ABSTRACT

This study was designed to analyze the extent of availability and utilization of information and communications technology facilities for effective instruction of accounting education in Colleges of Education South-East Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The instrument for data collection was a set of questionnaire prepared by the researcher on Analysis of the use of Information and Communication Technology Facilities for Effective Instruction of Accounting Education (AUICTFIA). The questionnaire was validated by three Specialists. The Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instrument and the overall reliability co-efficient of .77 were realized.  The population for the study was accounting education lecturers (95) and accounting education students (448) in the twelve Colleges of Education South-East Nigeria, a total of 545. Six research questions and six null hypotheses were formulated. The research questions were answered using Mean and Standard Deviation. The six null hypotheses were tested using the t-test statistic at .05 level of significance at 533 degree of freedom (df). The questionnaire returned was 535 (95 from lecturers and 440 from students). Some of the findings include: that there were low extent of the availability and low extent of utilization of information and communication technologies facilities for teaching and learning of accounting education in Colleges of Education South-East Nigeria. Some of the Constraints to availability identified include; Lack of implementation of government favourable policies, non-inclusion of ICT programme in teacher training institute and management attitude. While some of the Constraints to utilization of ICT facilities in teaching and learning of accounting education identified include among others as: non accessibility of computers and necessary software for accounting instructions, non-availability of ICT facilities for teaching learning of accounting education, etc.  Strategies for improving availability of ICT facilities for instruction include: Appealing to business communities and individual within the domain of the institution for donation for procurement of ICT facilities learning and adequate funding by government to support ICT policies. On the other hand, strategies for improving utilization were determined as: massive computer literacy for teachers through seminars and workshops, provision of stand by generators to supplement power supply and others. Based on the above findings the following recommendations were made: The federal ministry of education should prepare curriculum on ICT that will be compulsory for all subjects at all levels of education in the country. Management of Colleges of Education particularly in the South East Nigeria should ensure the availability of internet facilities in the classrooms of their institutions in order to enhance web-based instruction. The Federal Government should fund this by paying internet connection fees to Internet Services Providers (ISP) to provide internet services. The Federal Government of Nigeria should motivate and encourage teachers to develop and use multimedia courseware and software relevant to teaching and learning in their different courses.