School Characteristics And The Use Of Computer Technology For Secondary School Administration In South-West Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the status of administrative use of computers in secondary schools in South-West Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was used carry out the assessment. The study sample consists of 24 four public schools and 16 private schools in Lagos State, and 44 public schools and 15 private schools in Ogun State selected randomly. Ten basic administrative duties and eight selected school characteristics were used as the basis for the assessment. A model was proposed on possible explanations of school characteristics for the level of administrative use of computers in schools. The researcher hypothesized that placing computers in schools does not imply their automatic use because certain school factors play prominent role in effective use of the computers. Six research questions were answered and four research hypotheses tested. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analyses. Mean, percentages, selectivity indices and Gini coefficients were used to simplify data analysis. In addition, t-test for independent samples and One-Way Analysis of Variance were used to test the hypotheses. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that public and private schools did not differ significantly in the administrative duties for which computers were used, though based on the mean values, private schools used their computers almost twice as much as public schools. Significant relationships were found between selected school characteristics such as ICT budget/funds, quantity of computer, quality of computer, proportion of staff with computer skills and disparities in administrative use of computers the secondary schools. The selected school characteristics contributed significantly to the disparities in administrative use of computers in secondary schools in the Lagos and Ogun States, but with more effect on public than private schools.