1.1 Introduction
Hostel Allocation in schools often involves administering of all activities of students. All these still remain difficult and require some job for the school management. Hostel Allocation functions and responsibilities in modern day schools have always been a problem in managing, because of the manual system method of tools they use. a Computerized Student Hostel Allocation System is well designed specially to meet challenges of administrative set up of any school.
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, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of the Study
Hostel is an establishment which provides cheap food and lodging for specific group of people, it is also seen as a home for students when staying away from their home. It has large well ventilated dormitories and single rooms and is situated in the school premises. Providing clean and calm hostel accommodation is one of the key responsible of school management. To manage the hostel facilities, a lot of data need to be maintained such as number of student hostel can accommodate, hostel rules and regulation, hostel fee, hostel in and out of student, guest and visitor record and so on. So, this needs the system which has an ability to capture all kind of data and information and analyze it properly for smooth functioning of the hostel. Hostel warden can easily maintain the data.
A Computerized Student Hostel Allocation System can be used to assist in student’s allocation, setup hostel information, hostel application. In short, this system will assist the staff in managing some of the hostel activities. In 1912, in Altena Castle in Germany, RichardSchirrmann created the first permanent "Youth Hostel". These first Youth Hostels were an exponent of the ideology of the German Youth Movement to let poor city youngsters breathe fresh air outdoors. The youths were supposed to manage the hostel themselves as much as possible, doing chores to keep the costs down and build character as well as being physically active outdoors. Because of this, many Youth Hostels closed during the middle part of the day.
In 1912, in Altena Castle in Germany, Richard Schirrmann created the first permanent Jugendher berge or “Youth Hostel”. These first Youth Hostels were an exponent of the ideology of the German Youth Movement to let poor city youngsters breathe fresh air outdoors. The youths were supposed to manage the hostel themselves as much as possible, doing chores to keep the costs down and build character as well as being physically active outdoors. Because of this, many Youth Hostels closed during the middle part of the day.
There are several differences between hostels and hotels, including:
- Hostels tend to be budget-oriented; rates are considerably lower, and many hostels have programs to share books, DVDs and other items.
- For those who prefer an informal environment, hostels do not usually have the same level of formality as hotels.
- For those who prefer to socialize with their fellow guests, hostels usually have more common areas and opportunities to socialize. The dormitory aspect of hostels also increases the social factor.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
The growing number of students in higher institutions all over the world has posed a lot of accommodation problem on the part of students and school management. Students at the beginning of each session waste half of the semester looking for accommodation. The few hostels that exist in the universities are not properly managed. Statistics of the number of rooms required to match the growing number of students are farfetched. Most often, students pay for hostel fee and end up not getting one due to lack of bed space. Hostel administrators cannot give accurate information of the occupancy of a particular room. These and many more form the statement of the problem that necessitated this research work.
- At Imo State University, the whole process of hostel allocation and management is done manually.
- Statistics of the number of rooms required to match the growing number of students are far-fetched.
- Most often, the overall process is time consuming and requires a lot of effort.
- Student’s information retrieval is difficult and records are unsecured due to manual method of storage.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to develop a Computerized Hostel Allocation software that will manage the hostel activities of Imo State University as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To design and develop a central database system that would serve as hostel database, which will contain information on all the available rooms in the hostels.
- To design a computer − driven a Computerized Student Hostel Allocation System for allocating hostel rooms to students.
- To generate reports on hostel occupancy and financial reports.
- To provide online student application for students to apply for hostel.
- To upgrade from manual means of student’s hostel allocation.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The new system designed for computer driven student’s hostel allocation will among other things:
- Facilitate timely allocation of hostel rooms to students
- Check the hostels occupancy at any time for information management
- Sum up the total amount realized from hostels fee each session
- Enable management to plan on improving hostel living condition.
- Have first hand information on the statistics of students in the hostel.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The scope of this research is focused on the Design and Implementation of a Computerized Student Hostel Allocation System using Imo State University as a case study. This research work is will cover among other things:
- Hostel allocation
- Hostel fee payment
- Hostel rooms registration
- Financial reports.
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, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
