THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ADEQUATE STRATEGIC INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR STUDENTS' ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE.

Abstract The study investigated the implementation of adequate strategic information and communication technology for students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Rivers State. Three research questions guided the study and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 significance level. A descriptive survey design was adopted. This study's population comprised 2,608 teachers in the 44 public junior secondary schools in Rivers State. A sample of 260 teachers, 52 male and 208 female teachers was drawn through a stratified sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a self-designed instrument titled “Implementing. Strategic Information Communication Technology for Students’ Academic Performance Questionnaire (ISICTSAPQ). It was made up of 15 items. The instrument was face-validated by three experts at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education and the Reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha method. The instrument's internal consistency yielded a reliability index of 0.77, 0.80, and 0.84 respectively for subscales and an overall reliability index of 0.82. Mean scores and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while z-test statistics were used to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 significance level. The finding of this study revealed that to a high extent providing Information and Communication Technology training and resources enhances students’ academic performance, and to a low extent providing Information and Communication Technology leadership. Keywords: STRATEGIC, INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE