Capacity Building Needs for Social ICT Skills Among Primary School Teachers in Enugu State

Abstract

This study examined the Social ICT capacity building needs of primary school teachers for effective technology integration to enhance teaching and learning in public primary schools in Enugu State. Two research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprises all 10,415 primary schools in Enugu State. The sample size of the study was 500. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire developed by the researcher, titled the Capacity Building Needs Questionnaire (CBNQ). This instrument was face validated by three experts from the University XXX. The reliability of internal consistency of the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach's alpha, which had an overall reliability index of 0.798. The data collected from 496 retrieved questionnaires for the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, while t-test and ANOVA were used to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The study found that teachers in public primary schools in Enugu State require social ICT skills such as promoting responsibility and online safety, managing collaborative projects, among others. The study found that teachers do not possess social ICT skills to manage collaborative projects effectively, promote responsible technology use or support collaborative learning using smart boards. Hypothesis testing indicated that teachers’ years of teaching experience, school location, and gender all significantly influenced the social ICT skills they possessed. Finally, teachers’ years of experience, school location, and gender significantly influenced social ICT skills. Based on the findings, the study, among others, recommended that the Ministry of Education should organize regular, needs-based ICT training programs for public primary school teachers.