Availability, Gender and Teaching Experience: Determinants of ICT Utilization in Teaching in Rural Secondary Schools in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

This paper is a survey which was designed to ascertain the various Information and Communication Technology resources available for teaching and learning in secondary schools in Mbaise, Imo State Nigeria. The study is a descriptive survey. The population of the study is made up of all the secondary school teachers in all the forty Secondary Schools in Mbaise. A sample size of 264 respondents was selected for the study using stratified - random sampling technique.  The instrument used for the collection of data was a set of researcher–made questionnaire. Data collected was analyzed using frequency counts and simple percentages, independent sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Result shows that the extent of availability of ICT resources in secondary schools in Mbaise is very low. The extent of utilization of ICT resources in teaching and learning is equally very low with male teachers having higher utilization mean scores than the female teachers. The mean difference between the male and female teacher was found to be statistically significant. There was however no significant difference in ICT utilization means score between teachers based on teaching experience. It was concluded that much need to be done by government in the area of provision of ICT resources for teaching and learning in this era of ICT-based learning. The paper recommends governments', non-governmental organizations' and private individuals' intervention in the provision of needed ICT resources in the schools among others.