Influence of ICT Integration on Performance of Digital Literacy Project in the Public Primary Schools in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

The Government of Kenya has put in place many initiatives to enhance ICT integration in primary education in order to address equity, access and quality of education offered by schools. Such Initiatives include provision of digital literacy laptop programme for class one (Ministry of Education, 2019) and provision of digital content to schools among others.  Despite all these initiatives, studies show that ICT has not been fully adopted in most public primary schools especially in Nakuru County, Kenya. They have not been able to reap the benefit of Digital literacy program even after the government of Kenya introduced the new Learner digital devices; therefore, there is still poor performance on the use of digital literacy devices. The general objective of the study was to determine the influence of ICT integration on performance of digital Literacy project in the public primary schools in Nakuru County. Specifically, the study sought to determine the influence of training, infrastructure and stakeholder's management on performance of the digital Literacy project for public primary schools in Nakuru County. The study was informed by resource-based approach theory, technology acceptance model and stakeholder theory. The study adopted a descriptive survey design with a target population of 681 public primary schools in Nakuru County. Sample size 246 was used. The study used both primary and secondary data. Questionnaires were used to gather the primary data for the study. The secondary data were collected from both published and unpublished information resources that relate to influence of ICT integration. The pilot study was carried out. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS. The study revealed that there exist a positive and significant relationship between training and performance of Digital Literacy Program (r=0.363; p<0.01). The findings of the study also revealed that there exist a positive and statistically significant relationship between infrastructure and performance of Digital Literacy Program (r=0.679; p<0.01).  Further, the study indicated that there exist a positive and significant relationship between stakeholder management and performance of digital literacy program (r=0.865; p<0.01). This study concluded that the key issues and challenges found to be significant in using ICT tools by teachers are: limited accessibility and network connection, limited technical support, lack of effective training, and lack of teachers' competency. The study also concludes that availability of a well-equipped computer Laboratories, a steady electrical power supply and internet will improve on performance of Digital Literacy Program positively in schools. The study recommended that teachers should be well-equipped in preparation with ICT tools and facilities which is one of the main factors in success of technology-based teaching; and that the internet to be available, accessible, and adequate to enable participation in the digital world.