Application of ICT in Classrooms in Rural Area

This survey aims at placing the jobs faced by school in Jada local Government Area ( LGA ) . The quality of instruction in schools in the rural country is less compared to the quality of instruction in the urban centres. A study and an interview were conducted in order to, place what the jobs are. From the consequences, the undermentioned jobs were identified ; deficiency of substructure, low quality of instruction, unqualified instructors and deficiency of financess to keep the school. As consequences of these jobs the pupils in such schools are neglecting there external scrutinies therefore they do n’t acquire admittances into universities conveying a halt to their instruction. This paper suggests the execution of information and communicating engineering ( ICT ) to work out the jobs faced by the School in Jada with the aid of the authorities and private organisations.

Introduction

Education is a really of import facet in the development of a state. An educated person can carry through so much for himself and his state. Education empowers people to follow their dreams, to do alterations in their lives and the lives of others. In an article published in Onlinenigeria the missionaries foremost introduced instruction to Nigeria in the fiftiess. The first instruction section established was in the southern Nigeria in the twelvemonth 1887 ( Education, 2010 ) . Ibadin a professor in University of Benin mentioned that “ between 1960 and 1998, primary and secondary school registration increased from 2,912,619 to 17,942,000 or 516 per centum rate addition ” ( 2010, p.87 ) . This shows the fast turning figure of educational institutes in Nigeria. Both rural and urban countries have turning Numberss of educational institute. Despite the addition, the educational position in rural countries is much less compared to that in urban centres, it is just to state that instruction in rural countries have non yet run into the needed educational criterion. For illustration, the quality of instruction in urban topographic points like Jimeta in Adamawa province is more than that of rural topographic points like Jada Local Government Area. The public presentation of school in Nigeria is measured by how good they do in external scrutinies. Schools in Jimeta are executing much more than schools in Jada.

The schools in the rural countries have unqualified instructors. Furthermore, the authorities merely concentrates on the urban countries while pretermiting the rural countries. Because of this carelessness, the rural schools do non hold the necessary substructure in making a good acquisition and healthy environment. The execution of information engineering would assist in developing the educational criterion in rural countries.

Methodology

The range of this research was based on Jada Local Government Area and Jimeta in Adamawa province. The methods used in garnering information were, interviews, studies and internet research. Thirty people answered the study, 15 from Jimeta and 15 from Jada Local Government Area. Two people were interviewed ; the local authorities president of Jada and a instructor from Jada secondary school.

Consequences of Findingss

The study was in two subdivisions. The first subdivision focused on the condition/state of the school, while the other subdivision focused on how many people have entree to computing machine and in what ways has the computing machine affected them. Most of the people in Jimeta agreed with the fact that there are good qualified instructors and the acquisition environment is a healthy 1. The entire antonym was the consequence in Jada, from the study it showed that the schools in Jada local Government do non hold adequate tabular arraies and chairs, text editions are out dated and they lack other learning stuffs.

From the consequence above it did non come as a daze that merely 5 per centum of the people who took the study knew what a computing machine was. In add-on, from that 5 per centum none of them own or have used a computing machine before. They have no thought, that the usage of computing machine can help them to be more efficient in their work. The contrary was the instance for the people surveyed in Jimeta ; 85 per centum have used a computing machine before and 60 per centum have entree to a computing machine. From the 60 per centum that have entree to the computing machine all agreed that it has made their work less feverish and it has besides made them more efficient.

In an Interview with the Chairman of Jada ; Alhaji Usman Bamanga mentioned that the ratio of instructors to pupils is 1 to 70, which is really bad. In add-on to that, he besides stated that the instructors are largely unqualified. The Chairman besides stated that most of the times you would happen pupils seated on the floor because there are no tabular arraies and chairs in the schoolrooms. Furthermore, some of the text editions available are outdated and the instructors are the lone people who have entree to them. When asked if there are any computing machines available in the school, the president said “ In a topographic point where there are no chairs for the pupils to sit on, do you anticipate them to hold computing machines. The merely available computing machine in this topographic point is in my office. ”

Harmonizing to the president, the ground why the school is in a really bad status is because the authorities do non supply plenty support to instruction in rural countries. The sum of money provided by the authorities merely helps pay the wages of the instructors and the school can non afford to purchase other larning stuffs needed for learning. In add-on, the sum paid by the pupils for their tuition fees is really undistinguished compared to the financess need to upgrade the criterion of the school.

Interview with the instructor ; a instructor from the school was picked because he would cognize more about the jobs traveling on in the school. One of his major concerns among few others was, the pupils do non like coming to school and that the parents are non making anything about the state of affairs. In add-on, even if they are in school the pupil happen it difficult to concentrate in category because of the conditions of the schoolroom. The instructors besides complained that the figure of pupils in the category, he pointed out that he can non separate the chopper pupils and those that need excess attending. Those that needed the excess attending would stop up non larning anything at the terminal of the session. He besides complained that most of the clip the school does non supply them with larning stuff. For illustration, sometimes the instructors use their ain money to purchase chalks and other composing stuffs in order to learn their category while in some state of affairs when the instructors do non purchase the stuffs larning does non happen.

Problems Faced by Classrooms in Jada Local Government Area

From the study and interviews conducted, it is clear that schools in the rural country are confronting so many jobs. These jobs are:

Low figure of schools in the country ; as motioned above, there is merely one school in Jada available to the population of 1000 pupils in the country. Because of that, the categories are overcrowded doing it impossible for the instructor to command the pupils. If there are excessively many people in a room with hapless hygiene, this makes it easier for the spread of diseases. In add-on, in a category where there are about 70 people in a room, would do it easier for the spread of diseases. In an article published by the World Resources Institute it stated that “ Overcrowding and insanitary family conditions favor the transmittal of the disease, which is spread by droplets from a cough or a sneezing or common custodies ( Airborne, 1999, P. 4 ) . ”

Furthermore, excessively many pupils to a instructor, causes larning to be limited to little figure of pupils. The higher the figure of pupils in a category the more hard it would be for the instructor to command the category. With a crowded schoolroom, it would be hard for the pupils to be attentive. The crowd would besides increase noise doing deflecting other pupils ready to larn.

