Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Situation Analysis The emergence of computers has changed the society and the world.

It is inevitable not to use a computer for everyday transactions. With its amazing versatility, it has found its way into every area of life, and knowing how to operate it is a requirement for today's world. According to Lallana and Uy (2011), the emergence of computer age is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to information that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously. The idea is linked to the concept of a digital age or digital revolution, and carries the ramifications of a shift from traditional industry that the industrial revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on the manipulation of information. Information can be defined as a data that has been transformed into a meaningful and useful form of specific purposes. Each organization no matter what is the size is, or its purposes, depends on information for its functioning. Educational institutions also depend on information, specifically the student information, to function properly. Student information include those pertaining to personnel details of the students, along with those of their academic performance, assessments and examination results, attendance, and the like.

2 To gather those information students must register to the educational institution. Registration of students is very important to educational institutions because they can track each and every student that they have and their progress. Students have to simply fill up a form that asks for their personal information manually. Information is very delicate and so it must be protected. In the Philippines, a bill is passed by Senator Mar Roxas to establish fair practices in the processing of information relating or personal to individuals. Specifically, this bill seeks fair practices in the processing of information, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, consultation, use, consolidation, dissemination by any means, merging, linking, blocking, erasure or destruction of personal data of persons and to penalize the unauthorized processing and disclosure thereof. With that, each school has a responsibility to maintain its records and record keeping systems. Record keeping and the storage of information are other important systems that educational institutions must have. Although schools have their own methods of creating and keeping records and sharing information with staff, students, parents and the general public, they should be aware that, in doing so, they need to take account of matters such as the most efficient and effective way to storing records and information.; the confidential nature of the records and the information stored; the security of the record system used; privacy and disclosure; and, their accessibility and to whom they are accessible.

3 But even if these matters are taken into account, there are still problems encountered by with regards to the registration and storage of student information. There are still inconsistencies in the information, like wrong information entered, unintentional deletion of data and lost information. With these problems, educational institutions resort to CBIS rather than staying with the normal process of registration and record keeping. CBIS is defined by Frieder (2008) as the information technologies component of an information system. CBIS have been in widespread use in industry, non-profit organizations, government agencies and educational institutions. This system provide fast, centralized access to databases of student registration and information, serves as a reference and files can be password protected, so that only the authorized people can view it. The speed at which these files can be accessed are far quicker and are easily customizable, to meet the school needs. With Internet and technology, use of computer-based information networks is growing faster each year. It gives effective tools and strategies in solving how things and operations are done easier and more efficiently. Tremendously, a lot of institutions and organizations public or private, specifically in the educational field are adopting this system. Almon C. Hill Educational Center located at Cumming, Georgia, has implemented and maintained their information systems to support the data and information needs of the school system. The created centralized registration and records center combines the creation of student records and registration, and the

4 archival of documents. Parents and students receive personalized attention at registration and enroll all students within the family, regardless of school level they attend. Utilizing a state-of-the art electronic records management system, student and departmental records are managed according to required records retention guidelines. According to Blaine (2011), the opportunity to select a Student Information System (SIS) would best meet our needs and a company that would provide continued support and service in the future. Thus, educational institutions seek for SIS that will help them not only today but also in the future. SIS should satisfy the needs of the institutions. In the Philippines, the Information and Communication Technology Center (ICTC) of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) located at General Santos City has developed an innovative computerbased solution for tertiary schools that integrates key activities from admission, course scheduling, registration/enrollment, assessment, billing, cashiering, and students records management. It is a client-server system which makes use of open-sourced software on its server side, thus making its implementation very affordable even for small tertiary schools. This system, called e.SMS (electronicSchool Management System), has been used in MSU-IIT since 2001. It enables the registration of students and enables authorized users such as the registrar to enter permanent data of students. It also prepares all cashiering related reports, student billings, and summarized financial data of the students. Generates

5 various reports needed by a student like printing grading sheets with grades to be filled-in by the faculty. In local setting, Saints Peter and Paul Learning Center (SPPLC), a diocesan private elementary school located at Central East, Bauang, La Union traces its roots way back in 1985 when one of the Parish Pastoral Council meetings proposed a pre-school learning center. In June 1986, the newly-born SPPLC opened a fair 35 number of students. During this time, only one person became their registrar and cashier. After a year, the number of enrollees dramatically increased because of its good performance. Now, every start of the school year, SPPLC accepts enrollees. The population of the students as of the school year 2011-2012 is 712 and expected to be still increasing (see Appendix A). Thus, the continuous growth of student population results to the rapid growth of student information. Additional manpower and storages was needed in order to support the needed information of the students. Since the start of operation of SPPLC, they had been using the manual enrollment procedures. They are encountering problems because of manual process used in the registration of the students, evaluation of grades and payment of accounts. It results to time consuming and slow processing registration and unorganized records. The problem encountered by many schools in the Philippines especially the SPPLC inspired the researchers to develop a SRIS for SPPLC. The institution mentioned above was expected to improve and become more effective, efficient and productive because of adopting SRIS. The researchers wanted to hasten student registration

