1.1 Background of the StudyAs a result of the advent of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the world is now moving at a breakneck speed (Adu & Ngulube, 2017). Managers and administrators in organizations all over the world today rely on ICT to improve productivity by administering and managing their …
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1.1 Background of the StudyAs a result of the advent of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the world is now moving at a breakneck speed (Adu & Ngulube, 2017). Managers and administrators in organizations all over the world today rely on ICT to improve productivity by administering and managing their operations (Adu & Ngulube, 2017). The Stevenson Committee (2017) not only highlighted the potential applications of ICT in UK schools, but also found that the status of ICT in UK schools in the 1990s was rudimentary and not improving, and that increasing ICT usage in schools should be a national priority. Since 1997, several government initiatives have encouraged the use of ICT in school management, including the National Grid for Learning (NGfL), the lottery-funded New Opportunities Fund (NOF) scheme to provide ICT training or re-training for 500,000 practicing teachers and school librarians, and Curriculum Online. Over a four-year period, the "ICT Test Bed Project" combines large-scale investments in ICT hardware, software, and support with a commitment to professional development and collaboration amongst participating schools and institutions, and is one of the UK government's most recent ICT projects. [Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 2013].As the world shifts from manual to electronic or digital methods of doing things, school administrators and managers are encouraged to embrace this paradigm shift in order to improve their operations and remain in business. In basic schools, ICT can be used to: (i) raise standards and performance, focusing in particular on school improvement and improving the quality of teaching and learning; (ii) enable more effective leadership and management in schools; (iii) Help teachers focus their time on the core task of teaching; (iv) enable more effective collaboration between schools and with their local colleges; (v) enable more effective collaboration between schools and with their local colleges;; and (v) provide wider learning opportunities to pupils, their families and the wider community in a home environment (DfES, 2013).In terms of the usage of ICT in education, Africa is progressively catching up with the developed world. However, in most regions of Africa, including Ghana, the digital divide remains a serious problem due to insufficient infrastructure to allow the adoption and implementation of a fully effective ICT system in the education sector. Many rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to power, the internet, mobile service, IT infrastructure, and ICT tools that would enable them to use ICT. As a result, educational institutions in such locations have a hard time implementing and utilizing ICT in the management of their educational records and operations (Tagbotor, Adzido & Agbanu, 2015).In educational institutions, school records management plays a critical role in the efficient and successful management of students' records. It is crucial in guaranteeing the legitimacy of students' records, since good records management systems are always useful in providing accurate student records for verification and confirmation in times of disagreement. Electronic records, according to Coetzer (2012), are a critical asset in ensuring that an educational institution is successfully and efficiently managed, as well as responsible to its staff, students, and the community it serves. A competent records management system, according to Adu-Oppong and Asante (2014), guarantees that an institution satisfies its records keeping obligations by capturing and preserving the data needed to prove its actions and existence. Records document and confirm decisions made, actions taken, and the outcomes of those actions; they aid policy formation and management decision-making; they protect the organization's interests, employers' rights, and students' rights; and they assist the school in conducting its activities and providing services in a consistent and equitable manner (Langemo, 2015).
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