Primary schools’ preparedness for effective integration of Iformation, Communication and Technology in curriculum instruction: a case of Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become un-resistible entity in all aspects of life. Within the past twenty years, the use of ICT has tremendously changed the practices and procedures of almost all forms of endeavour within education and governance. The purpose of this study was to investigate school preparedness for effective instruction through ICT integration in primary school curriculum in Kitui County, Kenya. The objectives of this study were: to find out the availability of resource materials for ICT integration, to establish teachers’ perceptions on ICT integration, to determine the level of knowledge and skills of teachers on ICT integration, to find out the support by government on ICT integration and to determine the perception of head teachers on ICT integration. This study was guided by the Technology Acceptance Model, a theory developed by Davis and advanced by Vankatesh. The study was a mixed method research and adopted the pragmatic paradigm. The data was collected from 388 public primary schools in Kitui County and 1164 teachers were targeted in the study. The study used stratified, simple random and purposive sampling methods to select the sample. The research instruments used in this study included questionnaires, interview schedule and observation checklist. The questionnaires were administered to the teachers, interview schedule for the head teachers and observation checklist was used to check for availability of resource materials in primary schools. The data collected were analyzed qualitatively by use of themes and quantitatively through descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution tables among others. Quantitative variables were analyzed using SPSS computer software. The study findings indicated that: some primary schools were yet to be connected with electricity, there were inadequate ICT resource materials in primary schools, teachers had positive perception on ICT integration, majority of teachers were skilled in ICT use, there was support by government and head teachers had positive perception on ICT integration. The study recommended that government should uniformly provide ICT resource facilities to all public schools in Kenya, all teacher training colleges should facilitate training on ICT and the government to motivate teachers who are ICT literate so that they can further their skills and make tremendous improvements on ICT integration in primary school education in Kenya. The results of this study are useful in the implementation of curriculum innovations in Kenya and other parts of the world.