CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become, within the very short time, one of the basic building blocks of modern society. Many schools now regard understanding ICT as a part of the core of education, alongside reading, writing and numeric.
According to Ukpe (2011), Information and Communication Technology (ICT) refers to various technological tools and resources used to create, process, store, retrieve and also communicate and manage the information around the world. Those technologies include computers, internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television) and telephone (Sharma, 2009).
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) include all the matters concerned with furthering of computer science and technology with the design, development installation and implementation of information system and application (Brien, 2006).
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are indispensable and have been accepted as part of the contemporary world especially in the industrialized societies. Infact, cultures and societies have adjusted to meet the challenges of the knowledge age. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an aspect of human concept which transformed one from manual way of life to a more sophisticated, advanced and science oriented knowledge applied in the daily undertakings for fast and effective performance.
However, educators across Nigeria recognized that students must have good education that enables them to participate successfully in and contribute positively to the realization of national objectives. Schools also are developing and implementing technology plans and investing in computers and other new technologies in particular, educators realize that computer networking offers flexible and powerful new ways to accomplish a range of goals in school.
Therefore, education has to be continuously preoccupied to create information handling skills and abilities among the students and teacher so that they have improved methods of teaching and learning through the provision of the necessary facilities. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in secondary schools has offered ample opportunities and advantages to educate more people rapidly to improve efficiency, and to improve their academic performance in Biology.
1.2 Statement of the problem
The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning is becoming wider in scope today in our schools nationwide. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not only restricted to its usage as instructional materials in form of teaching aid but it haS become a tool to reshape knowledge delivery and enhance both teachers and students activities in the classroom. However, studies have shown that majority of students in our secondary schools lack basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills. This is as a result of other non availability of these resources in secondary level of learning or inability of the schools to use these Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities.
However, in this era of scientific and technological development, the standard of academic achievement in schools have been a matter of great concern to everybody. This is so because a lot of criticisms have put forward on the performance of students in our public government schools in Nigeria. The general slogan associated with the educational system is the fallen standard of education.
Many science educationists have however conducted researches on the school characteristics that affect achievement like quality of teachers, curriculum, the use of instructional materials and location of schools. But little researches have been done on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and academic performance of students in Biology. This is why the researcher is intrigue in examining critically to a greater extent the use of ICTs and academic performance of students in Biolog in Abak Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
