ABSTRACT
The study examined the state of the primary school environment in Abia State in terms of its appropriateness for computer education. Five research questions and five hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Five hundred teachers (100 head teachers and 400 classroom teachers) randomly sampled from all the teachers in Umuahia South, Umuahia North, Aba North and Aba South Local Government Education Authorities responded to a 40 item questionnaire stl11ctured and validated for the study. Means and Standard Deviation scores were used. to answer the research questions and t – test statistic was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Major findings were that computer facilities and physical infrastructure facilities were inadequate and therefore mark the primary school environment as inappropriate for computer education. The teachers are not computer literate and this posed a serious threat to computer education. It was therefore recommended that Government should give priority to education in its budget, so as to create a physical learning environment that will be appropriate and also monitor the use of such fund. Also educational administrators at all level should organize computer literacy programmes through seminars, workshops and in – service training programmes for teachers.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Great emphasis is placed on the contribution of the environment to the education of the child. Environment, according to the World boo~ Encyclopedia (2004) is everything that is external to an organism. In other words, it is the totality of circumstances surrounding an organism or group of organisms. It consists of the combination of natural, physical conditions that affect and influence the growth, development and survival of organism and complex of social and cultural conditions. For the purpose of this study, environment is the sum of all external factors both human and material to which an individual is exposed.
Environment can be classified into: market environment, cultural environment, home environment, and school environment, (Mazi, 2006). Nunes (1994) earlier classified the environment into two types namely urban and rural. Urban environment has the following characteristics; increase of population, modern building, electricity, industrial pollution, noise, road, pipe borne- water and stadia. Rural environment is principally characterized by lack of electricity, pipe borne- water, exodus of the young ones, and has dispensaries. In this study, the researcher would limit himself to the school
environment in urban and rural areas. Basically, there are two elements in every environment, viz, biotic (living or human resources) and abiotic (nonliving or physical) factors\ elements. The biotic factors include influence by members of the same and other species on the organism. And the abiotic elements are, light, temperature, water, atmospheric gases, among others influencing the individual. These are non-human elements that influence the organism.
The school environment is a very important factor to be considered in achieving the objectives of primary education. Nnaji, Nweze and Ogbozor (1996) noted that the types of environment to which the pupils are exposed can impair or assist teaching and learning not minding the inherited potentials of the pupils. The environmental setting of the school influences to a very large extent the realization of the objective of the school. Achimugu (1990) discovered that students in urban areas that have rich school environment perform better than students in the rural areas that have poor school environment.
School environment for the purpose of the study is all the external conditions and influences in the school that influence teaching and learning. According to Chin (1997) they include; the school buildings, classrooms, workshops, laboratories, libraries, fields, offices, furniture, (infrastructural facilities), instructional materials, psychological disposition and qualification of teachers, school administrative styles, head teachers perception and the surrounding grounds: noise, temperature, lighting, location as well as physical, biological and chemical agents. The external influence or condition (or what constitute the environment) for the study include: computers and computer facilities: chairs, tables, desks, classrooms, electricity, teachers’ qualification and experience library facilities (textbooks) and head teachers perception of computer education (CE).
The quality and quantity of teaching and learning that influence pupils’ performance and achievement depends greatly on the availability of appropriate environment. Appropriateness’ according to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2000) mean suitable, acceptable or correct for the particular circumstance. Appropriateness for the purpose of this study means the suitability of the primary school environment for computer education. The appropriate school environment for computer education would include: availability of, functional computers, textbooks, infrastructure (computer) facilities, psychological disposition and qualification of teachers for computer education and the disposition of the head teacher towards .the subject. These factors combined could be said to determine the appropriateness (suitability) of the school environment for computer education. Lack of appropriateness or inappropriateness of the school environment can have an adverse effect on the subject.
Based on the appropriateness or suitability of the school environment for teaching and learning United Nation Education Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (1990) classified the school environment into two main types namely: rich school environment and poor school environment. The rich school environment is adequately equipped with infrastructural facilities (school building, classrooms furniture and libraries), sufficient instructional materials, qualified teachers and competent administrative style. This is an appropriate environment on one hand. On the other hand, the poor school environment has inadequate infrastructural facilities, lack of qualified teachers, inadequate instructional materials and incompetent administrative style. This environment is inappropriate school environment for CE.
The appropriateness of the primary school environment is of great importance to the educational system. The primary school is the foundation of all the other levels of the educational system (Secondary and Tertiary). The National policy of Education, Federal Republic of Nigeria, (FRN) (2004) defined primary education as the education given in an institution to children aged 6 to 11 plus. To ensure a solid foundation for the entire educational system, the National Policy of Education (NPE) FRN (2004) stated the goals of primary education as follow:
a) Inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy, and the ability to communicate effectively.
b) Lay a sound basis for scientific and reflective thinking
c) Give citizenship education as a basis for effective participation in the contribution to the life of the society.
d) Mould the character and develop sound attitudes and morality in the child.
e) Develop in the child the ability to adapt to the child’s changing environment.
f) Give the child opportunities for developing manipulative skills that will enable the child function effectively in the society within the limits of the child’s capacity.
g) Provide basic tools for further educational advancement, including preparation for trades and craft of the locality.
To realize these objectives, the following curricular activities were prescribed for the primary level of education: Languages; Mathematics, Science, Physical and Health Education, Religious Knowledge, Agriculture/Home Economics, Social Studies, Citizenship Education, Cultural and Creative Arts and Computer Education. The inclusion of computer educations is not only to make the foundation solid, but also to prepare pupils to be relevant in an information technology age. Such inclusion is more imminent, because according to Esu, Obara and Okoh (2008), to compete successfully in a fiercely competitive global economic and academic environment, we need highly skilled and educated workforce with aptitude and skills in the application of ICT in our daily life. Since, the information age is also the age of knowledge; no educational system can afford to stay outside the knowledge age in a world that is now run by knowledge. Akudolu (2004) is of the view that it is only a computer literate person that can make effective use of the vast electronic information available in the world.
