CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The essence for one going to school is for better survival tomorrow wherein becoming what he or
she is capable of becoming what he or she wants in life. And the desire of knowledge is the natural
feeling of mankind and every human being whose mind is not debauched will be willing to give
all that is required of him or her to get knowledge. It is on this basic idea that knowledge oriented
organization (school) has been set up as a ground for people to go in and learn in respond to paying
for their acquired knowledge for tomorrow success.
According to Oxford Dictionary of Current (6th Edition), fee is defined as an amount of money
that one pay for professional services. Simply put, school fee is that fixed interval payment made
by a student or students to the school he or she attends.
From the definition, one can outline that school fee payment supposed to be in a regular interval
that is timely, although sometime may not be that ready by the student due to some financial lapses.
Apart from the management being ineffective financially, students also face barriers by not being
allowed to write their examinations which is one of the academic frustration or setback. Using an
online based system for fees payment necessitated this research in order to help solve this
problems of either delayed fee payment, or the student not paying at all or the fee being
misused/mismanaged or entangled with criminal attack either on the side of student at the course
of payment or the side of bursary department/school management.
Using Life Forte college as case study, the research has the intention of creating an online student
registration and fee payment that could process students school fees payment to school’s bank
accounts and electronically lodging individual students fees indicating name, department,
registration number, level/class, date of payment, amount of money paid, academic
session/semester/ bank name, account number, phone number, school name and other personal
records etc.
This will enhance prompt payment and safe delivery and automatically stop the management and
students from being frustrated financially and otherwise.
Student Registration is the process by which you agree to the school current regulations. It is a
requirement for both new and returning students to complete registration at the start of your studies
in each academic year. Registration for most students takes place online in the Student Record
System.
You will receive an email asking you to log in to your Self-Service account and complete the
Student Registration process. You must complete your student registration by the deadline given
in your email and are advised to undertake this as soon as possible. Registration is designed to be
a simple process and will only take a few minutes.

1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The available modes of fees payment to the institution through cash deposits, Electronic Funds
Transfer (EFT) and bank drafts have caused long queues, students missing to sit for their tests and
examinations, and loss of money intended for fees while waiting to reach bank counters to make
payments among others. The problem is addressed by developing a system that enables students
and their sponsors to securely pay their fees online from wherever they are using credit and debit
cards.
The highlighted problems are listed below:
 The existing system does not allow online student registration of the student.
 The existing system is not flexible, robust.
 The existing system cannot check student details online and also cannot be used to register
students’ referee details.
 There is a limit to numbers of records student can get from the existing system because of
the size of the database
 The existing system cannot retrieve a particular record because it is tedious and time
consuming.

1.2 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

Considering the problems/inefficiencies in the existing system then the project work was justified
upon the view of the fact that the student registration and accounting transaction of the existing
system should be replaced with a computerized system that has a better working speed, high degree
of accuracy and that can process many job at a time, hence the need for the proposed system is
essential.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study is to design and implementation of a Student Registration and Online Payment
Portal for Life-forte Secondary School, which is set out to achieve the following objectives :
 To review the existing system used in paying fees so that its strength and weaknesses
are identified.
 To design a new system that enables students and their sponsors to pay fees online from
wherever they are using credit and debit cards.
 To implement the prototype of the designed system.
 To test and validate the system prototype.

1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY

The study was carried out at Life-forte college, Awotan, Ibasdan and was intended to offer an extra
channel for fees payment, through the development of a secure online registration and fees
payment system. The study focused on the development of a web based system that allows secure
online fees payment for the institution. The system will be used by students and their sponsors to
pay all kinds of fees online, and by the institution accounts offices to verify student’s payments.
The system captures financial information after payments are made and also generate a payment
receipt.

1.5 METHODOLOGY
Methods employed in gathering required data and information used for this project are:
 Interview Method
 Use of documented resources and.
 Observation Method
Interview Method: Face-to-face interviews were carried out with the interest of getting data about
the current mode of payment and exploring the entire fees clearing environment at the school. This
is vital in probing for the theory to get respondent’s opinions about the appropriateness of the
intended solution and the challenges in the current system.
Use of documented resources: Necessary documents and files were examined in detail and this
provided more insight on the current method; useful information was also extracted from
documented resources on related websites.
Observation Method: Personal observation was also made in order to understand the whole
process.

