Effect of Gender on Office Technology and Management (OTM) Students’ Academic Achievement and Retention in Record Management in Polytechnics in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study determined the effect of gender on office technology and management (OTM) students’ academic achievement and retention in record management in polytechnics in Anambra State, Nigeria. The study was quasi-experimental research which specifically used the pretest, posttest nonequivalent control group design. The population of the study was 6,213 Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) offering OTM in Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra State and the sample size was 347 OTM students. The instrument for data collection was Record Management Achievement Test (RMAT) extracted from second year OND AND HND past questions from 2019-2023. RMAT was administered to OTM students in both experimental and control groups. Test-retest method was used to establish the reliability of the instrument and data were analyzed with Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient which yielded 0.86. Mean was used to answer the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The SPSS version 21.0 was used for analysis. Findings revealed that male performed better than their female counterparts in record management and also there is no statistically significant difference on the pretest and posttest mean retention scores of male and female office technology and management students’ in record management. Based on the results and discussions of the findings of the study, the researchers are pertinent that students’ academic achievements in record management are not influenced by gender. It was therefore recommended among others, that record management teachers should endeavor to give female and male students equal opportunities in the classroom.