Availability of Resource Materials and Facilities for ICT Integration in the Public Primary School Curriculum in Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

Throughout the world, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is changing the face of education. This paper is a report of a study that was carried out in the months of May and June 2016 on the availability of resources and facilities for ICT integration in the public primary school curriculum in Kitui County in Kenya. The research purpose and objective of the study was: To find out the availability of resources and facilities for ICT integration in the public primary school curriculum in Kitui County. This study was guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). It was informed by the pragmatic philosophy and the Mixed Method (MM) research approach. Data was collected from 388 public primary schools in Kitui County selected through stratified and simple random sampling methods. A total of 388 head teachers and 776 teachers participated in the study giving a total of 1114 respondents. The research instruments used were questionnaires for teachers, interview schedules for head teachers and observation checklists. The data collected was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings revealed that most of the schools were connected to electricity but lacked ICT resources such as desk computers, whiteboards, CD-ROMs and anti-viruses. Laptops were available in some of the schools but were not being used by teachers in direct instruction. They were mainly used in the storage of school records, teacher plans, examination questions and for examination registration exercises. Another finding was lack of internet connectivity in most of the schools that affected ICT integration in the curriculum. The study recommended that the education stakeholders and the government should partner in provision of ICT resources and facilities to facilitate integration of ICT in schools. It is hoped that this study will be useful in education policy making on ICT integration in schools in Kenya and other parts of the world.