A STUDY OF PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE TEACHING OF TOUCH KEYBOARDING IN NIGERIA A STUDY OF AUCHI POLYTECHNIC AUCHI

Background of the Study
In Nigerian, there are many system of education that will be beneficial to citizens and the society in terms of job opportunities and self reliance. This system of education laid more emphasis on vocational courses. Touch keyboarding is a course in secretarial studies that leads to the acquisition of a particular skill and offer workers adequate self-expression, more opportunities for creative thinking and physical manipulation of modern equipments Adeyemo. (2010).

Keyboarding is one of the main subject offered by secretarial studies department in various tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Unfortunately, many students of secretarial studies or business education (secretarial option) find the mastery of keyboarding an obstacle to the realization of their educational ambition. In schools, the study of keyboarding has been a difficult task to both students.

The lecturers find it uneasy to impact the knowledge to the students, while on the other hand the students find it difficult to master the keyboard in terms of typing with speed and accuracy. Some of the problems encountered by the students in touch keyboarding include poor knowledge of English, bad typewriters for transcription, lack of interest, poor ventilation, uncomfortable sitting arrangement and poor accommodation etc. which should facilitate touch keyboarding. Lack of adequate teaching equipment and fear on the part of the students has prompted the researcher to carry out thus study with a view of finding solutions to these problems. Students treat touch keyboarding like every other subject, they only study it during examination periods and as such perform badly. In the secretarial profession upon which the researcher, will want to base this research, it has been discovered that many people choose the secretarial profession for one reason or the other.

Normally, people are enthusiastic and motivated to perform better in a course of study when they are aware of the benefit they will get from the study of such courses like touch keyboarding, typewriting, audio typing, transcription, computer operation and word processor manipulation Adeyemo. (2010). Whatever be the motivate of the people for doing the course, they should bear in mind that it is very important that the basic touch keyboarding and typewriting that qualifies anybody to be called a secretary, must not be tossed to the wind.

Much has been said in recent years about the declining standard and disappointing examination results in touch keyboarding while this may be some what exaggerated, lecturers are well aware that the performance of many students fall short of their potentials example the result of Federal Polytechnic Auchi, declined seriously in the year 2015 academic session, due to students inability to synthesize and retain what they had learnt in touch keyboarding subject thus being unable to deliver positive result and students negative attitude to the learning of touch keyboarding or is it inadequate teaching of the course and lack of equipment and materials for study.

Despite the fact that touch keyboarding plays a vital role in today’s business transaction, students in secretarial department have been finding it difficult to put more interest in the course of touch keyboarding which has lead to poor performance of the students in the course (touch keyboarding). Inability of the students to comprehend and concentrate when mastering the keyboard are all reason why difference in progress is to be expected.