Headteachers’ preparedness for integration of information communication technology in administration of public primary schools in Changamwe district, Kenya
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine the Head teachers’ preparedness for
integration of ICT in administration of public primary schools in Changamwe
district, Mombasa County, Kenya. Specifically to establish the availability of ICT
resources for use in administration, determine the attitudes of school administrators
towards integration of ICT; determine the availability of ICT support to help in the
use of ICT and to establish the ICT skills used in administration of public primary
schools in Changamwe district. The study targeted all public primary schools in
Changamwe district with a population of 20 Head teachers, 20 deputy head teachers
and 100 heads of department. A sample of 140 respondents was selected
purposively. A response rate of 85% achieved. Descriptive survey research design
was adopted as it brings out quantifiable information from the sample. Three sets of
questionnaires were developed and administered to Head teachers, deputy Head
teachers and heads of department respectively. To determine the validity, the
instrument was pretested in one school with one head teacher, one deputy head
teacher and head of departments. The findings show that the school administrators
had very few computers for administration work in the district. The computers were
used for capturing school enrollment, storage of students’ bio data, registration of
KCPE candidates, data entry on pupils’ marks, analysis of pupil’s results, typing
examinations, accessing the internet and for research on the subjects they taught.
Most of the schools administrators in the district were computer literate with a few
who are illiterate. Some of the schools had plans in place to upgrade ICT skills of
their administrators. Only one third of the schools in the district had school
management systems and only one school had a Website enabled system. Most of
the schools either used manual records or selected computer programmes including:
Microsoft’s word, Excel and internet to perform their duties. Procurement for ICT
equipment and servicing of computers in schools within the district was not advised
by computer experts. Only a few of administrators had a good proficiency of
computers suggesting that majority of them were only average users. Challenges
faced by the Head teachers while using ICT in administration include: breakdown of
computers, lack of technical support on the acquisition usage and maintenance of the
computers, inadequate finances to procure computers, low computer literacy levels
among the administrators and regular power blackouts in the district were the key
challenges in usage of ICT. The study recommended that Ministry of Education
should encourage the integration of ICT in administration in schools in the district
through provision of computers to schools, ICT skills courses relevant to
administration work and ICT technical support to advice head teachers on
procurement, usage and maintenance of computers.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5964]