ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. 1. Background of the Study

As the Internet and web technology is growing faster in the highly IT-enabled world, today’s activities are generally been automated at various levels, especially in the academic sector, for existing systems to be automated and its records to be placed in a database, a unique value of identification must be attached to it, also known as primary key in the relational model of a databases, a primary key is a specific choice of a minimal set of attributes that uniquely specify a tuple in a relation. Informally, a primary key is "which attributes identify a record", and in simple cases are simply a single attribute: a unique ID, in automating student records in an institution, one of the entities to uniquely identify a student is the matriculation number (Odinakachukwu, 2014).

The matriculation number is a unique identification number that is assigned by an educational institution to a student upon enrollment. It authenticates and uniquely identifies a particular student as part of the institution that assigned such a number. It is the alphanumeric code that appears on the student identification card and is the official process of joining an educational institution usually a university or Polytechnic. The process is usually carried out if the candidate is qualified for a program. In some cases, academic prerequisites such as a matriculation examination has to be met before matriculation can take place. The matriculation number is a unique identifier or a code that uniquely identifies a particular person admitted into a group, particularly a school or an educational institution (Bhatt et al., 2016).

Student matriculation number is a unique identification and authentication number assigned to every student upon first enrollment into an institution. The number helps in identifying a student and it is the code that appears on the Identification (ID) card of the student. The code is a combination of both numbers and alphabets and they inherently carry meta-data along with them. Meta-data are data that provide information about one or more aspects of data (Gunathilake et al., 2017).

Student matriculation numbers are generated in ways that suits institutions issuing it and the way they are generated is solely up to the institution. The matriculation number is generated using biro and paper, this is done by registration officers, who verifiers the students document before issuing the generated number to them as their unique identity code throughout their staying in the institution, the number is use to identify an individual not a group of persons (Ajakaiye et al., 2018).

Nowadays, the computer system is been integrated into several aspect of the society hence, institutions are dropping the existing method of their managerial and administrative task, which entails the use of pen, paper and calculator or excel, which is time consuming and tasking. Institutions of learning in most part of the world in a bid to make managerial and administrative task easier, are now adopting the use of special software application built for the purpose of managerial and administrative task. The essence of adopting the use of automated system over the existing method is that its percentage of errors are zero to none or minimal, also due to the fact that records can be stored in a central location simultaneously while providing access to the records when needed and also eliminating the difficulty in retrieving lost data as often experienced in the existing method. Base on the salient reasons, building a matric number generating system for institutions of learning for generating and managing students’ records should be paramount and hence, the resolve in building a web based matric number generating system (Olayinka, 2014)

1. 2. Statement of the Problem

Presently, the method of generating matriculation number is time consuming as students after completing their basic school registration requirements they have to take their payment receipts to their respective departments for it to be verified and a matriculation is then been generated for the students. Each of the procedure involved in the generation of the matriculation number will be analyzed and automated to make the matriculation number generating system more efficient.

1. 3. Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this research work is to design and implement an automated matric number generating system for NACEST.

The objectives include the following;

1. To review related literatures pointing to automated matric number generating system.
2. Allow the quick and efficient way of generating a matric number for student.
3. Enable a proper management of student records
4. Reduce the time delay in generating a matriculation number.

1.4     Significance of the Study

The project automated matric number generating system will aid NACEST as an institution to generate matriculation number for students in a more efficient way, which in turn will reduce time lag in the current system of generating matriculation number.

1.5     Scope of the Study

This research work covers the design and implementation of an automated matric number generating system for NACEST that will aid in the generation of matriculation number efficiently within NACEST as an Institution.

1.6     Limitation of the Study

The researcher faced some limitations during the course of this research. Some of this limitations/constraint includes;

i.        Time constraint: Time factor were also the major factors as the timeframe to submit the project was too short for an extensive research.

ii.       Financial constraint:  Lack of adequate finance to fund the researcher as to visit many places was another major setback.

0. 7. Definition of Terms
1.  Algorithm: is a finite sequence of well-defined, computer-implementable instructions, typically to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation.
2. Automation: describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes. Human intervention is reduced by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions
3. Electronic: This is a device having or operating with components such as microchips and transistors that control and directs electronic currents.
4. Management: Management is a process of planning, decision making, organizing, leading, motivation and controlling the human resources, financial, physical, and information resources of an organization to reach its goals in an efficient and effective manner.
5. Matriculation Number: is a unique number assigned to each student when he/she matriculates the first time to an institution of higher learning
6. Matriculation: is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination
7. NACEST: Nigerian Army College of Environmental Science and Technology.
8. Student: A student is primarily a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution and who is under learning with goals of acquiring knowledge, developing professions and achieving employment at desired field
9. System: is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of’8 rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning.
10. Technology: This is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.
11. Unified Modeling Language: The Unified Modeling Language is a general-purpose, developmental, modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system.
12. Upload: This is simply a process of transferring data or files from peripheral or subordinate system to a larger or more central one, especially from a personal computer to an internet server.