Influence of social technical factors on ict readiness for primary schools in Bungoma county, Kenya

Abstract

Since the 1980s integration of ICT in education has been compulsory in the developed nations where the access rate is one computer to 15 students. In developing nations such as Kenya it is more recent and experimental with the access rate of one computer to 150 students. Many government efforts and private initiatives tried to address ICT integration in the school level by carving out policies and strategies, providing computers and Internet access. Despite the huge investment in ICT infrastructure, equipment and professional development for teachers by the government and schools, developed countries have reported up to 41% of integration of ICT to teaching and learning, the proportion remains substantially low in Africa, Kenya included. This raises questions as to how well the integration was being done and how ready the environment was, if less than 40% of the available ICT infrastructure were being used. The purpose of the study was to analyze the influence of social technical factors on ICT Readiness for Primary Schools. The study established that for one to integrate ICT in schools, ICT usefulness, leadership support, professional development and technical support should be put in place. The study recommended that education stakeholders in the county should train all the teachers on how to integrate technology in teaching, guarantee technical support to ICT infrastructure, ensure leadership support and develop an elaborate professional development programme for educators.