CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Shorthand is a very old course of study. Isaac Pitman spent more than fifty (50) years studying and improving on shorthand system. Other scholars and expert writers made their own contributions to improve shorthand. To many people throughout the world, shorthand system serves as a means of livelihood. It is used during meetings in the courts of Justice and other offices where fast recording is required.
Kanu (1993) shorthand is a system of writing which is based on the science of phonetics that is related to articulated sounds2. It appears prominently in the curriculum of secondary/commercial schools. It has been considered as an important commercial subject on which business and management revolve in recent time. It is unique because it is the act of writing symbols that represent sounds. As a result of the importance of secretaries in the organization, the Federal Government has created more secondary and commercial schools.
For sometime the Modern Ideal College (M.I.C) Abakpa – Nike has recorded a low rate of successful turnover of its students. Only very few of the students who were admitted in the school could be able to finish in the school because of shorthand. They saw the subject (shorthand) as a very, very hard subject. Also most of the students and house helps whom their madam’s mission is just to complete the agreement with the parents of their housemaids. Most of them do not give them enough time to read because the subject needs time to need constant study so that the person will learn it very well.
Despite today’s technological development, shorthand is still being taught for both personal and vocational use. The former as a means of keeping one’s confidential matter in record form of security and safety from third party as well as for the sake of knowing it while the later is to earn a living in a world of work. Note that” in modern times, shorthand has been the tool of many men who rose to prominence. Presently, shorthand has assumed prominent in realization of this,
“Shorthand is till very much in and demand in the business world; and this is because most business executives and top government
Officials in Nigeria as well as other parts of the world are well aware of the need of a secretary with shorthand skill can save them time and money”.
Skill subjects have peculiar characteristics that must be demonstrated by the learner. It only not emphasizes the psychomotor, but cognitive and effective domain since knowledge is a pre-requisite to acquiring skill. Talking about shorthand skill, Oladunjoye says “these people (business executive and government officials) are willing to pay high salaries for those with the skill3.
From the above, undoubtedly, shorthand has become an important skill in the modern business world and will continue to occupy a prominent position getting information needed by management and clients recorded at a fast and accurate speed.
If shorthand is a skill subject, it must be learned as a skill subject. Skill acquisition and autoimmunization is far more than intellectual exercise. Skills must be over learned to the point that they can be exercised when something else is uppermost in the situation of the learner – otherwise hen are not skill. Therefore,
“The test of any skill is the ability to
use it, not the knowledge a person
may have about it. If a student knows how to form shorthand outlines correctly according to rule but cannot take dictation because he has not mastered shorthand”.