educational planners and administrators, serves as historical source for documenting history of the school, a means of showing transparency and accountability in handling school finance, they are evaluation tools for accessing progress made by schools and also show evidence of compliance with legislative laws.The descriptive research design was used for this study; the case study was drawn from six schools out of the ten schools within Kaduna north metropolis.The instrument for data collection comprised of questionnaire, interview and observation.A sample size of fifty four respondents from both schools was used.The finding of the study revealed that government schools in Kaduna north metropolis keep their records in paper format despite advancement in electronic era in government schools.Records staff use the Alpha-numeric classification scheme but do not have Retention Schedule for disposing off their records, School records are kept in file cabinet lock up in stores and government schools do not have qualified staff to manage such records.The study therefore recommends that records management policy should be made available to all staff in charge of handling records; Government schools should begin to plan towards converting their paper records into electronic for;, only qualified staff should be employed to administer records management in schools and the Universal Basic Education Board should assist schools with storage facilities considering its importance. I. Concept of Records Management in School.Records management ensures information can be accessed easily, can be destroyed routinely when no longer needed, and enables schools not only to function on a day to day basis, but also to fulfill its legal and financial requirements.The International Standard Organization (2001) defines records management as "the field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of information about business activities and transaction in the form or records".Records management is all encompassing, since it stipulates how records should be managed even before it is created to the point of disposition or retention in the archives.Chairman (1990) sees records management as that area of general administrative management concerned with achieving economy and efficiency in the creation,

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