ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to investigate the influence of the information and communication technology on the teaching and learning of Agricultural Science in secondary schools in Umuahia North Local Government Area in Abia State. The study sought to determine the availability, adequacy and extent of utilization of utilization of information and communication technologies materials in the teaching of agricultural science. I he study also sought to find out the extent of competence among teachers and problems that militate against effective utilization of information and communication technologies materials in the teaching of agricultural science the study was guided by five research questions and three null hypotheses that were tested at 0.05 level of signiGcance. 1 he study adopted the descriptive survey design. The population of the sludy was 12,802 which comprised 12681 Agricultural Science students and 121 Agricultural Science teachers from a total of 48 public secondary schools that cut across fbur Local Government Areas that make up Umuahia Education Zone. The sample size fbr the study was 463 which comprised 400 students and 63 Agricultural Science teachers selected from a total of 20 secondary schools. The study adopted the multistage sampling. The schools and student were selected using the proportionate stratified random sampling technique across the four Local Government Areas, while the simple random sampling technique was used to select the students, teachers and schools fi'oin each ofthe Local Government selected for the study. The instrument for data collection was the research questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three experts, two fi*om the department of Agricultural Education and one from the department of Educational Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability of the instrument was 0.78 which was derived using the Pearson5s product moment correlation coefficient statistic. The method of data collection was through the distribution ofthe 463 copies ofthe research questionnaire to 463 respondents which were retrieved after completion on the spot. The research questions were analyzed using the mean and standard deviations while the chi square was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level ofsignificance. The results revealed that there are available of computers in school and non availability of others such as internet services, projectors, interactive white board, television, radio, tape recorder for the effective teaching and learning Agricultural Science. Meanwhile llndings also revealed that these information and communication technology facilities are inadequate, not adequately utilized as well as the teachers not been competent in the utilization ofthe information and communication technology facilities and the problems that militate against effective utilization of information and communication technology facilities include, lack of power supply, lack of technical support. The study recommends among others that school management and Government should ensure that other information and communication technology material should be made available and adequately utilized. The Government should also organize workshop for the retraining ofteachers on the skills and competencies, required for effective utilization of information and communication technology materials in the teaching and learning of Agricultural Science.