Influence of Ict Skills on Teachers’ Capacity to Implement the Digital Literacy Programme in Primary Schools in Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

In most countries around the world, there has been growing recognition and concerted efforts towards integrating the benefits availed by information Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning. Teacher ICT skills competency is identified as one of the key factors determining the extent of ICT integration in classroom teaching. The Kenyan government through the Ministry of Education has been supporting initiatives towards increased use of ICT by teachers in basic education institutions. One notable and recent initiative is the rolling out of the Digital Literacy Programme (DLP) in 2016 in Kenyan public primary schools. The success of this initiative largely depends on how well teachers are prepared for adopting new pedagogical approaches that are based on ICT. This research intended to determine ICT skills impact on teachers’ capacity to implement DLP in primary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. The study employed a descriptive survey research design whereby one out of nine sub-counties was randomly sampled. A total of 49 Primary schools implementing DLP in Kibwezi Sub County were selected where 98 Primary school teachers and 49 Head teachers were purposively selected as respondents. In addition, 7 education and ICT officers at the Sub-county and county level were purposively selected and interviewed as key informants. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect primary data from teachers. In addition, interview guides were utilized in collecting data from Head teachers and key informants while an observation checklist enabled the researcher to collect information in relation to the stock of ICT equipment, infrastructure and ICT management policy and practices at the school and their use by teachers in teaching and learning. Descriptive statistics like frequencies, percentages, standard deviation and mean score were applied to analyze data from quantitative variables while the qualitative data was analyzed via thematic content analysis and presented in narrative form. Use of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) enhanced the analysis process. Regression analysis was employed to determine the relationship between the Independent and the dependent variables in the study. The model summary and ANOVA was calculated to test the hypotheses. The research concluded presence of strong positive correlation between the teachers’ ICT skills and their capacity to implement DLP in Makueni County and therefore the combined research hypotheses which presumed lack of significant association between teachers’ capacity and implementation of DLP was rejected. The study concluded that majority of teachers have good mastery of hardware skills, have the ability to use some of Microsoft Office applications and use web browsers to access the internet. Nevertheless, the study revealed inadequacies in teachers’ ability to use the Wi-Fi routers as intended in the project and incompetence in creating presentations using MS PowerPoint. Despite the support by school heads by appointing a teacher to be in charge of DLP and providing safe storage of the devices, schools lacked written guidelines and a timetable guiding the utilization of DLP resources. The study recommends that teachers should be trained on how to use the Wi-Fi routers and the classroom management software. The education ministry as well as the Teachers Service Commission ought to consider refresher trainings focusing on enhancing teachers’ presentation skills and guiding head teachers on developing school-level policy guidelines to support utilization of DLP resources in Primary schools. It is suggested that further study focusing on monitoring and evaluation aspect of this programme to ascertain whether the Digital Literacy Programme is being implemented in the schools