EXTENT OF UTILIZATION OF ICT RESOURCES AND ITS PRECEIVED CONTRIBUTION TO BUSINESS EDUCATION IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Background to the Study

Education has for long been recognized as a basic instrument of economic growth, social development and technological advancement of any society or nation. It is in recognition of this fact that government are required to commit immense resources to ensure the provision of education for their citizens and also tailored their policies towards ensuring that it is made accessible to the generality of their citizenry.

It is the key to upward mobility that lead to the progressive modernization of societies. Education indeed empowers any nation to rise to the challenges of social, cultural, economic and technological change (Oyebade,Oladipo & Adetoro 2008). As a result, virtually all countries of the world are bracing up for the challenges of modern life. Nigeria should not be an exception. Nigerian tertiary institutions should embrace the challenges in teaching and learning with technology by creating learning environment that promote active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning and knowledge creation.

Developing 21st century literacy (information, digital and visual) among students and encouraging faculty adoption and innovation in

teaching and learning with information technology, and advancing innovation in teaching and learning with technology in an era of budget cuts.

Based on this, highly effective school system and improved students outcome should be the key objectives of the government and private sector. This is because education of highest quality is the foundation for future of the country. For the progress of a nation and the enrichment of society in general, there is need for quality education because a country‟s literate population is its asset. In today‟s world of technology and global competition, quality education is of utmost importance for societal development, and the future of the nation. Therefore, the skills, knowledge, and values to be imparted to students must be of high quality.

Business education is education for and about business or training in business skills (Esene, 2012). According to Okoli (2010), business education is that aspect of the total educational programme that provides the knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes needed to perform effectively in the business world as a producer and/or consumer of goods and services that business offers. Business education is an important part of general education which emphasizes skill acquisition

for office use. It is a multi-disciplinary programme that encompasses Accounting, Secretarial Studies now Office Technology and Management (OTM) and Marketing/Distributive education (Okorie, 2001). An individual who receives training in business education can easily develop potentials for entrepreneurship pursuits especially in this era of economic recession and unemployment. The programme is concerned mainly with the development of relevant and saleable skills and knowledge that would enable an individual to function effectively in the world of work.

In order to actualize these lofty objectives of business education towards national, socio-economic growth and development, educational institutions and their systems must function in line with set standards. Due to this, a systematic qualitative administration, teaching and learning are required of business education in Nigeria.

However, business education being skill acquiring discipline require the use of laboratories adequately equipped with information and communication technology resources for practical skills acquisition as well as provision of information and knowledge needed for high quality teacher preparation tantamount to teacher effectiveness in the labour market. Today‟s labour market demands a quality workforce that can

use technology as a means to increase productivity and creativity. This includes networks such as fixed wireless and satellite broadcasting networks, telecommunications and applications like the Internet, Intranet, database management systems and multi-media tools. These skills include identifying reliable sources of information, effectively accessing these sources of information, synthesizing and communicating that information to colleagues and associates.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become key tools and have a revolutionary impact on how people see and live in the world. It has become so important that every country, organization or institution no matter how highly or lowly placed want to identify and embrace ICT. The place of ICTs in education and the world in general cannot be ignored. Modern day business are conducted and facilitated through the use of telephones, fax machines and computer communication networks through the Internet. This phenomenon has given birth to the contemporary e-commerce, e-medicine, e-banking and e-education among others. Bandele (2006) summed up that ICT is a revolution that involves the use of computers, Internet and other telecommunication technology in every aspect of human endeavour. Bandele posited that ICT is simply about sharing and having access to data with ease.It is regarded as super highway through which information is transmitted and shared by the people all over the world. Information and Communication Technology resources can be described as tools through which people work with the information and communication processing needs of an organization. It encompasses the computer hardware, software; the network and several other devices (video, audio, photography, camera, etc) that convert information (text), images, sound, and motion and so on into common digital form (Vannili, 2015). ICT resources have a wider spectrum of application and utilization with enormous relevance to universities teaching and learning

activities.Utilization of ICT resources in teaching and learning is a good development with tremendous potentials for qualitative teaching and learning output on tertiary education in general and business education in particular. This is evident as the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004.17) places emphasis on the provision and utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) when it states that “in recognition of the prominent roles of information and communication technology in advancing knowledge and skills necessary for effective functioning in the

modern world, there is urgent need to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) into education in Nigeria”.