Another, job faced by this school is the quality of instruction given to them. Most of the instructors in the school are unqualified ; they can non be accepted by other urban school so they come to the rural countries where they have no pick but to use them. The rural schools such as the one in Jada have no pick because they do non hold the money to pay for qualified instructors. The deficiency of qualified instructors has affected the public presentation of the school in external scrutinies such as Western African Examinations Council ( WAEC ) , and the National Examinations Council ( NECO ) .

Supporting this statement is Vincent.O.Ibadin saying that

aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦the ultimate quality of instruction is determined by the instructor, as he transmits the value of instruction to the pupil. In line with this, Merton ( 1957 ) in a paper titled “ The Self Fulfilling Prophecy ” , pointed out that, “ a instructor ‘s outlook can and does rather literally affect a pupil ‘s academic public presentation. ” Similarly, Aghenta ( 1998:44 ) emphasized that, “ what the instructor does and how he does it are of import in the finding of quality of instruction. The instructor is every bit of import in the finding of measure of instruction. ” Hence, possibly the National Policy on Education ( FGN, 2004:39 ) . ( 2010, p.89 )

The quotation mark above shows how the making of a instructor has a batch to make with the public presentation of their pupils.

As a consequence of unqualified instructors, the pupils do highly hapless in external scrutinies, and because of their public presentation, they do n’t acquire admittances into third establishments. The pupils therefore end up remaining at place making what their grandparents have been making, taking them back to where they started. This discourages the parent from seting their kids into schools and it encourages the figure of dropouts in schools. They feel that instruction is a waste of clip ; they instead send their kids to work and lend to the household income.

In add-on to all the jobs, the school does non acquire adequate money to run the schools. The environment in which the pupils survey is really bad, the school does non hold adequate money to purchase up-to-date text editions and other substructures such as tabular arraies.

How ICT Can Help Solve the Problem.

The execution of computing machines and the proviso of cyberspace installation would assist work out some of the jobs faced by Jada secondary school.

The job of outdate information and text edition: With computing machines and the cyberspace, the instructors and pupils can hold entree to information they need. The demand to purchase a text edition is non necessary. There are so many e-books, e-libraries and so much more out at that place that are free and unfastened for the populace to utilize.

Distraction doing larning to be limited to few Numberss of pupils: The computing machine can assist pull the attending of the pupils. For illustration, in a category where there are three people to a computing machine, their attending would be on what is on the computing machine, ( the computing machine here is like a mini instructor to them ) . The computing machine provides a fun manner of acquisition, through educational games and multimedia, this makes the pupils to be excited and willing to larn more. The article Computers in the Classroom: How Information Technology can Better Conversation Education, it acknowledged that “ It is possible to do a talk more piquant and entertaining by utilizing the presentation tools available to us with computing machines and associated package ( 2003, P. 2 ) . ”

Unqualified instructors: The instructors can foster their instruction by inscribing in universities that offer on-line grades. They can besides educate themselves with resources out at that place and happen out what is new and learning techniques that would assist them in their instruction.

Problem of pupils dropping out: When ICT is implemented in the school it would function as a incentive for larning to the pupils. The pupils would be willing to come to school and larn about what is go oning in the universe. Implementing ICT can assist upgrade their external scrutiny consequences, which would acquire them admittance into the university. This would in bend encourage parent to set their kids in school, because they can now see advancement.

Quality of instruction: To sum up how information and communicating engineering can work out the jobs of Jada secondary school, it would in the procedure addition the quality of instruction of the school. Harmonizing to the curate of instruction he stated that vitamin E acquisition could assist work out, the job the state ‘s instruction is confronting ( Sam ) .

Government Roles in Solving the Problems

For the job of unqualified instructors, authorities policies should be implemented to guarantee that merely qualified staffs are employed to learn. In add-on, those instructors that are already in the school system should travel back to school to foster their instruction to the criterion required. Government can besides put a policy to turn to the issue of overcrowding. A policy can be created that states “ A instructor should hold non more than 40 pupils in a schoolroom. ” When the execution of these policies is successful, it would turn to the issues of overcrowding and unqualified instructors learning in rural schools.

The last and the most of import job is the issue of money, which generated most of the jobs. As identified by the president of Jada Local Government, the fund given by the authorities does non supply the basic demands needed to run the school. The authorities should concentrate on instruction in the rural countries as they do the urban countries. The authorities can non be the lone beginning of financess for the school ; there are other private persons and organisations that are willing to supply the aid. An illustration of a non-profit organisation aimed at assisting schools in Nigeria is “ SchoolNet Nigeria is a non-profit administration created to turn to the usage of ICT in Nigerian secondary schools with the support of several authorities ministries. ( Agyeman, 2007, p.6 ) ”

Decision

In decision, when ICT is implemented in Jada secondary school it would upgrade the criterion of instruction in that country. The alterations would non merely be limited to the school and its pupils but to the hereafter of Jada Local Government Area. The pupils would come out with consequences that would take them to any university in the state and compete with other schools in the urban countries. The kids Jada Local Area would hold control of what they want to be in the hereafter. As instruction makes you who are and what you ne’er believing you can go. If this is excessively be successful in every rural country in Nigeria so the jobs of Nigeria are solved