Determinants of Principals’ Level of Integration of Information Communication Technology in Management of Public Secondary Schools in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

This study investigated the determinants of Principals’ level of integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in management of public secondary schools in Nairobi County. The objectives, research questions and hypotheses of the study were based on the following variables: whether the Principals’ gender, age, educational level, level of training in ICT, access to ICT facilities, attitudes and challenges and their level of integration of ICT in the management of public secondary schools in Nairobi County. The study was founded on Roger’s Theory of Diffusion. It was conducted using descriptive survey design. The target population was all the 73 principals of public secondary schools of Nairobi County at the time of study. The study was conducted on all the 73 principals in Nairobi County. The research instruments used were the questionnaire, interview schedule and checklist. A pilot study was done among principals of seven (10%) public secondary schools in Nairobi County and Cronbach alpha (α) was used to test the reliability of the instruments. Ethical considerations were upheld. Data were collected through principals’ self-administered questionnaires, interview schedule and observation checklist. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programme number 20.0. Inferential statistics were used in the analysis of all hypotheses. Chi-square (χ2) test was used to test the null hypothesis which was accepted or rejected at 0.05 level of significance. Results from the analysis of data revealed that principals’ age, their in-service ICT training and access to ICT facilities were significantly related to the level of ICT integration in management of public secondary schools. However, principals’ gender and principals’ gender and educational level were not significantly related to their level of ICT integration in the management of public secondary schools.it was also revealed that the principals generally help positive attitudes towards ICT use in the management of pubic secondary schools. The study found that principals needed more tailor-made in-service training and incentives in order to transfer their theoretical enthusiasm into practice. The study revealed the following challenges encountered by principals: financial constraints, lack of ICT infrastructure, negative attitudes toward ICT integration, lack of enough technical support and maintenance. This study found that even though some of the secondary schools have not integrated ICT due to lack of resources and electricity most of them had. The study made several recommendations among them was the necessity for the Ministry of Education to layout ICT infrastructure in schools in order to facilitate the use of ICT in the management of schools and Principals should also be trained on ICT use for management of public secondary schools purpose