Availability and the Extent of Utilization of Information Communication Technology among Senior Secondary School Students in Nsukka Local Government Area, Enugu State

Abstract

The study investigated the availability and the extent of utilization of information communication technology (ICT) among senior secondary school students in Nsukka Local Government Area. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Four objectives guided the study. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample of 268 out of 3,467 senior secondary students. A questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviation. Findings showed that the majority (80.20%) of the respondents have desktop computers, 71.60%; internet, 71.60%; laptops, 69.80%; smartphones and 79.50% have television available to them. Over 50.00% never use digital cameras, e- book readers and presentation tools. Some of the barriers to ICT usage identified by the respondents were the high cost of new ICT devices and internet data bundles (ˉx = 2.50), teachers’ lack of technological skills (ˉx = 2.51), school administrators’ dismissive attitude towards learning through computers (ˉx = 3.00), poor electric power supply (ˉx = 2.51), a large number of students in a class (ˉx = 2.90), poor internet access (ˉx = 2.59), substandard quality of existing ICT tools (ˉx = 2.53) and poor educational funding by the government (ˉx = 3.02). Some ways of improving the utilization of ICT for studies identified by the respondents were the provision of computer laboratories with versatile ICTs for usage (ˉx = 2.95) and promoting sharing of knowledge with ICTs among students (ˉx = 2.61). Therefore, the government should make adequate provisions for ICT facilities and a constant power supply for secondary schools. This will help to increase the use of ICT for academic purposes.