INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY USAGE PATTERNS IN SECOND CYCLE SCHOOLS: A STUDY OF TWO SELECTED SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN GHANA

ABSTRACT Information communication technology (ICT) usage is a global phenomenon and has caught up with users in the African continent. In view of this, Ghana as a country in realizing the importance of ICT in the lives of its citizens as a potential in enhancing development rolled out a policy for the use of ICT. This policy has seen the study of ICT as a subject in both the basic and second cycle levels of the educational institution. One major barrier arising in terms of ICT usage is what social scientists have described as the ‘digital divide’ phenomenon. This is a term that distinguishes users of ICT in different ways, some of which refers to those who possess the facility and those who do not as well as those who have the skills in using the facilities and those who cannot. The social capital theory was used in the study to ascertain the comparative usage of ICT in an urban and rural school. Based on a sample of 240 respondents drawn from two schools the study found that both teachers and students in the schools do not know much about ICT although ICT devices are a common resource in the country; ICT facilities were not equitably distributed in the two schools as the number of these facilities in the rural school compared to those in the urban school were inadequate for both students and teachers; and also there was a gender disparity among students in the use of ICT. Some recommendations made by the study include the need for the Ghana Education Service (GES) to make the study of ICT an examinable subject in the SHS syllabus to persuade the use of ICT among teachers and students at the second cycle school level; the provision of training programs for teachers especially the older ones in the use of ICT; the provision of ICT devices like laptops for the teachers (on hire-purchase basis) to enable them own as well as use these devices and government providing ‘state of the art’ ICT laboratories in second cycle schools to encourage both teachers and students to adopt the use of ICT. These are important for the transformation of education in Ghanaian second cycle schools.