Status and Extent of use of Information and Communication Technology in Management of Public Secondary Schools in Murang' A East and Kahuro Districts, Murang' A County; Kenya

Abstract

In the 21st century the ICT industry has grown widely affecting almost every area of life. The problem in our secondary schools is not that there are no ICT equipment, but, there is minimum use of the same in management and administration. Though the impact ofICT has been seen widely, this study sought to find out the level at which it was used in the Management of Kenya Public Secondary Schools. By a mixed method research paradigm, descriptive survey and naturalistic designs were adopted. The study specifically sought to find out the status of ICT use in financial management, student management, and management of personnel in public secondary schools in Kenya. The study was conducted in public secondary schools in Murang'a East and Kahuro Districts of Murang'a County which provided both urban and rural settings. The county is located approximately 100km North of Nairobi which is the capital city of Kenya andgoes deep to the south of Nyeri County. Murang'a East and Kahuro Districts have a total of 64 public secondary schools. Both probability and nonprobability sampling procedures were used to sample the schools used in the study. These are simple random, stratified random and purposive sampling methods. Twenty public secondary schools were selected to participate and all categories and types of schools were represented in the sample. All the principals, bursars and deans of studies of the selected schools participated in the study. Three instruments were used for data collection; an interview guide, questionnaire, and participant's observation guide. A pilot study. was conducted in three schools across each of the two homogeneous groups of the population; the rural and the urban part. Reliability wasted, using a spearman rank correlation coefficient to ensure reliability of the instruments. The data collected was analysed using both qualitative and quantitative procedures. Quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 and the findings presented using frequencies, percentages, graphs, charts and tables. Qualitative data was analysed and presented in form of discussions, explanations and in a narrative form. The study established that ICT was utilized in the administration of public secondary schools in keeping students data, analysis of students' results, preparation of payrolls, storage of documents, internet connectivity and e-mail. Challenges faced by the school administrators in ICT management include high cost of ICT infrastructure, poor quality/ lack of Internet services, leaking of students' marks data, inadequate computer programs to assist in management, inconsistent electricity supply; and high cost of ICT infrastructure maintenance. Based on the findings of the study, was concluded that storage of records is the main administrative utilization of ICT infrastructure in secondary schools, perception of the secondary school administrators on the use of ICT in management is generally positive, financial constraints is a key' challenges facing the school administrators in the use ICT. It can be recommended that teachers be encouraged to make use of ICT in teaching and learning process. Again there is need to training programmes to equip all members of the administration with ICT skills. Software developers should create interactive software to suit the needs the current Kenyan secondary school system. The findings from this research provide schools with a framework of reference on successful adoption of ICT in education management. The school principals are likely to benefit from this study, since the study provides information on ICT integration