6 procedures, thus, helping the people affected such as the employees, faculty and staff in the production of reports and for the students to have more convenient way of processing their papers. Conceptual Framework This study used the concepts of student information, student registration system (SRS), student information system (SIS) and computer-based information system. An information industry analyst recently observed that every society is an information society. That is, all human organizations, no matter how simple, depend for their functioning on an intangible resource called information. Each
organization, regardless of its size or purpose, generates information to keep a record of events and transactions that take place within the business.

Information thus can be defined as data that has been transformed into a meaningful and useful form for specific purposes. In some cases data may not require any processing before constituting information. However, generally,

data is not useful unless it is subjected to a process through which it is manipulated and organized, its contents analyzed and evaluated. Only then that data becomes information. Educational institutions also depend on information to function properly. This information, which is called student information, consists of the personal

7 details of the students, along with those of their academic performance, assessments and examination results, attendance, and the like. Every year, student information increases dramatically for every educational institution. With the ever increasing student information,

educational institutions resort to using computers. According to Greenwald, et al. (2005), since computers process information very quickly, its inherent speed is one reason why people seek the development of system projects computer-based systems that can help people at organizations, by freeing from many tedious calculations or comparing different items with one another. Thus, competitive advantage in the digital world is even more important than in the old system. The breakthrough of the computer was the great function of modernity for different software application to make work easier, more capable, and more adaptable for the people. It has brought a new level of knowledge that became the new standard in the industry. It made the school works more efficient for students and provided path to communicate to the entire school. At the moment, computer based system is commonly used by every universities and colleges. The one responsible in the gathering of information from students is the SRS. A SRS organizes the application, registration, and monitoring of students in a school or training institute. According to Wells (2001), many universities and educational institutions have a wide range of courses, students and faculty. Combine this with the need to conserve resources, and it makes sense to

8 computerize the registration process. Registering for classes on line reduces paperwork, personnel, and costs. Another system used by schools is SIS. SIS is a software application for education establishments to manage student data. Student information systems provide capabilities for entering student test and other assessment scores through an electronic grade book, building student schedules, tracking student attendance, and managing many other student-related data needs in a school, college or university. In information system, computerization is concerned about interrelating different but interdependent transactions. This can result in a system with wellintegrated processes that can perform much faster and more accurate than a manual system. According to Schellenberg (2005), computer-based information systems improve productivity through the quality rather that quantity of work. Rather than speeding up development process, computers save time in the long run for employees who then us the extra hours to tinker and improve their products. One of the concepts of this study looked at computer-based information system for the school. CBIS is defined by Shakkah and Osman (2011) as an information system that uses computers, consists of hardware, software, databases, people, telecommunications and procedures, configured to collect, manipulate, store, and process data into information that become so important and highly needed. Most types of work require a high number of people, time

9 and effort to accomplish. All jobs that were done manually a century ago have now become easier to do, as a lot of time and cost are now saved with the development of technology. Similarly, seeking data and information especially from manual reports and studies is tedious to scan through to find the necessary information. Thus, to solve the problem and to find a suitable solution, in particular for an urgent issue, could take a very long time. Due to changing environment for organizations, competition,

convergence, networked, and costs, levels of decision makers decreased in flatted organizations. In this paper the researchers want to know how the CBIS plays a role. According to Wellington (2008), we cannot ignore the fact that the knowledge provided with the help of computer is far better, faster, and accurate, rather than the knowledge provided with the primitive method using pen and paper. Thus, computer-based information is more accurate than the traditional information system. The creation of such SRIS could prove to be a very good vehicle to expose the school to organized practice. No one perhaps can question the appeal and impact the system can make to the school. Thus, the concepts discussed helped the researchers in determining the possible courses. It encourages a more sensitive awareness of the school operations and production activities utilized well that may prove to be significant help to the acquisition of effective student registration and

10 information system in the school. It also explains the reasons why project has to be done in a particular way and understanding particular ideas in building the system. The above-mentioned concepts were designed to support the present study of the researchers. Based on the concepts, the researchers thus, created the Research Paradigm. This study made use of the Input-Process-Output Model (IP-O) as shown in Figure 1. The input included the assessment of the status of the ICT resources of SPPLC in terms of hardware, software, peopleware, and network infrastructure. The input also included the assessment of the existing SRIS in terms of its performance, information, economics, control, efficiency, and services. The inputs were processed by way of using survey checklist, survey questionnaire, and system development using Rapid Application Development and testing the usability of the system and arrived at an output which was the Student Registration and Information System of Saints Peter and Paul Learning Center.