THE ROLE OF ICT AS A CHANGE AGENT FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background to the Study

Education is one of the most important needs for the well being of individual and that of the society. Thus, education is a powerful instrument for social, political, and economic progress, without which neither an individual nor a society can attain a professional growth. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an indispensable part of the contemporary world. In fact, culture and society have to be adjusted to meet the challenges of the information age. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a force that has changed many aspects of people’s ways of life. Considering such fields as medicine, tourism, travel, business, law, banking, engineering and architecture, the impact of ICT in the past two or three decades has been enormous. The way the fields operate today is vastly different from the way they operated in the past. But if one looks at education sector, there seems to have a little impact of ICT utilization and far less change, than other fields have experienced.

Quality assurance in the education system is a concept consisting of lot of activities that are designed to improve the quality of input, process and output of the educational system. (Okebukola, 2012) quality assurance in the education system involves the process of monitoring, assessing and evaluating all aspects of the education activities and communicating the outcome to all concerned with a view of improving the products of the education system. Quality assurance in education addresses some issues which enhance the quality of education delivery. Yawa cited in Emeruo (2012) notes quality assurance in education as all proactive measures adopted by a country to ensure that the system standard remain high enough to produce results set for it. Thus, quality standard in education is the bench mark that should guide the performance of the education system. Quality assurance in education is infact a process of continuous improvement in the quality of teaching and learning activities.

            The Federal Ministry of Education (FME, 2009) remarked that quality standard in the education system are goals or targets to which learners, teachers, staff and school administration aspires to attain. Quality assurance in the education system therefore,  is a multi-dimensional concepts involving the various functions and activities of the education system. Such functions and activities include teaching research, staffing, students, buildings, facilities and equipment, service to the community and academic environment. It is ensuring that at least the provision of the minimum academic standard are attained and sustained.

            However, today in Nigeria, there exists general disenchantment and general distrust in the quality of the educational system as well the quality of educational outputs. Similarly, (Yusuf, 2012) noted that quantitatively, the Nigerian Education scene in quite impressive but qualitative deficient. Therefore, this research intends to investigate the role of ICT as a change agent for quality education in tertiary institution in Nigeria.

The challenges confronting our educational system in secondary schools on quality attainment of education delivery, almost everything connected with secondary school education are is in short supply. Quality teachers are in short supply, quality buildings, quality equipments, quality laboratories, good experimental farms and other resource inputs that can lead to quality education are inadequately provided. Today, there exist general disenchantment and general distrust in the quality of the education system as well as in the quality of education output.

            The quality of education is the prime factor that determines the worth and significance of the system to both the recipients and the society at large. Thus, Igwe (2009) noted that, the promises of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have driven e-learning in transforming education delivery and thereby advancing the knowledge economy.

Computing and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become common place entities in all aspects of life. Across the past twenty years the use of computing and ICT have fundamentally changed the practices and procedures of nearly all terms of endeavors within business and governance. Within education, computing and ICT have begun to a presence but the impact has not been as extensive as in other fields. Education is a very socially oriented activity and quality education has traditionally been associated with strong teachers having high degrees of personal contact with learners. The use of ICT in education tends itself to more students – centre learning settings and often this creates tensions for some teachers and students. But with the world moving rapidly in to the digital media and information. The role of computing and ICT in education is becoming more and more important and this importance will continue to grow and develop in the 21st century. This paper highlights them various impacts of computing and ICT on various levels contemporary education and explores potential future developments. The paper argues the role computing and ICT in transforming teaching and learning and seeks to explore how this will impact on the way programs will be offered and delivered, in the schools colleges and universities of the future.

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