The tools that will be used in carrying out this task will be
 HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language)
 CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) and Java Scripts which will be used as the front-end of the
system.
 PHP (Hyper Text Preprocessor) will be the programming language that will be used as
the middle tier, which will establish the connection between the backend and frontend of
the system. The backend of the system will be the MySQL Database Management System.
HTML, CSS and Java Script are rich technologies for the design of an interactive GUI
(Graphical User Interface) with which the users of the system will communicate with the system.
The system will be implemented on a 4gigabite RAM and a Dual-Core processor of 2.16 GHz and
tested on Google Chrome browser. The test conducted so far shows the system is a very promising
one.

1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS

 Fees: is that fixed interval payment made by a student or students to the school he or she
attends.
 Payment: A sum of money paid or a claim discharged or the act of paying money.
 HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol, it is one of the protocol that use to transfer files on
the web server.
 WWW: World Wide Web, it is an interface that enabling running of web applications
 Webmaster: A person who is responsible for particular pages of information on the World
Wide Web
 Browse: means to look at a lot of things in a shop / store rather than looking for one
particular thing.
 Browser: Program that enabling running of website, e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla
Firefox, Opera Mini, Google Chrome etc.
 WAMP SERVER: to provide local host for testing during the design stage
 PHP: Hypertext Pre-processor this is the scripting language that will be used to provide
web programming functions.
 SQL: Structured Query Language will be used to create manage the database.
 HTML: the mark-up language used for creating documents on the World Wide Web. Full
form HyperTextMarkup Language.
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 BACKGROUND THEORY OF STUDY
Registration management is “not just an organizational concept: it is both a process and a series of
activities that involve the entire campus” ( Hossler & Bean, 1990). Dennis (1998) defines
registration management as forecasting trends that will affect higher education and utilizing
research to plan for the future (Dennis,1998). Second, Dennis lists the following attributes of those
who understand registration management. Hossler and Bean conclude that there are two goals of
registration management. “First, to exert more control over the characteristics of the student body
and two control the size of the student body” (& Bean, 1990, p.5) Given these two perspectives,
one would say that registration management is concerned with the attraction and retention of
students (Braxton, Vesper, & Hossler, 1995). Donhardt (1995), feels that registration management
involves the influence of the whole registration picture from recruitment through graduation.
Bateman and Spruill (1995) found that registration management extends to the educational
outcomes of attendance. Hossler and Bean (1990) define registration management as “efforts to
influence the characteristics and the size of enrolled student bodies by directing the activities of
the offices of admissions, financial aid, new-student orientation, career planning, retention, and a
number of other student affairs areas” (Dennis, 1998). Tinto and Russo (1994) report that the
success of registration management programs has been only moderately successful. In traditional
way of enrolling, manual registration system is commonly used as a way of enrolling students to
and is continuing to be used nowadays. In manual way of registering and enrolling students they
must have to fill up first using ball pen and an registration form sheet given by their teachers. By
the help of different developers and programmers, they have developed different system about the
registration and registration process. Computerized, online registration and online registration
systems that helps the school for having an easier process of managing student information.
Information Technology has become one of the important tools in the world, for those who are
familiar with ICT based systems. In western countries ICT is part and parcel of their life many of
their activities are computerized, in Africa some states have recognized the power of ICT and even
have gone further to computerize government held institutions.
Information Technology has become the talk of the day in the whole world for example in
communication, learning and in business world. It is possible to order products and pay online
without delay. Through Information Technology world has become a global village.
Several school are available in the country today with different design feature on how the students
should be registered easily and those records are being kept safely in the computer also on how
the record can be updated, how the student admission number are generated automatically and
unique, There will also be addition of new records and deletion of unwanted records. The
difference between these systems is how the user interface will be created. Therefore the designer
will be very careful when designing the user interface. That it should be user friendly. The students’
academic report will be generated automatically and the results be printed
2.1.1 Types of E-payment In Nigeria context
There are two types of e-payment namely
i. End to End processing: Here, all the processes from approvals to the receipt of value by
the beneficiary are done electronically.
ii. Manual e-payment or use of Mandate: It is the mixture of manual and electronic process
where the available infrastructures cannot support the End to End processing. However, there are
many forms of e-payments these include cards, internet mobile payments, financial services
kiosks, biometric payments, electronic payment networks (Osibote, 2010; Asaolu, Ayoola &
Akinkoye, 2011).