The Federal Ministry of Education (2011a) affirmed further that, quality learning outcome depends on the quality of teaching and learning inputs and the qualitative processing of the inputs which among others include the use of ICT facilities for teaching and learning. As Ijaduola (2010a) asserted, the efficiency of the product of educational institution is the result of inputs (teachers, equipment, and infrastructural facilities classroom, laboratories, libraries, computers and consumable materials) as well as the process (instructional delivery) such that where the input and process are faulty, the output will be faulty.

Over the years, the challenge in business education programme in Nigerian tertiary institutions has been the quality of the graduates in relation to employment demands. Despite numerous efforts of relevant stakeholders, criticisms still abound about the extent to which the graduates satisfy the demands of employers in different organization in the country. In other words, there is no clear evidence that the utilization of ICT has contributed to effective teaching and learning in business education in tertiary institutions in Nigeria generally and south-west in particular.

Utilization of ICT resources is expected to contribute to effective teaching and learning in business education programme and other fields of study in Nigeria. The extent of utilization by lecturers and students for qualitative outcome is yet to be determined. As posited by Bamiro and Liverpool (2002) and Akuegwu, Nwiue and Agba (2008), lecturers can only transfer ideas and skills to their students if they are masters of their trades. Aginam (2006) specifically asserted that the levels at which lecturers utilize ICT facilities in Nigerian Universities are less than five percent.

Gender is a factor that may determine the outcome of this study. Gender is the sexual characteristics designated to a person by the environment. Abul (2007) refers to gender as the socially defined capabilities and attributes assigned to persons on the basis of their alleged sexual characteristics. Similarly, Adesope, Asiabaka, and Agumagu (2009) explained that gender is the roles, attitudes, behaviour and values ascribed by the society to male and female. In the past, there has been a general view supported by research that male student perform better than female in practical oriented courses. For instance, Anigbogu (2002) pointed out that some cultures see male more superior to female and that such feelings is manifested in every aspect of their

 

lives. Supporting this view, Onyemelukwe (2005) explained that men use Internet and other ICT resources more than women. Also, Liverpool, Marut, and Ndam (2011) investigated the existing levels of ICT proficiency among male and female academic staff of university of Putra, Malaysia (UPM) covering word processing, spreadsheet processing, data-base management, presentation software, e-mail, world wide web, multimedia and virtual class application and reported that gap exists as male excelled in the use of web while female excelled in the use of e-mail.

Status is another factor that may determine the usage of ICT resources in universities in Nigeria. According to Suskie (2013), status is the position or rank of someone or something when compared to others in the society, organization, group etc while in the word of Vavoula (2009), status is the current state of something, the position or rank in relation to others. According to Franklin (2006), status is the particular condition that someone or something is at a specific time. From the above definitions, the word status can be said to be the current state of something or its position or state of affairs at a particular time. Status as far as used in this study denotes lecturers and students of business education in Nigeria universities.

Ownership of institution is also a factor that may determine the utilization of ICT resources in universities. Ownership of universities in Nigeria ranges from federal, state and private individuals or groups which may determine the funding, provision of resources and quality of services rendered. Bassey, Umoren, Akuegwu, Udida and Akpama (2007) noted that the academic staff in federal universities fared better than state academic staff in their job performance including the use of ICT. Supporting this view, Akuegwu, Ntukidem, Ntukidem and Jaja (2011) found that federal universities utilizes ICT facilities more than state universities due to funding. The author further buttressed that federal universities are more funded than state universities. It is on the basis of the above varied opinions as regard gender, status and ownership of universities in relation to provision and usage of ICT resources that the researcher deemed it fit to consider the significant level of these three variables to see their influence on the opinion of the respondents.

Based on the foregoing, this study therefore, determined the extent of utilization of ICT resources and its perceived contributions to business education in South-West Nigeria.

 

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