Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Nigeria positions as the tenth biggest country on the planet, and by a long shot the biggest country in Africa. Found north of the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, Nigeria is verged on the east by Cameroon, on the upper east by Chad, on the north by Niger Republic, and on the west by the Republic of Benin. Nigeria is separated geopolitically into six districts: North-Central, North-East, North-West, South-East, South-South and South-West, with the North-East being the most educationally backward and the most vulnerable to insecurity, poverty, illiteracy and lack of social amenities (Falola, 2011).
Enhanced post primary school training is vital to the formation of successful human capital in any nation (Evoh, 2007). In this way, the necessity for ICT in Nigerian post primary institutions can’t be overstressed. In this innovation motivated time, everybody needs ICT capability to excel. Institutions are discovering it extremely important to prepare and re-prepare their workers to set up or expand their insight into PCs and other ICT services (Adomi and Anie, 2006). The above assertions appeal for right on time obtaining of ICT talents by students not just in the northeastern part of Nigeria but the whole nation states.
The part of innovation in teaching and learning is quickly becoming a standout amongst the most imperative and broadly talked about issues in a modern-day education plan (Rosen and Well, 1995). Majority of the specialists in the area of teaching and learning concurred that, when appropriately utilized, ICT advances hold an incredible potential to enhance educating and learning apart from forming more job opportunities. Poole (1996) has demonstrated that nowadays IT literacy is considered a new literacy and its absence in education is viewed as the new ignorance. This has really gingered a yet another powerful urge to outfit schools with computer gadgets and trained people (educators) important to create mechanically capable and productive students in developing nations of the world. In a quickly changing universe of worldwide labor market rivalry, industrial computerization, and expanding democratization, essential education is important for a person to have the capacity to get to the needed information and to be able to apply it appropriately. This capacity pointed toward the use of ICT as the only solution. It is strongly believed that ICT can facilitate the teaching methods and encourage learners` understanding as can be seen in using softwares like CAI, CAL, CBT etc. Numerous studies have discovered constructive outcome connected with innovation supported teaching and learning (Burnett, 1994, and Fitzgerald and Warner, 1996).
The use of computers in education have ended up as a significant instrument and innovatively affected how we learn and see the world in broad. Today, the place of ICTs in education cannot be quantified. Cutting edge organizations are operating in online and real time modes using smart ICT gadgets via the web. The marvel has brought forth the contemporary e-activities such as trading, marketing, healthcare, education, banking and government. Bamidele (2006) has described ICT advancement as something that revolutionarised the world through the use of computers and internet and it touches every facet of our lives.
Jimoh (2007) characterized ICT as the taking care of, preparing and transformation of data such as text, pictures, diagrams, and so on in to meaningful information using electronic specialized gadgets, for example, PCs, satellites and internet. Similarly, Ofodu (2007) likewise described ICT as computerized gadgets, helped by man and intelligent materials that can be utilized for an extensive variety of educational activities and for individual use. Going by the above delineations, it can be concluded that ICT is the processing of data using all kinds of technologies for the manipulation of information in every aspect of life.
Bearing in mind the part of education in the national development and the populace blast in government colleges in Nigeria nowadays, the use of computers in instructions delivery gets to be basic. This is on account of its acknowledgment by educators will upgrade powerful instructing. Issues like great course association, powerful classroom administration, self-study, collective learning, and compelling correspondence between the partners in the education area. Instructing and learning has gone past the educator remaining before a gathering of understudies and spreading knowledge to them without the students` sufficient involvements (Ajayi, 2008). There are progresses in the Nigerian school systems which show some level of commitments in the utilization of ICT in teaching and learning. The Federal
Government of Nigeria, in the National Policy on Education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004), identifies the conspicuous role of ICTs in the current world, and decided to incorporate it into her education system. To realize this objective, the charter expresses that government will give essential facilities and instructions at the primary school level. At the first three years of secondary school, computer studies has been made a pre-vocational optional, and is a vocational optional at the upper secondary schools. Furthermore, it is the target of government to give all vital frameworks and training for the incorporation of ICTs in the post primary institutions (Okebukola, 1997).
Modern instructional techniques required the use of ICT which provide a more simplified and reliable teaching and learning methodologies. From the students` viewpoint the integration of ICT education help in both cooperative and self-paced learning. Students can adjust their learning paces with immediate feedback and selfassessment in an institution where the new technologies are being used. Such students extend their learning capabilities beyond classrooms as they can communicate with peers from everywhere around the globe. This novel achievement of the 21st century is presently not fully employed in the north-eastern region of Nigerian public secondary schools. This negative development might not be unconnected with the lack of ICT facilities in our public schools, negligence from the authorities concerned or the misuse of the available ICT equipment on the ground by the teachers. This unfortunate situation is in fact, what motivates the researcher to evaluate the level of ICT usage in our public secondary schools.
1.2 Statement of the Research Problem
The adoption and use of ICT in the public secondary schools in north-eastern Nigeria is still under a serious dilemma despite the dramatic increase in the use of ICTs in numerous areas in present days including education. The low rate in the adaptation and application of the new technology especially in the public schools in northeastern Nigerian is attributed to several factors which include inadequate ICT facilities in the schools, poor ICT policies, limited information infrastructures, poor perceptions of using ICT in education among teachers, students and the school administrators. In spite of the calls and yearnings for change from the teachercentered learning to student-centered learning which involve the use of ICT resources, chalkboard and text books are still the most continuously dominant class room facilities in virtually all the public post primary institutions in Nigeria (Okebukola, 1997). The compelling usage of ICT in instruction and learning relies on upon the accessibility of these facilities and the educators’ capability in utilizing them. Observation has shown that there are limited functional ICT facilities in most Nigeria public schools especially those in the rural areas. This in turn hinders the urge to use them by the students for learning. Also lack of adequate computer literate from the site of instructors, sporadic power supply and insufficient financial support are another set of deterrent militating against successful usage of ICT facilities and resources in government owned institutions. For that reason, government need to provide enough ICT resources and to train teachers on the effective utilization of the available facilities it their teaching process in order to solve the problem Ajayi (2008).
