Performance Evaluation of Staff of Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation: A Comparative Analysis between Conventional and Distance Mode Accounting Graduates.

Abstract

Distance Education (DE) is defined as any educational or learning process in which the teacher is separated geographically or in time from his or her students; or in which students are separated from other students or educational resources (Reddy Venvgopal, 1999). On the other hand,Conventional Education (CE) is defined as a mode of learning which is based on the ordinary classroom teacher-students interaction. It is a widely accepted reality that DE increases access to learning opportunities compared to CE. Although well organized distance learning accommodates multiple learning styles, creates access to learners who are not likely to attend conventional classroom instruction (effectiveness), serves to accomodate as many learners per dollar spent (efficiency) and helps to attract and serve low income learners (equity),DE is generally blamed for its poor quality, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia where there is low level of infrastructure development .This study was initiated to compare the performances of graduates from the CE and the DE mode. The study was conducted at Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC), which is structured into six zones and eight regions. To arrive at the specific zones and regions on which data collection was to be carried out and to select sample employees, multi-stage random sampling technique was employed. Accordingly, North and West Addis Ababa Zones, and Northwestern, Northeastern and Western Regions were selected randomly for the data collection exercise. The study purposivly focused on diploma accounting graduates from the CE and DE modes who are currently working at ETC. This was done for the purpose of getting adequate samples from the two learning modes as accounting profession was started by different institutions in Ethiopia earlier than the other disciplines. Accordingly, a total of 59 diploma accounting graduates who pursued their studies either through DE or CE modes, and working in the corporation were randomly selected. Structured questionnaire was prepared and mailed for the concerned offices so as to generate data. Statistical tools like paired, and independent t-test, one way ANOVA, correlation techniques were employed to analyse the data gathered. The findings of the study revealed that there is no statistically significant variation between the performances of DE and CE accounting graduates, and there is variation among the different higher education institutions in terms of academic performances of graduates expressed in terms of earned CGPA. There is evidence that there is statistical variation between the CGPA of the distance and conventional mode graduates with the later having marginally higher CGPA. But, the standard deviation of the CE CGPA marginally higher than that of the DE CGPA, indicating CE mode better descriminates students academic performances than that of DE. In addition, there is significant correlation between years of work experience and performances of the employees in the case of DE graduates, but not in the case of CE graduates. This implies that the training package provided at colleges gives little opportunity to prepare students to the world of work.More over, the study revealed that there is weak correlation between students CGPA and their average performance points in both of the two training modes indicating that either/both academic evaluation mechanism or/and, the performance evaluation mechanisms or/and the curriculum adopted has/have some defficiencies, which suggest further study.