OUSL Journal (Jun 2022)
An Assessment of ICT Competence among Academic Staff in Kwara State Colleges of Education, Nigeria: Implications for Management
Abstract
Globally, information and communication technology (ICT) is seen as an indispensable part of the contemporary world. In fact, culture and society have to be adjusted to meet the challenges of the information age. ICT is a force that has changed many aspects of education system. It is on this premise that this study examined the ICT competence among academic staff of colleges of education in Kwara State, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted in this study. The population consists of all academic staff in government owned colleges of education in Kwara State. An instrument titled ICT Competence among Academic Staff of College of Education Questionnaire (ICASCOEDQ) was used to collect data from a sample size of 152 academic staff using simple random sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentages). From the results, it was revealed that academic staff are competent in word processing, Microsoft power point, e-payment and mobile phone browsing; electronic mail (e- mail) and social networking. It was also evident that inadequate funding, internet connectivity/low internet bandwidth, inadequacy of ICT facilities at workplace and low ICT literacy by staff are the biggest challenges to the ICT competence among academic staff. It was also revealed that better interactivity and connectivity, ability to type, process and store work for later use, facilities for easy information retrieval and timely and quicker information processing are some of benefits gained by the effective usage of ICT by academic staff. It was recommended that the government and school management should encourage academic staff to participate in ICT training programs. Acquisition of ICT skills from such training programs would help to improve their level of ICT competence and this would lead to high productivity.
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