Terre Rouge State Secondary School: System Analysis

Contents of System Analysis: Contents | Page | i. Definition – Nature of Problem a) Introduction b) Forms that data takes c) Origin of problem d) Methods currently in use with problems | 5 to 95 to 67 to 899 | ii. Investigation and Analysis a) Interview b) Observation c) Documents d) User Requirements | 9 to 2110 to 1314 to 1516 to 2122 |

i. Definition – Nature of Problem

a) Introduction
Terre Rouge State Secondary School

Terre Rouge SSS is a Form 1 to Form 6 College situated in Bois Pignolet Terre Rouge. It has as immediate neighbour Professor Hassan Raffa SSS. T.R.S.S.S. was founded in 1999. It started its operations on 8th January 2000 with incomplete school premises. The school population is as follows:
Number of students: 549
Number of teaching staff: 53
Number of non-teaching staff (administration): 6
Workmen group: 16
The school compound is a square shape, two-storey building and includes: 1. 28 classrooms, large enough to accommodate 30 pupils 2. 2 workshops for “Design, Communication & Technology” 3. 2 equipped Art Rooms 4. 2 well-equipped Computer Rooms 5. 1 laboratory block, including 2 laboratory rooms for Physics, Biology and Chemistry respectively. 6. 1 medium-size library 7. 1 staff room, large enough to accommodate around 55 teachers.

The school is controlled by the Rector, Mr. Rashid Jeeawody, assisted by the Deputy Rector, Mr. Sham Jagessur and the usher, Mr. Prakash Cheemantoo. The school operates from 8 o’clock of the morning till half past 2 of the afternoon.

Concerning the pupil attendance system of the school, regular attendance is performed at 8.00 a.m. and at 1.00 p.m. This is recorded in the attendance register. Lateness forms should be filled by those students who reach school after 8.10 a.m. Early departure forms should be filled by those students who leave the school premises earlier than 2.30 p.m. Early Departure Forms should be signed by the person (most of the time the responsible party) who comes to fetch the student wishing to leave the school premises before 2.30 p.m.

b) Methods currently in use with problems
Although the school is working progressively, it is facing lots of problems. Some of the problems are the following: * When students are absent, the next day they do not bring the letter of absence signed by their responsible parties. Thus the school does not know whether the parents are aware that their wards were absent from the school.

* Most of the students who reach the school premises late do not return their lateness forms at the usher, Mr.Prakash’s office. Moreover, some irresponsible class captains do not submit the attendance card by the end of the day.

* There is too much paperwork. Insertions, amendments and deletions of data are difficult. Moreover, the files are not kept in a proper reasonable order. For every transaction, i.e. the admission or transfer of a student, employment or transfer of a teacher, recording lateness, absence, early leaving, editing any detail of the file and so on, different files are used.

* Generating reports is so difficult. Mr. Prakash has to go through the all the attendance registers to make the absence report. He also has to gather all the lateness and early departure forms to produce the lateness and early departure reports.

* Too much physical space is required to store the files. Mr. Prakash’s table is full with so much essential papers. They include attendance registers, lateness forms, early leaving forms, attendance cards and reports.

* Information is easily lost easily. While getting rid of old forms and documents, Mr. Prakash sometimes mistakenly throws necessary documents.

* It is time consuming to search for any information. As there is too much papers on Mr. Prakash’s table, it is too difficult to find any specific information. For instance, to mark a student arriving late to the school as being present, Mr. Prakash has to go through all the attendance registers until he reaches the specific student’s class, register. Then he has to go through the whole attendance register until he reaches the student’s name.

* The records of the transactions lack precision. For instance, the addresses of the students in the Pupil File are written in abbreviation in order to save space in the file. The Form Teacher File and even the Class File does not consist of precise information. The reports also seem to be incomplete.

* Files need to be duplicated regularly to update them after the changes. Information on the files needs to be duplicated so as to avoid cross-referencing. This takes up more physical space and time in duplicating the files, as well. Sometimes duplicated information gets mixed up with original information and also, sometimes, information is not correctly duplicated; thus making the work more difficult.

