Relationship between Teacher Characteristics and ICT Competence in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria

Adaptation to technological and digital tools in teaching is a worrisome situation in Nigerian education sector despite the advancement and development of technology in the country. This study investigated the relationship between biology teacher characteristics and ICT competence in Enugu Education Zone. One (1) research question and three (3) null hypotheses guided the study which was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The entire 105 public and 151 private biology teachers in Enugu Education zone were investigated given the total number of 256 biology teachers. The main instrument; structured questionnaire was validated and the reliability of the instrument was assessed using Cronbach Alpha, which yielded 0.849 showing high reliability. The research question was answered using mean and standard deviation while the null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). In conclusion, this study's findings suggest that ICT competence among teachers is not significantly influenced by gender, years of teaching experience, or type of school. The absence of significant differences across these variables implies that ICT training and professional development should focus on individual teacher needs, rather than demographic characteristics, schools and policy makers should prioritize inclusive, equitable ICT integration strategies, future research should explore other factors influencing ICT competence, such as teacher motivation, school culture, and resource availability.