STATUS OF ICT IMPLEMENTATION IN PREPARATORY SCHOOLS OF SOUTH WEST SHEWA ZONE OF OROMIA REGIONAL STATE

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to assess the major status of ICT implementation in Preparatory schools of South West Shewa Zone of Oromia Regional State. The study was conducted in five preparatory schools of South West Shewa Zone, namely; Geresu Duki,Dilela, Busa,Sadan Sodo and Teji. The subjects of this study were 91 teachers, 5 principals, 5 Vice principals, 5 school supervisors and 35 student councils of the selected schools for this study.Teachers were selected using simple random sampling techniques and available sampling was employed for the selection of school principals, vice principals, supervisors and student councils. Descriptive survey research design was used to attain the objectives of the study. The data of this study were gathered by means of questionnaires, interview, observation and document analysis. The collected data were analyzed carefully through quantitative and qualitative methods and interpreted by using frequency counts, percentages, mean value, chi-square and rank orders. The major findings of this study have shown that the status of ICT implementation in preparatory schools of the study was full of challenges. Such as lack of competence, low attention for ICT, lack of enough staff training, shortage of computer related facilities, insufficient budget, absence of ICT technicians, computer and plasma related problems while using, low attitudes towards ICT implementations and absence of ICT vision and plan at the school levels. Based on the respondents’ responses the study recommended that; school leaders should formulated workable school ICT plan, vision and make available ICT resources through community participation at their school levels. In connection to this, south west show education office and Oromia education bureaus should give attention in providing ICT related facilities, allocate appropriate budget and provide necessary training for school leaders. Generally, educational experts and management personnel should conduct further research on the status of ICT in the implementation in preparatory schools of South West Shewa Zone to alleviate each of the problems discussed in this thesis