Perceived Competence of Nigerian Secondary Schools Teachers in the Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

One of the numerous goals of Nigeria as a nation is to aggressively promote ICT as an instrument of mass education, growth and development (NEEDS, 2004). There is no doubt that teachers are indispensable for successful teaching and learning with ICT and their competence in the use of ICT is crucial to successful implementation of contemporary school curriculum. This study therefore examined teachers’ perceived competence in the use of ICTs with respect to computer basics, use of the internet, and their ability to use simple softwares. A research question and three hypotheses were raised for the descriptive survey study. The instrument used for the study was the ICT Competence Questionnaire (ICTCQ). Simple random sampling technique was used to select 300 public secondary school teachers in the four geo-political zones in Ogun State. Frequency count and percentages were used for the research question while chi square was used in analyzing the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. Findings indicated that; Most teachers in Ogun State secondary schools do not have the required competence in ICT.Those teachers in the humanities have more competence in ICT than teachers in the sciences. Academic qualification of a teacher does not have any effect on teacher’s competence in ICT. Teachers’ competence in the use of ICT is not influenced by their teaching experience. It is then evident that the present crop of teachers needs to be retrained to improve their competence in ICT usage. Consequently training of teachers in ICT through seminars and workshops organized by state government should be regulated to termly schedule as against occasional exercise that is prevalent presently. The government should increase the supply of computer system to schools and also make provisions for their maintenance. Internet facilities should also be put in place for schools by the government and credit facilities can also be provided for teachers by the government to encourage individual teacher to have personal computer. KEYWORDS: ICT Competence, Subject Specialization, Educational Qualification, Teaching Experience