Information and communication technology adoption among public secondary schools in Kisumu county ,Kenya

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) adoption has become a core issue in many sectors of the economies. In the education sector, considerable benefits have been derived as a result of adopting ICT. Public Secondary schools have also experienced the benefits of adopting ICTs in their daily operations, both for instructional, administrative and management purposes. This study sought to determine the types of ICTs adopted by Public secondary schools, factors affecting their adoption and the benefits they derived as a result of adopting the various ICTs. The study adopted a stratified sampling design with respondents drawn from 93 public secondary schools from six districts forming Kisumu County. The Districts are Kisumu East, Kisumu West, Kisumu North, Nyando, Muhoroni and Nyakach. The study found out that radio, television, video mobile phone, desktop computer, email printers, flash disk, CD and DVD were the ICT items adopted by most schools in Kisumu County, Kenya, with over 50% of the respondents indicating that they have been adopted in their school. Among the least adopted Information and Communication Technologies included DSTV, Website, Intercom, Scanner, fax Machine and the LCD projector. It emerged that schools that had adopted ICTs derived many benefits from ICT technologies compared to those that had not. These include collection of data, data storage, data processing, analysis of data, management of data, external communication, printing, presentation of information, retrieval of information, enhanced data and information security and entertainment. However, the study reveals that more should be done to enhance the status of ICT adoption in the public secondary schools in Kisumu County and nationally. It also emerged that lack of ICT implementation plan, lack of finances, lack of technicians and ICT training programs remain the main factors affecting ICT adoption in public secondary schools. It is worth noting however that factors that were once major hindrance to ICTs adoption such as teacher attitude, phobia for technology, age and gender were no longer major barriers in public secondary schools. There is need for more research to be done on the roles of various stakeholders especially parents in influencing adoption of ICTs in our public secondary schools.