ICT Skills, Practices and Barriers of Its Use Among Secondary School Students

AbstractThe survey was conducted to assess the level of ICT skills among secondary school students in Malaysia as well as the barriers that impede its use. A total of 160 students from four schools (rural and urban) from a northern state in Malaysia were involved in this study. The descriptive statistics and t-test method were used to analyze the findings. The study revealed that their levels of ICT skills for basic applications and for Internet applications in accessing and sharing information are at moderate level; their advanced ICT applications at the lowest level, and their Internet applications for communication skills are at the proficient level. The analysis also showed insignificant difference in terms of the students’ levels of ICT skills between the male and female respondents. However, there is a significant difference in terms of ICT skills between the urban and rural school students. The findings also indicated that administrative and facility barriers as the two major factors that impede the use of ICT. These obstacles and barriers need to be reduced to assist the integration of ICT as well as to improve the students’ ICT skills