GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

The study sought to examine information and communication technology as a panacea to poor academic performance of children aged 2 to 9 years of age. A correlational survey design was adopted for the study. The study was conducted in Akwa Ibom State. The population of the study comprised children from 2–9 years old in both nursery and primary schools in Akwa Ibom State. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select three senatorial districts. Each senatorial district has two local governments with three schools. From each of the schools, 10 children were randomly selected, giving a total of 180 respondents, which comprised the sample size used for the study. The instrument titled "Information and communication technology and poor academic performance of children Questionnaire (ICTPAPCQ)" was used for data collection. Face and content validation of the instrument was carried out by one expert in test, measurement, and evaluation from University of Uyo to ensure that the instrument had accuracy, appropriateness, and completeness. The Cronbach Alpha technique was used to determine the level of reliability of the instrument. In this case, the reliability coefficient obtained was 0.89, and this was high enough to justify the use of the instrument. The researcher subjected the data generated for this study to appropriate statistical techniques such as percentage analysis, used in answering research questions, and simple regression in testing the hypotheses. The test for significance was done at 0.05 alpha levels. The study concluded that utilisation of ICTs has the potential to accelerate, enrich, and deepen skills, to motivate and engage students, to help relate school experience to work practices, create economic viability for tomorrow's workers, and to strengthen teaching and student performance in academics, helping schools change to modern ways of learning. One of the recommendations made in the study was that the state government should establish ICT centres that students can access at their convenient times and that the services should be extended outside the school environment.

KEYWORDS: Information and Communication Technology, Panacea, Academic Performance