E-Learning Readiness in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya: The Case Of Nakuru Municipality

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the status of E-Iearning readiness in public secondary schools in Kenya given the agreement by educators and policy makers across the world on the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (lCTs) to the future of education. There is also a policy emphasis by ministry of education on ICT integration into education and training systems in Kenya. The main objective of the study was to assess the level of preparedness or public second all' schools in Kenya to implement E-Iearning so as to enhance access, equity and quality in secondary education. The study employed a descriptive survey design. Head teachers, teachers and students of public secondary schools were targeted. Systematic sampling technique was used to select ten (10) schools from 3_ list organized in order of performance of Kenya Certificate of Secondary.Examination (KCSE)- (2009) by public secondary.schools inNakuru municipality. The researcher then used simple random sampling to select 24 students from each school. In mixed gender schools, stratified random sampling was employed to select the students with the sampling strata being student's gender. Students in form three were stratified into boys and girls, and then simple random sampling employed to select 12 boys and 12 girls. The total students sample from the ten schools was 240. Five (5) teachers were randomly selected from each school for the study, giving a total of 50 teachers. Head teachers were purposively selected from the ten selected schools to have a total of 10 head teachers. The total sample size for the study was 300 respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data After coding the responses manually, data was entered into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer program for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and mean were used to analyze the data quantitatively. Qualitative data obtained from the open-ended questions was analyzed according to themes based on the study objectives and the research questions and thereafter, inferences and conclusions were drawn. Analyzed data was presented using tables, bar graphs and charts. The study revealed that public secondary schools in Kenya lack adequate ICT infrastructure and connectivity to support effective E-Iearning delivery. There are no standardized software, application programmes and digital content suitable for E-Iearning and also there exist capacity building gaps among teachers on how to integrate ICT tools in education. Ii-learning is mostly limited to computer based training and schools are not benefiting from other modes like on-line learning, synchronous and asynchronous learning. On the strength of the findings and the subsequent conclusions drawn, this study recommended among other things that education stakeholders in the country should finance provision of ICT facilities, digital equipments and Internet connectivity in public secondary schools. The Ministry of Education should also train all the teachers on how to integrate ICTs in education in addition to providing standardized E-Iearning software, application programmes and digital content to all schools in the country to enhance their uptake of E-learning delivery systems.