1.1 Introduction
Child care or day care is the care of a child during the day by a person other than the child’s legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child’s immediate family. Day care is typically an ongoing service during specific periods, such as the parents’ time at work. It can also take on a more formal structure, with education, child development, discipline and even preschool education falling into the fold of services (Clancy, (2012).
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
In our society, initiating a new change or process is quite a difficult task. Although the use of computers and its application has taken off effectively in Nigeria, its diversified use in all sectors of the economy still remains in tall order. Gold, Rachel. (2009). Children’s Daycare centres have found computerization of their activities very useful in record keeping, information tracking and updating as well as decision making. Today, the case for accuracy has resulted to the shift from the use of manual approaches in handling Children’s Daycare activities to computerized approach. Currently, computers are made to handle these tasks more efficiently than the manual system of recording information that has existed. Introducing the computer program called Children’s Daycare information tracking system will assist both Daycare centres and parents to make the right decision in regards to the management of their wards. The computer based program will present this information on the computer screen for use by the daycare centres.
Today, it is believed that the application of computer technology in any activity would go a long way in making that activity much easier. To the researcher, this statement remains a theory until proven otherwise by implementation of Children’s Daycare information tracking system. It is also believed that the benefits and advantages of using computers in the course of managing children in day care outweighs that of manual methods which consist of office flat files, this also wants to be proven beyond doubt by the researcher through the implementation of the new system. Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Children Daycare Information Tracking System.
1.3 Statement of Problem
The major problem that gave rise to this research project are faced by management and staff of Olinz daycare centre, they include
- Lack of effective database storage system,
- The existing system is characterized by stress, inconvenience and fatigue to the users.
- Duplicate entry or registration of children in the daycare centre which makes it very difficult to track a particular child uniquely
- Poor GUI (graphical user interface) been presented to the end users
- Time delay and consumption in the entire process
- Unauthorized usage and access to important fixed asset records by intruders and impersonators in the ministry
Hence, it has become imperative and necessary for the children management process of the daycare system to be updated.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement a Computerized Children Daycare information tracking system. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were set out as follows:
- To develop a system that will be used to establish an efficient means of managing and tracking children in Daycare.
- To design a system that will contain a reliable database of different children
- To present a system that will enable management and staff of Olinz daycare centre to have proper knowledge of children tracking system.
- To develop a system that will be cost effective as regards to children daycare.
- To design a system that would contain a secured database and administrative login.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The software developed will be beneficial to the Children Daycare:
- Maintain a centralized database for children daycare records
- Retrieve previous information on children daycare from the system easily using serial query language
- Have a good surveillance on the children daycare information for security purposes
- Know the number of children registered in a daycare service.
- Track the frequency of a children in daycare.
Besides, the study will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The scope of this research is focused on the Design and Implementation of Children Daycare Information Tracking System using Olinz daycare centre as a case study. This research project covers only records about Children Daycare registration, incoming and outgoing time schedule, and the daycare fee payment status.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Credentials: A qualification, achievement, quality, or aspect of a person's background, especially when used to indicate their suitability for something.
Electronic: (of a device) having or operating with components such as microchips and transistors that control and direct electric currents.
Information: What is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things.
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