ICT USAGE AS A PREDICTOR OF ADMINISTRATIVE EFFECTIVENESS AMONG PRINCIPALS OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Administrative effectiveness is indispensable for the actualization of the educational policy objectives. In other words, in secondary school administration no meaningful progress, can be made without administrative effectiveness because it is through it that school administrators give direction to educational policies implementation, align with set educational policies and change management. The study discussed ICT usage as a predictor of administrative effectiveness among principals of public secondary schools in Anambra State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were further tested to guide the study. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population for this study comprised 267 principals of public secondary schools in the six education zones of the State. The study was a census study. The instruments for data collection were two structured questionnaires designed by the researchers, titled ‘ICT Usage Questionnaire (IUQ) and Principals’ Administrative Effectiveness Questionnaire (PAEQ)’ was structured after the Likert type scale which had Strongly Agree (SA)=4 points, Agree (A) =3 points, Disagree (SD) =2 points, Strongly Disagree (SD) =1 point. The instruments were validated by three experts, two from Educational Management and one from Measurement and Evaluation, all from Faculty of Education, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus. Cronbach Alpha method was utilized to determine the internal consistency of the instruments. The instrument yielded an average co-efficient values of 0.79 for ICT usage questionnaire and 0.82 for principals’ administrative effectiveness questionnaire which was considered highly reliable and suitable for the study. A total of 267 instruments were administered to the respondents but a total of 265 was retrieved which is 96% return rate. Simple linear regression analysis was used to answer the two research questions and the two hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance to further guide the study. The findings of the study revealed that there were increase in administrative effectiveness with values of 0.52 computer usage, 0.58 internet usage which positively and significantly predicted ICT usage on administrative effectiveness among principals in public secondary schools in Anambra State. The study concluded that ICT usage had large positive predictive value on administrative effectiveness of principals in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings the study recommended that principals should build a good positive community-school relationship to enable philanthropists from host community donate computers for use in secondary school administration. They should embrace the use of digital technology in school administration to foster administrative effectiveness