Published Article

ABSTRACT

The study sought to assess principals’ application of ICT in secondary school administration in urban and rural areas of Akwa Ibom State. A comparative survey design was used for this study. The research was conducted in Akwa Ibom State while the population of this study comprised Principals and Vice Principals in Public Secondary Schools. A stratified random sampling technique was used to draw the sample of 535 secondary school administrators comprising 123 principals and 412 vice principal, chosen to participate in the study. The main instrument used in this study was questionnaire titled “Urban and Rural Principals’ Application of ICT in Secondary School Administration Questionnaire (URPAISSAQ)”. Face validation of the instrument was carried out by experts in the field. To establish the reliability of the instrument, internal consistency reliability test was carried out using Cronbach Alpha technique and the level of reliability coefficient was 0.81. This level (0.81) of coefficient proved high level of reliability of the research instrument. Research hypotheses were tested using independent t-test formulated for the study at .05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed that: the level of school administrative effectiveness of the principals in Akwa Ibom State is of high extent; there is low level of principals’ application of ICT in secondary school administration in Akwa Ibom State, also that application of ICT in Secondary School administration by urban principals is higher than those of the rural principals. It was therefore recommended amongst others, that Akwa Ibom State Government or its agency supervising secondary schools should show more interest in imbibing Information Communication Technology (ICT) and in supplying the necessary ICT facilities to secondary schools, especially in the rural areas, to facilitate effective school administration.

KEYWORDS: Principals, Application, Location, ICT, Administration, Secondary School, Rural, and Urban