Status of Principals’ ICT Usage in Secondary School Administration in Rivers State

Abstract

This study examined the status of principals’ ICT usage in secondary school administration in Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The population of the study was 276 Principals from the 276 Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State. A sample size of 138 was drawn using simple random sampling techniques. This represented 50% of the total population. Five research questions and five hypotheses guided the study. A self-designed questionnaire tagged “Principals’ Information and Communication Technology Usage Questionnaire (PICTUQ)”, which was a modified 2 points rating scale of YES =2 points and NO= 1 point. The data were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation. The criterion mean of 1.50 was used as benchmark for taking decision of each of the items of the research questions. Any score up to 1.50 and above was accepted; while score below 1.50 was rejected as not having desired impact. The z-test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that both the rural and urban principals upheld the fact that there is no computer laboratory, computers, scanners, projector and power generating plants in public secondary schools in Rivers State. The study recommended that: ICT facilities should be installed in all secondary schools in Rivers State; adequate number of experts should be employed to train principals and students in ICT; adequate funds should be provided to manage the process for adequate educational quality service delivery in schools; government should set committee to install and monitor ICT facilities and its usage in public schools in Rivers State.

Key Words: ICT, Administration, ICT access, ICT application, ICT literacy, Principals’ performance.