SUPERVISORS’ RATINGS OF COMPUTER SKILLS POSSESSED BY SECRETARIES FOR EFFECTIVE WORK PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study was undertaken to determine supervisors’ ratings of the extent computer
skills are possessed by secretaries for effective work performance in colleges of
education in Delta State. The study adopted the survey research design and was
guided by four research questions while four null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level
ofsignificance. The entire population of 132 supervisors (deans, heads of departments
and directors of programmmes) in the four colleges of education in Delta State was
used for the study. A 40 item structured questionnaire with five response options was
used for data collection. The questionnaire was validated by three experts and its
reliability co-efficient of 0.86 was calculated using Pearson Product Moment
Correlation. Data relating to the research questions were analyzed using mean and
standard deviation while analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the four null
hypotheses. The study found that secretaries in colleges of education in Delta State
possessed word processing skills, electronic spreadsheet skills, internet application
skills and power-point presentation skills at a moderate extent. Respondents’ mean
ratings were not significantly influenced by their qualifications and designations.
Based on the findings, it was concluded that the moderate possession of computer
skills by secretaries in colleges of education in Delta State may be affecting their
effective performances in the present technology driven era. It was recommended
among others that authorities of colleges of education in Delta State should regularly
organize retraining programmes for secretaries on the usage of computer and its applications.