Policy Analysis On ICTs In Education:A Case Of Public High Schools In New-juaben Municipal Of Ghana

ICT have brought some degree of changes in every bit of our daily life from education,health,sports etc.Children of today grow up with an array of technology,both at home and at school.Educators and governments have also devoted huge resources to the provision of technology in the learning environment.Despite the increase in ICT tools in Ghanaian Senior High schools,most of the schools seem to be teaching ICT literacy instead of a complete integration of the ICT tools in the curriculum to enhance the teaching and learning process.The general objective of the study was,to assess whether ICT policy have accomplished its aim,thus enhancing in the teaching and learning process in all the five schools in the New Juaben District of the Eastern Region.A purposive sampling method was used in the selection of the participants.The selected participants consist of administrators and teachers which was taken from all the five senior high schools for the interview.The main findings of the study were that most of the teachers lack training and knowledge about computers and have no previous experience in the use of computers.Also,inadequate ICT infrastructure in the schools is the other major factors inhibiting the integration of ICT into the learning and teaching process.On the issue,the respondents the researcher observed that as per the government policies to improve the quality of education,financial aids were given to various schools in each district including agencies.But no survey was done and no verification made by government teams to know whether technical equipment reached the schools or not.It was found that there are schools after receiving technical equipment also not used equipment properly due to negligence and irresponsibility equipment was not fitted and not given to reach target fixed by the government.It was found that lack of training and lack of technical knowledge making teachers difficult to make use of the given equipment and thereby causing drastic down fall in the quality education has contributed tremendously to the compounding challenges.The study also revealed that in spite of the fact that the teachers had computers at their disposal;most of them are not making the best out of it.This clearly shows the negative attitude towards the attainment of the 21 st Century Educational Goal.Some of the teachers said they did not have the skills to use computers to improve their teaching and learning,the educators said that they could learn how to use ICT and adapt to current technological advancement if these ICTs were available at their schools.It therefore appears that the educators blamed the absence or limited availability of the ICTs at schools for their lack of knowledge and confidence in using ICTs for teaching and learning.The study also revealed that virtually all the schools did not have the required number of computers and other ICT equipment for a successful implementation of the policy.Finally,it was revealed through the study that majority of the participants considered the use of the ICTs as the preserve of the younger generation and that ICT should be taught as a subject on its own and not integrated into all the other subjects.