2.1.2 Evaluation of E-payment in Nigeria

In achieving the mission of introducing e-payment system in Niger crystal clear that only a few
of the objectives have been achieved. These include among others the following: - Elimination of
many risks involved in carrying large sums of money such as armed robber, fraud, theft and others.
- At least government organizations no longer pay cash to “contractors” and civil servants. -
Elimination of the use of cash to facilitate speedy payments for all transactions. But to a very large
extent, the following objectives have not been met. - Fast tracking the implementation of
government policies through the elimination of delays in government payment system. There are
instances of delay in payment to contractors who are not ready to play bale. There has been a
complaint from some contractors handling projects in the rural areas over difficulties associated
with the e-payment model.
Minimize interaction of government, officials and contractors to eliminate opportunity for
corruptive tendencies. It will be difficult to eliminate this as interaction at which every level will
continue formally or informally if Nigerians are to be honest with themselves. In which every case,
there is need to ask the question. Who are the contractors? Is the due process of government
working or not? Who are the officials subverting this and other laudable programme of
government? Can corruption really be stamped out of the system? Achievement of economy and
efficiency in government financial transactions. For as long as corruption remains within the
polity, there can be no efficiency in the system. The EFCC and the judiciary will have to find a
common ground to tackle this cankerworm that has defiled all solution. China’s example could be
the best solution but for tribal and religions sentiment among some Nigerians. Enhancement of
real time reporting and improve quality of financial reporting system in the public sector it has
been observed that since the implementation of the policy, there have been late returns or no
response in respect of unapplied funds. The existing system cannot guarantee real-time reporting
of finances. As result there can be no good financial reporting (Ogedebe & Babatunde, 2012).
For the purchases done online most likely he will also make his payments onlin the different
methods on making online payments.
Credit Cards
This has been the dominant form of online payments when purchasing online. However, many
people still resist the appeal and simplicity of credit-card transactions due to security concerns.
Until now there are a high risk for stolen cards, identity theft thus customers fear credit-card fraud
by merchants 5 and other parties [2]. Yet, there are some credit card issuers who have features that
provide online fraud protection.
Virtual Credit Cards
This virtual credit card is an innovation in online credit cards. Credit card issuer provides a special
number that can be used in place of the regular credit card number to make online purchases. This
allows the user to use a credit card online without disclosing the actual number. Additionally, the
user gives a transaction number instead of the credit card number – example is Private Payment
by American Express.
Debit Card
With the debit card, the money for a purchased item comes directly out of the holder’s checking
account. The actual transfer of funds from the holder’s account to the merchant’s takes place within
1 or 2 days. 2.4. Smart Cards. This card looks like any plastic payment card but it has a microchip
embedded on its face. This can hold more information than ordinary credit cards with magnetic
strips. Rather than holding only card’s information, it can also hold information for such as health
care, transportation, identification and banking, and others. This enables information for different
purposes to be stored in one location. The smart card can be used to make purchases over the
Internet with the use of a card reader to read the card details necessary for payment and secure
sending of data over the Internet
e-Checks
version
An e-Check is an electronic or representation of a paper check. It contains the same
information as a paper check and based on the same legal framework. It works the same as the
paper check however they are faster, cheaper and more secure to pay by e-check, an account
number is keyed in and together with the bank's routing number. The vendor authorizes payment
through the customer's bank, which then either initiates an electronic funds transfer (EFT) or prints
a check and mails it to the vendor.
Digital Cash
Digital cash is an example of a digital currency, where it allows people who do not have credit
card to shop online. It is similar to a traditional bank account: consumers deposit money into their
digital cash accounts to be used in the purchase online. This is often used with other technology
such as digital wallets.
e-Wallets
An e-wallet is a software component that a user downloads to their desktop and in which the user
stores credit card numbers and other personal information. When a user shops at a merchant who
accepts e-wallet, the user clicks the e-wallet and the forms are automatically filled in with all the
necessary information in just one click. Credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard also
offer this e-wallet.