* Too many papers on Mr. Prakash’s table attract pests such as cockroaches. This creates nuisance in his office as they feed on papers, causing loss of information.

c) Origin of data
The pupils’ details such as name, address, class name and phone number are kept in the Pupil File.
Form Teachers’ details such as surname, name and class in charge are recorded in the Teacher File.
Classes’ details such as class name and number of pupils are shown in the Class File.
Lateness of pupils is recorded on lateness forms as well as in the attendance card. They record details like day, date, name of pupil, class, time of arrival.
Early departure of pupils is collected through the early departure forms and is recorded in the attendance card as well. They record details like day, date, name of pupil, class, time of departure.
The details of the absences of the pupils are recorded in the attendance register as well as in the attendance card. It records details like pupils’ names, their presence and absence.

d) Forms that data takes Data | Data Type | Name | Text | Address | Text | Phone Number | Number | Class | Text | Attendance | Text | Date | Date | Time of Arrival | Time | Time of Early Departure | Time |

ii. Investigation and Analysis a) Interview
To investigate on the pupil monitoring system of Terre Rouge SSS, I had requested the rector, Mr. Rashid for an interview.
Letter requesting for the interview:

Response of Mr. Rashid to my letter:

On Friday 4th March 2011, at 10.00 a.m. meeting with Mr. Rashid Jeeawody, the rector of Terre Rouge SSS:
Me: Good morning Sir.
Mr. Rashid: Good morning. So, how can I help you?
Me: Sir, in order to analyze the pupil attendance system of your school, I need to ask you a few questions.
Mr. Rashid: Please go on.
Me: How long have you been working here?
Mr. Rashid: It’s been 9 years since I’ve been working here.
Me: So you must know the system of this school quite well. What are the common transactions taking place here concerning the attendance of the students?
Mr. Rashid: Well, there is the admission and transfer of students, morning and afternoon attendance of the students by the form teachers, lateness and early leaving of students. Lateness forms are filled by those students who reach the school premises after 8.10 a.m. and early departure forms are filled by those who leave the school before 2.30 p.m. Me: What about the form teachers and the class structure?
Mr. Rashid: One form teacher is responsible of one class. The duties of the form teachers are to take the attendance of the students in the morning as well as in the afternoon and to control their specific classes during extra-curricular activities. Yet, due to problems arising in the management of the classes by the form teachers, the school is thinking of employing 2 form teachers per class. Thus the supervision of students’ attendance can be strengthened. Concerning the class structure, there are 28 classes, 4 of each standard, i.e. Form 1 to Form 6. Each class consists of approximately 30 pupils.
Me: Where are the details and transactions of your system recorded?
Mr. Rashid: The students’ details are recorded in the Pupil File, the class details in the Class File and the form teachers’ details in theForm Teacher File. The attendance of the students is recorded in the attendance register. The lateness forms and the early departure forms are gathered up and in their respective boxes. To avoid cross-referencing of information the files of the system are duplicated.
Me: What are the reports produced in the system?
Mr. Rashid: Reports such as the pupil lists according to class, list of form teachers, daily and termly absences lists, daily and termly lateness lists and daily and termly early departure lists are produced. To produce these reports, specific essential information is required. Very often the administration face difficulties in finding the specific information as the files lack of essential details.

Me: Tell me more about the problems face by the school.
Mr. Rashid: The most important problem is that there are a great number of students who play truant from the school. We have even requested the students for a letter of absence from their parents. However, this attempt is failure as most of the students who were absent bring forged letters. There is too much paperwork. Paper files take up too much physical space. Information is easily lost due to the increasing number insects such as cockroaches feeding on the papers. Sometimes original files get mixed up with the duplicated ones.
Me: How do find the use of spreadsheet to record the attendance?
Mr. Rashid: The staffs thought of this nice solution. It outweighs some of the manual problems like paper work. However, with its use, only one spreadsheet table must be created to all the transaction of the system. Yet, if several tables are created, it is difficult to link these tables. So we dropped the idea.
Me: Do you think computerizing the system is a good idea?
Mr. Rashid: If this will solve the manual problems, then of course it is a nice thought.
Me: Thank you for your precious time Sir. It was a great help from you. I would like to observe the attendance system, can I?
Mr. Rashid: You are most welcome.
Analysis from the interview
The main transactions that take place in the system are: morning attendance, afternoon attendance, recoding lateness, recording early departure, admission of pupils, transfer of pupils, employment of teachers and transfer of teachers. Each class is under the supervision of one form teacher. There are 28 classes, each consisting of about 30 pupils. Lateness forms and early departure forms are gathered and stored in boxes. Reports are mainly produced on termly and daily basis. Difficulties arise when searching for information. There is lack of physical space to store papers. Insects crop up, creating nuisance. The idea of spreadsheet has been declined by the school. b) Observation
Observation is a method of analyzing the system while watching how the tasks are carried out in it. Thus the problems of the system are identified.

As the school bell rings at 8.00 a.m. the form teachers go to their specific classes to take the attendance of the pupils. This is recorded in the attendance register. Those students who are present are marked as present while for those who are absent, an ‘a’ is written at their name to mark them as absent. The number of students who are present and the names of those who are absent are written in the attendance card (the pink card). After each class, the teacher in charge writes the number of students who have attended his/her class.

