The impact of information technology in efficient school administration: A study of public secondary school in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

The role of a school administrator is goal setting, planning, budgeting, staffing, directing, guiding and counseling, reporting, communication and evaluation (Mwangi, 1989). Administration is an important aspect without which no organization can run smoothly. Unfortunately, with the rapid expansion of schools many administrative problems have come up. These problems appear to be in the major administrative tasks and process. For this reason school administrators are faced with the challenge of embracing the new information technology if these problems are to be addressed to ensure efficient running of the school system. The objective of the study was to examine the impact of Information Technology (IT) for efficient school administration in such areas as personnel management, instructional leadership, public relation and financial control. To unravel the problem, research questions were formulated in line with the above objective. The literature review dealt with roles of a school administrator, IT and school administration, benefits and hindrances to effective use of IT in school administration, IT policy in education in Kenya and the challenges facing the use of IT in Kenyan secondary school. Ex-post facto research design was employed. Random sampling was used to select a sample of 35 Principals of public secondary schools in Nairobi who took part in the study. A questionnaire was used as an instrument of data collection. The questionnaires rate of return was 100% since all the questionnaires were returned fully filled. Data was analyzed and interpreted using statistics tools such as frequencies and percentages. The results of the study established that the impact of IT on various administrative roles in personnel management, instructional leadership, public relation and financial control was favorable. However utilization of IT in some administrative roles for example, decision making, supervision and inspection, timetabling and management of payroll for both teaching and non-teaching staff was inadequate. The study also found that though IT impacted positively in majority of administrative roles training is needed to improve its use. The study recommended that Teacher training colleges should include in their curriculum courses in computing to enable the teachers who later on take administrative posts to be computer literate. Equally the study recommended areas of further research like a study of training requirement in IT for principals. The results of such a study could be used to generate information on how the impact of IT could be realized in carrying out school administrative roles efficiently.