2.2 RELATED WORKS

2.2.1 Automation Enrollment System
Gumitao (2001), system is designed to provide reports of the list of enrollment per school year,
periodical grade of students, and list of new, old and transferees Revalla (2005) created an
Automation Enrollment System for the computer Science Department of the Laguna College
business and Arts. The study was conceived because of the need to update the current registration
system of LCBA, which is done manually. Her study, was based on the special problem of Mr.
Bonifacio E. Bacani, Jr. about “Student Record information System”.

2.2.2 Liceo De Victoria Enrollment System

Kampitan (2000) developed an Enrollment System of Liceo De Victoria that is designed to keep
the students records. This is used to provide an effective and faster of providing information of the
student and also the accounting purposes’ Liceo De Victoria

2.2.3 Harvent School Enrollment System

A registration and billing system is needed by the institution to address the stated situation. The
study has been made to help Harvent School gather fast and deliver accurate information (Calabozo
& Fernandez, 2006) Online enrollment system is utilized today by many universities to facilitate
the enrollment of their students into classes every semester (Gaton, 2012). The system allows
students to choose courses they want to take with the available class schedules. This allows
students to make up their time schedules for different class courses without time schedule conflicts.
After the allotted enrollment period, the system runs and assigns slots to students. With the Online
Registration System, students could log in, check their schedule, and set desired changes and pay
online without having to stand in a line and rushing to meet deadlines to accomplish all the
transactions required for enrollment (Ella, 2012). The Online Registration System is a method
designed to perform the process involved in registration, advising, assessments, and payments of
students as well as scheduling of classes in any educational institution.

2.2.4 Veritas Parochial School (VPS) in Web Based Enrolment System

Manila was developed to help its students enroll in a more efficient way without the hassles of
waiting long hours in filling out forms, which sometimes become redundant, or to stand in line
and pay at the cashier. It is with the Web-based Enrollment System for VPS that this new style of
enrollment may be achieved. This new type of system offers its students new options for enrolling
at VPS. By logging on to VPS website, one can register and enroll subjects for a school year. With
these, all the students are required to fill out certain forms that do not take more than a few minutes
to accomplish. The system stores its records in the school database for future references.
Confirmation of the transaction made by the students need to be verified, the payment of tuition
fees must be made in the schools registrar. The students may also browse the web site of VPS and
he can check his current account. He can also refer to the list of the school current tuition fee rates
(Pascual & Riceo, 2008)

2.2.5 COMPUTERIZED STUDENTS RECORD MONITORING SYSTEM OF SINILOAN

NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Cabang et al. (2003) developed the ‘computerized Students Record Monitoring System of Siniloan
National High School”, Computerized Student data will be exceedingly helped to the user through
continuous management of the School. It could help the registrar for a less effort services in the
institutions especially in updating, printing and deleting student’s record.

2.3 CURRENT METHOD IN USE

The current method in use is a manual system, all payment and registration are done manually and
recorded with pen and paper. The current method in use is very tedious and time consuming
because it take time for all the student to be registered.

2.4 APPROACH TO BE USED IN THE STUDY

The approach to be used to compliment the formal method in use is to ascertain a web based
student registration and online payment website is strictly to.
 Build a dynamic website upon my research analysis.
 Make use of PHP, HTML, CSS, Jquery, JavaScript, MySQL and so on to design program
and implement the website.
 Utilize and ascertain a standard database oriented program to perform CRUD (Creating,
Retrieving, Updating and Deleting) function
 CHAPTER THREE

3.0 SYSTEM INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS

A system is simple a collection of interrelated parts (components) working together to achieve a
particular goal while Analysis are the process involved in the working system and finally design
is described as the plan carrying out a particular project. Hence a System Design from the
foregoing is basically an act of planning how the group of interrelated parts of a system will work.