A student who reaches the school after 8.10 a.m. should firstly go to the usher, Mr. Prakash’s office to fill the lateness form and get it signed by Mr. Prakash or Mr. Rashid, the rector. Then the student takes the form to his respective class and gets it signed by the teacher who is working there. Afterwards, during the first break of the day, i.e. at 9.30, the student should return the form at the usher’s office. Then the student is marked as present in the attendance register by writing an ‘l’ at his name. Furthermore, his name should be cut down in the attendance card (the pink card). These forms are used to make lists of daily and temly lateness.

If a student wishes to leave the school earlier than 2.30 p.m. his responsible party should come to fetch him. An early departure form should be filled and signed by the student’s responsible party. This form should also be signed by Mr. Rashid or Mr. Prakash. This transaction must also be recorded in the attendance card. The early departure forms are used to make the reports of the daily and termly early departures.

At 1.00 p.m. the afternoon attendance is carried out by the form teachers as the same way in the morning. Then, by the end of the day, all the class captains of the school submit the attendance cards to the usher, Mr. Prakash. These cards and the attendance registers of the classes are used to monitor the presence of the students in the classes; they are used to make the daily and termly absence reports.

The books consisting pupils’ details, the classes’ details and the form teachers’ details, the attendance cards, the attendance registers, the lateness and early departure forms are all collected and stored in Mr. Prakash’s office.

Analysis from the Observation
The attendance taking process is carried out at 8.00 a.m. and at 1.00 p.m. Form teachers carry out the attendance process. The way the lateness and early departure is recognized. The rector or the usher should sign the lateness and early departure forms. The purpose of the attendance card is to record the updated number of pupils present in the class. Termly and daily reports are produced.

c) Documents
This is a method in which we have to go through all the essential papers of the system in order to know how it works.

* The Pupil File
This consists of all the details of the pupils as shown below:

* The Class File
In this book, all the details of the classes are recorded as shown in the diagram below.

* The Teacher File
It shows who is in charge of which class as shown below:

* The Attendance Register
This is used to record the attendance of the pupils both in the morning and in the afternoon. The pupil is marked as present or absent (‘a’) or late (‘l’).

* The Attendance Card (The Pink Card)
This is used to monitor the attendance of the students for the whole day. It consists of the number of students present in the class. The names of the students who are absent, who are late and who leave the school earlier are also recorded in it. All the teachers working in the class should sign the attendance card.

* The Lateness Form
This is filled by those students who reach the school after 8.10 a.m.

* The Early Departure Form
This is filled by those students who leave the school before 2.30 p.m.

* The list of Absences
This is a report produced by using the attendance register.

* List of Lateness
This is a report produced using the lateness forms.

* List of Early Departure
This is a report produced using the early departure forms.

Analysis from the Documents
The table below shows the analysis from the documents used in the system. It states the purpose of each document used. Pupil File | Record pupils’ details | Class File | Record classes’ details | Teacher File | Record teachers’ details | Attendance Register | Record presence and absence of pupils | Attendance Card (Pink Card) | Record the number of pupils present in the class | Lateness Form | Record the lateness of pupils | Early Departure Form | Record the early departure of pupils | Reports | Reports are generated on absence, lateness and early departure on daily and termly basis. |

d) User Requirements
The user requirements have been signed by the rector, Mr. Rashid Jeeawody.
Date: 26 February 2011
The list of user requirements is as follows: * Less paperwork. * Less time to search for the specific information. For instance, to search for a pupil’s details, form teachers’ details, classes’ details, any particular transaction concerning the attendance of a pupil (i.e. his absence or presence) or any lateness or early departure transaction. * Less physical space to store the files and important documents which are the Pupil File, the Class File, the Form Teacher File, the attendance register, the lateness forms and the early departure forms. * Avoid duplication of the files. * Increase in the positive goodwill of the school. * Less expenditure in purchasing papers. * Discipline by the students when the process of attendance id being carried out. * To make sure that the responsible parties are aware of their wards’ absence at school. * Sequential arrangement of the contents of the files, i.e. list of pupils in the Pupil File in an alphabetical order, list of classes in the Class File in ascending order and alphabetical list of the form teachers in the Form Teacher File. * Back up of useless information which can later prove to be essential. * Record of detailed information concerning the attendance system. * No insects such as cockroaches acting as a nuisance in the office. * A method through which insertions, amendments and deletions con be easily carried out. * The automatic update of all the concerning files whenever a transaction takes place in the system. * Easy way to generate daily and termly reports.

Rashid Jeeawody