Teachers’ and Learners’ ICT-Readiness Assessment for Agricultural Science Instruction in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the teachers’ and learners’ ICT-readiness assessment for agricultural science instruction in secondary schools in Oyo State, Nigeria. However, the sample population of 30 and 600 agricultural science teachers and learners were randomly selected respectively from 15 public and 15 private senior secondary schools (SSS) in Ibadan North Local Government Area (LGA) of Oyo State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design of ex post-facto type was adopted for the study. Two structured questionnaires tagged Teachers’ and Learners’ Questionnaires on ICT-Readiness for Agricultural Science Instruction (TQICTRASI) and (LQICTRASI) respectively were used for data collection. The two questionnaires were subjected to Cronbach Alpha Coefficient with the results 0.86 and 0.82 respectively. Five hypotheses were tested in the study at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that teachers in private SSS were more ready and prepared to utilise ICT facilities for agricultural instruction than their counterparts in public SSS with the result t-value = 4.25 greater than t-critical = 2.77, df = 28 at p<0.05. Also, learners in private SSS were more prepared and ready for the utilisation of ICT-facilities for agricultural science instruction with the result t-value = 3.51 greater than t-critical = 1.98, df = 598 at p<0.05. However, male and female learners in both private and public SSS were equally prepared and ready for the ICT-facilities utilisation for agricultural science instruction thus there were no significant differences in their ICT-readiness. Therefore, the study proffered that, both male and female teachers and learners should be more ICT-compliant and always ready to upgrade their skills and knowledge in ICT-facilities, utilisation for agricultural science instruction and even for other school subjects particularly in Oyo State and generally in Nigeria.

Key words: ICT-readiness, Teachers’ and learners’ assessment, Private and public senior secondary schools, Agricultural science instruction