3.1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON CASE STUDY

Pastors Olubi & Sarah Johnson founded Life forte International Schools on the 5th of November
1990.It began as a Day-care Centre has, like the proverbial acorn, grown into a mighty oak with
its branches spreading to and having an influence that spans three continents; Africa, Europe and
North America. Life forte International Schools offers the Nigerian, British and American
curricula. It consists of Day-care, Pre-school, Junior and High School (O’ and A’ levels) for
children between the ages of 3-18 and is an answer for parents searching for world class, Afro-
centric education that would place their children on a platform to achieve great heights.
Situated on an expansive 25-acre estate, the ultra-modern campus contains well-equipped
classrooms, science laboratories, state of the art ICT facilities, an art studio, an extensive library,
‘home-away-from-home’ hostels, gymnasium, and a world-class sports complex, providing
students with a best-in-class holistic educational experience. The faculty and staff team consist of
a diverse group of seasoned academicians, chief examiners, and leading professionals, many of
whom are leading educational authorities in their different fields of discipline.

3.2. OPERATION OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM

Student application to Life forte, is filled and submitted online if you are applying within Nigeria
via http://lifeforte.org/wp/admissions/online-application-form.The only exception is when you are
applying outside Nigeria, you must download the application form from Lifeforte website via
www.lifeforte.com. Fill it manually, scan and upload on the website, having done that, an email
will be send to the International Admissions ([email protected]) to schedule an entrance
examination and interview.
An entrance examination/interview will be conducted for those who applied within and outside the
country and they will send you the admission committee’s decision within 7 business days, where
student will confirm his/her admission.

3.3 ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS

These involve output from the system, input to the system and processing tasks involve derived to
ascertain Automated School Fees Management System.
3.3.1 Output From the System
The output of the current system can be viewed with respect to the processing that was made; it’s
the result of the various operations and computation that was carried out while managing student
and payment record with the use of Student Registration and payment system
The outputs the existing system are
 Payment Report
 Student list Report
 Classroom list Report
3.3.2 Input into the System
The input of current system is done to capture particulars of the employee in their different
departments. The input of the existing system are;
1. Student Registration
 Student ID
 Full Name
 Gender
 Class
 Session
 Email
 Nationality

2. Payment input
 Atm card (verve, master card)
 Pin
 Expiry date
 Credit card
3. Admin Registration details
 Email
 Password

3.3.3 Processing Activities Carry out by the System

This section of the current system defines the procedure involve towards the generation of an
efficient output. All the input captured is passed through file processing and mathematical
calculations to produced desired output through linking of modules. The administrator can choose
any menu of interest to carryout desired operation.
 Admin Login
 Student Login
 Payment Process
 Report processing

3.3.4 Administration/Management of the System

The system is being managed by the school administrator, the administrator of the system shall
have full access to all modules in the software and should be able to perform the following
functions;
 Generation of student list report
 Generation of Payment report
 Maintenance of the system/stability of the system etc
3.3.5 Controls Used by the System
The design approach employed for this project is top-down approach whereby the operation
commences from the start state, gradually to the goal state until the desired result is achieved. This
makes it easy to correct any arising error during the execution process without affecting the
subsequent ones as such.
3.3.6 How Data and Information Are Being Stored
All the data in the student registration and payment system are being stored in the database and
the database management system used is MYSQL.
The database can only be accessed through the designed system, student login, admin login,
payment data, student registration data etc are stored directly in the database (MYSQL) upon
clicking on save button and a confirmatory message will be giving to ascertain that the data is
successfully stored.
3.4 PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED FROM THE EXISTING SYSTEM
Some of the problems that were associated with existing system are;
 The existing system is not flexible and robust.
 The students cannot check their details online and also cannot be used to register students’
referee details.
 The existing system querying limitation, all because the size of the database is very small.
 Applicant oversea cannot fill their application form directly on the existing system website.

3.5 SUGGESTED SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM IDENTIIED

 The proposed system will be flexible and robust enough to satisfy needs/requirement of
the applicant/student
 The proposed system will provide a facility for student to be able to check their detail and
register their referees online
 The proposed system will allow unlimited query from the database as the size of the
database will be big enough to satisfy the task
 The proposed system will allow applicant from oversea to fill all their details online