Use of Information Communication Technologies in provision of Information to Staff at The Ministry of Education, Science And Technology, Kenya

Abstract

The use of ICT can improve efficiency and quality in the provision of information to staff at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) in Kenya. However, the provision of information to staff at the ministry has not fully utilized the available ICT facilities. Due to the highly dynamic ICTs, staffs within the ministry need capacity building to be more effective in terms of information provision. Generally, government ministries still grapple with issues of low staff to computer ratio and manual systems in resource centers and registries. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of ICTs in provision of information to staff at MoEST with a view of developing strategies to address the shortcomings. The research objectives were to Determine the work activities which staffs at the ministry perform; find out the information needs of the staff; determine the extent to which the information needs are met; establish the extent to which ICT is used by the staff in accessing needed information; establish challenges faced in using ICT to provide information at the ministry and propose strategies of addressing shortcomings in the use of ICT to provide information to staff at the ministry. The study was guided by Niedźwiedzka‘s Information Behaviour Model and Rogers‘ Theory of Diffusion of Innovations. The research was qualitative in nature and adopted descriptive research design using a case study approach. The target population was 870 comprising staff at MoEST headquarters in Nairobi. Stratified random sampling was used to get a representative sample from each of the nine departments in the Ministry. Ten percent of the members of staff in each department were sampled to give a sample size of 90 from whom data was collected by way of interview. Key informants who included the ICT officer and records management officer were purposively sampled and interviewed. The data was analyzed by organizing it into themes from which generalizations were made. The researcher found out that ministry staff can use ICT in performing their work activities with minimum challenges; ICT can be used to improve provision of information required by staff; social media has not been adopted for official communication; most members of staff were satisfied with the range of information sources available; the ICT infrastructure is satisfactory; and there were some challenges affecting the use of ICT in provision of information. Based on the findings, the study concluded that the use of ICTs in provision of information to staff at the ministry was not optimally done. The following recommendations were made: improve the staff to computer ratio; adopt continuous capacity building in ICT; maximize use of available ICT resources; digitize records; subscribe to e-resources; automate the registries and resource centre; adopt the use of social media; deploy ICT staff to departments; fast track adoption of e-government standards; develop and disseminate the ICT policy; change the institutional culture; and lobby for increased budgetary allocation. The recommendations have been categorized as short term, medium term and long term