CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Computer as indispensible tools in the total life of human endeavor has gained precedence in the world especially in the development growth of the Nigeria society. Computers are super machines that convert physical/mental effort into a mere easy life. The use of computer in our everyday life cannot be over emphasized. This is because of the gradual increase in human population and complexity of life, which has equally brought about increase in volumes of data being generated every day.
The gradual increase in human population has equally affected the education sector. Thus higher institutions in the country today are currently faced with the challenges of hostels/halls allocation to students. The fact remain that the number of students usually out numbers the available accommodation.
It is safe to say that most activities such as hostel allocation that are carried out in most universities in Nigeria are done manually. Therefore, there is a lot of strain on the individuals running the hostel allocation. An E-hostel system is simply software developed for managing most activities that take place in the hostels with the help of a hostel administrator [1].
The goal of this research work is to provide a solution to the problem of hostel management, by designing a computerized system which is user-friendly and GUI-oriented that will be compatible with the existing manual system. The system will solve the problem of hostel management; thus helping to reduce problems associated with the manual hostel management system. The system can only be accessed by students who have paid school fees for the current semester. The project uses Godfrey Okoye University thinker’s corner Enugu as case study.
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Students at the beginning of each session waste half of the semester looking for accommodation.
1. The few hostels that exist in the universities are not properly managed, since they are using manual system, which is paper-based. The possibility of losing the data is very high, Lots of paper are required to store all the information, data could be misplaced due to human error or in the event of a break in, data could be stolen very easily;
2. It usually takes time to retrieve data or information that has been stored, because the workers need to find the actual folder where the data was stored previously.
3. Most often students pay for hostel fee and end up not getting one due to lack of bed spaces when there are enough space.
4. 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.
1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The project is designed to help in the management of hostel allocation in the University. The main objective of the system includes:
1) To create and develop a central database system that will contain information on all the available rooms in the hostel.
2) To add new existing hostels and rooms to the system.
3) To print out the evidence of hostel space being allocated to a student.
4) To generate reports on hostel occupancy.
5) To ensure that any registered and eligible students are allocated into hostel.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
The new system designed for computer driven student’s hostel allocation will among other things:
1. The system will enable the students get their hostel room before the lectures will commence every semester.
2. The system helps to know the particular student occupying bunk space each semester.
3. The system will enable to improve in the condition of how the hostel is being managed.
4. It gives the actual number of the students in the hostel statistically.
5. Store all student information and enables the management team to retrieve back the information that have been stored and to maintain all activities in managing a hostel.