SUPERVISORS’ PERCEPTION OF RECORD MANAGEMENT PRACTICES BY SECRETARIES IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined supervisors’ perception of record management practices by secretaries in
colleges of education in South East Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study while three
null hypotheses were tested. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The
population of this study consisted of 107 supervisors from seven colleges of education in South
East Nigeria. The entire population of 107 supervisors from colleges of education in in South
East Nigeria was used as sample for this study. Therefore, there is no sampling for the study
since the population is of a manageable number. The instrument was titled “Records
Management Practices Questionnaire (RMPQ)”. The instrument was subjected to face validation
done by three experts. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the
instrument. An overall co-efficient of 0.83 was obtained. The researcher personally administered
the questionnaire to the respondents in their offices with the help of four research assistants who
were briefed by the researcher on what to do. Mean and standard deviation were statistical tools
used to answer the research questions while t-Test of independence was used to test the null
hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The findings revealed that supervisors agreed on record creation
practices while they disagreed on record storage practices and record maintenance practices of
secretaries in colleges of education in South East Nigeria. The findings also revealed that there is
no significant difference in the mean ratings of supervisors on record creation practices and
record storage practices, record maintenance practices of secretaries in colleges of education in
South East Nigeria based on their years of experience and gender. Based on these findings, it
was recommended amongst others that secretaries in colleges of Education in South East Nigeria
should enrol in workshop training programmes to acquire relevant records management
practices.