COMPUTER LITERACY IN SECRETARIAL PRACTICE IN

NIGERIA: A DIPSTICK PAPER

By
A. O. Abolade
Department of Curriculum Studies and Educational Technology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin.

Abstract
This paper examines secretarial practice in the institutions of higher learning in
Nigeria. It attempts to highlight how technological innovations are rendering
obsolete the hitherto cherished skills and competencies of secretaries. This
obsolesce is as a result of electronic computers, which have now permeated the
institutions of higher learning in Nigeria. After enumerating some of the
traditional functions of the secretaries the author goes on to suggest how such
functions can be handled by computers with efficiency, accuracy, and cost
effectiveness. The author then suggests some strategies to re-train the
secretaries to make them computer literate so that they will be able to cope, to a
humble extent, the challenges of the new millennium.

Introduction
One of the major problems of technology today is the rapidity with which scientific
inventions and innovations sink into obsolesce. The attendants consequences of this swift
obsolesce are that inventors, innovators and other consumers are forced to learn or acquire new
skills and competence to keep up with the time. And what is more important is that some skills
are cumulative while others are completely " disparate" to the extent that a new consumer of
scientific invention and innovation must have to start all over again. In many industrially
developed economies, adjustments to scientific innovation obsolesce are expensive and
enervating. Despite their unpleasantness, these countries still manage to keep abreast of
obsolesce. The situation is much more serious and precarious in developing and poor countries
that import. A supposedly new technology becomes obsolete by the time their countries take
delivery of imported technology and scout around to train new personnel to use it. One of these
technologies is computer. It is a machine "especially designed for the manipulation of coded
information, an automatic electronic machine for performing simple and complex operations"
(Gerlach and Ely p. 393). It is one of the wonders of the century that have helped humanity to
solve its innumerable problems. While it is helping manufacturing industries to plan, organize and
control its production and sales, it is equally assisting the office secretary to become efficient in
his or her functions. The purpose of this write up is to examine how the present functions of office
secretaries in Nigeria can be enhanced by a small dose of computerization.

The Typical Nigerian Office Secretary

The typical office secretary in Nigeria does not exist because the word typical is imputed
on him or her. The secretary that one is referring to here is the one that works in an educational
institution. In many instances, the secretary is a female. She has certain functions, which help to
facilitate the day-to-day running of the department. For example, the secretary in a College of

education or in a University performs inter-alia the following functions.

1.

Taking notes from the Head of department;

2.

Taking Minutes of meetings;

3.

Preparing the LPO;

4.

Keeping accurate and up-to-date records of students;

5.

Organizing current departmental information to make it easily retrievable;

6.

Keeping secret departmental information;

7.

Typing with accuracy;

8.

Making and receiving telephone calls; and

9.

Performing other duties as may be assigned by the head of the department.

Some of these functions may be delegated to her clerical staff working with the
secretaries in the educational institutions. The entire efficiency and success of the department
rest on the organizational ability of the secretary.

Highlights of Secretarial Problems

Hitherto, many of the functions performed by secretaries in higher institution are
performed manually. In a recent study carried out by this author, it was discovered that more than
60% of the functions performed by secretaries could be computerized. When secretaries were
asked what normally caused conflicts between them and their bosses they listed prominently the
following:
i.

inability to supply information to their bosses as quickly as the bosses

wanted them;

ii
keeping tract with students records after three years of graduating;
iii.
insistence of some heads of department (HODS) that reports previously typed on stencil
would have to be retyped;
iv.

coping with routine office practice which is repetitive; and

v.

coping with typing students results which have to be published on

schedule.

When they were asked to indicate how much literacy they have on computerized
information system, less than 20% of the 130 sampled had a meagre knowledge of word
processing.

The Role of Computer Literacy among Secretaries

The role of computer cannot be overestimated in educational institutions. If a
great percentage of the secretaries of the educational institutions are computer literate many of
the highlighted problems could have been minimized. While it is not our intention here to discuss
the advent of computers in the 1950s in North America, there is need to state here that 1975
marked the beginning of microcomputers in these developed nations. The application of
computers in developing nations began less than a decade ago. Suffice to say that the use of
computers by secretaries can facilitate many of their problems. The computer can keep adequate
records of secretarial assignments. Because of their imaginable memory capacity of computers,
they can store information and be able to retrieve it within a tinkling of an eye. While the human
memory is still adding two plus two and subtracting 1/3 the computer would have done it in a few
seconds. Regarding the unpleasantness of retyping the same document several times, the
computer (word processing) will do it faster, more neatly and more accurately.
The storage capacity of computers is another important phenomenon that is very useful

to secretarial function. A 3.5 diskette can store more than 100 students' records. In terms of
space, records of 100 students put in files can occupy a whole file cabinet. A thousand computer
diskettes, which store 100,000 students' records, will occupy only 10% of the entire space of the
same file cabinet where 100 students' files are kept. In addition to those above, computers
perform other secretarial functions with less error and more speed than a human brain.

Strategies for Extending Computer Literacy to Secretaries

It has become imperative for secretaries to be computer literate in the Nigerian tertiary
institutions. This can be done through in-service training and by the use of computer service
bureau. There are other consultancy services, which can provide computer-training services to
the secretaries. The educational institutions must have to provide microcomputers that will be
able to serve the needs of their secretaries.

References
ACCA Study Pack. (1977), Data processing and system design financial training (Jersey) Limited.
Chapman R. J. and Oliver B. C. (1975) Data processing, Harestock. D. P. Publications.
Gerlach V. S. and Ely D. P. London; (2nd Edition) 1980 Teaching and media: A systematic
approach: Prentice-Hall.