Chapter 1 Introduction to the study
Nowadays information and communication technology can be used every were in the surrounding of a life of human being including social, political, and economic, Most organisations have a fairly impressive range of ICT devices and equipment, that are truly being used to improve performance. Depending on the organisation and the services being provided, and efficient experience, usually speaking, workforce want to be appreciated for their hard work, (Rono, 2002) have revealed that autocratic leaders perform highly, but only as long as they are present to supervise. Emotion valued is the key to worker loyalty which leads to better production output, actual when there is a poor management of school although the outcome of the student will be poor as well as social expectation will not entertain and result poor economic and social services, therefore when school management posses poor will lead to the lack of skill of management including ICT skill for a head teacher then also show the absence team work skill among the management and studies conducted by (Sweeney, 2012).
1.1 Background
Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25-50 kilometres (16-31) off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones namely Unguja and Pemba (RGZ, 2003). Zanzibar united with Tanganyika to form United Republic of Tanzania in 26 April, 1964 and still enjoys a high degree of autonomy within the union (Figure 1.1). The capital of Zanzibar, located on the island of Unguja, is Zanzibar Town. Zanzibar consists of five Regions, two of them are from Pemba Island and three are in Unguja Island.
In Zanzibar, the use of ICT has been emphasized in the several government reports, such as Zanzibar Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (ZSGRP), Zanzibar Education Master Plan (ZEMAP) and Zanzibar Education Development Plan (ZEDP) (RGZ 2007), Among the issues planned in ZSGRP was to train for teachers and the department of ICT is coordinators on the use of computers and educational technology. Ministry of education and vocational training in Zanzibar has a responsibility to deliver quality education to Zanzibar citizens (MoEVT, 2013). According to ZEDCO 2007 Zanzibar has 298 public schools, most of them has computers and offers basic computer application such as word processor and spreadsheet. The current state of ICT in education rapidly increase in Zanzibar, the number of computers in schools are increases rapidly as computer usage in schools increase too.
The Ministry of Education Zanzibar through its Department of Teacher Training and ICT in Education had set section zone for those Schools that had use Teacher Centre (TCs) are basic for teacher advices on ICT for those who willing in ICT subject to increase knowledge from ICT subject offer about two days per week consult and some short training but still there is a lot of barriers of using ICT in managing the schools (MoEVT, 2012). Despite the interest of educators to integrating ICT in education systems, several problems occur during the process as it appear in Republic of Congo, Kenya and some others Africa Countries
Figure 1. 1 The map of Zanzibar from the position in Tanzania
1.2 Statement of the research problem
The altitude of using ICT for school management is essential for proper management of schools. However most of developing countries are facing many challenges of adoption of ICT in schools. The schools management through the head teacher will increase the interest of schools performance by using ICT as many organization nowadays do to provide wide range of business to the society to see the effective of the organization by that head teachers can be motivated by using ICT to control and managed the school as other company do to manage the market and increase the profit. Furthermore, the teachers lack skills and awareness in the use of computer and software and the outcome is the lack of confidence in utilize ICT. Manduku et al. (2012) observed that despite the benefits of ICT, Lack of effective ICT training remains one of the major obstacles for integration in instruction that there are no enough training opportunities for teachers in the use of ICT in a classroom environment in the developing countries. In Zanzibar context, most of the schools have computers, but this computer used mainly for typing schools examination, rather than helping school management in doing their management functions. It is evident that, despite a few existing researches in Tanzania, none of them have explored the barrier of using ICT for improving performance of head teachers in management of secondary school. The existing literature from various researches in the world provides vast knowledge as described in the next section.
1.3 Objectives of the study
1.3.1 General Objective
The general aim of this study is to explore the barrier of using ICT in School management for Zanzibar government.
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
The specific objectives that are required to meet the main aim are to:-
1. Analyse the level of usefulness of ICT in secondary schools management in Zanzibar.
2. Evaluate the factors that affect head teachers in school management in Zanzibar.
3. Determine the barriers for ICT in secondary schools in Zanzibar.
1.4 Research questions
i. Is ICT useful in secondary schools management in Zanzibar?
ii. What are the factors affecting head teachers in using ICT for school management in Zanzibar?
iii. What are the barriers facing head teachers in using ICT in secondary schools management in Zanzibar?
1.5 Significance of the study
The problem to date is policy framework and implementation, infrastructure and cost of bandwidth, language of internet (computer), stable power (electricity) and tutor technicians, and this study is significant due to the following reasons. Firstly, it may fill knowledge gap on issues related to the use of ICT in management of secondary school in Zanzibar. Secondly, it may help policy maker to improve ICT policy in the context of education institution in Zanzibar, furthermore, it may help head teachers to improve ICT use during instruction and managing process, finally, it may expose stakeholders in ICT to understand its use employ data as reference.
1.6 Theoretical Framework
Open System Theory
The open system theory was initially developed by Ludwig von Bertanlanffy in reaction to earlier theories of organizations which treated the organization largely as a self-contained entity. After its development, the theory immediately became applicable in all disciplines. It is mainly formed on the concept of a system (Scott 2002). This is whereby all bodies or organizations are systems that come into existence within the combination of various other parts whose relations make them interdependent. In other words, the concept best conceptualizes that organizations or any other system is strongly influenced by their surroundings (Bastedo, 2004).
This theory of Open systems has powerfully altered how one understands a school as organizations and the demands placed upon educational leaders. In cooperation of ICT use in some of the environments that form up the school system may help in increasing the success of the school. This is in the form that the school management is the key player that plays a great role in maintaining and coordinating the other parts of the school system. ICT being formulated in making work easier, school management are able to coordinate the other parts of the school system by just a click of a button and thus they play their role effectively in organizing the other parts of the school environment (Human resource, material resources, and educational resources among). Modern studies of accountability movements, teacher professionalization, and instructional leadership all benefit from a strongly open systems approach to understanding environmental demands and the resulting adaptation in school policy and its implementation, or lack thereof (Scott, 2002).
The theory is much relevant to this study since its concept best suits the fact that a school set up is also a system on its own way. In order for it (school system) to be fully functioning, there are various aspects that are considered within its environment and especially in the management of the school. The school management interact with their environments in a composite series of interrelated area (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003). Like individual organisms, a schools’ success depends on how well their characteristics and behaviour align with their surroundings. The environment also provides key resources that sustain the organization and lead to change and continued existence.
1.7 Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of this study shows the communication between the dependent relative and autonomous variables. In this study, the use of ICT for head teachers in management of secondary school is a dependent variable which relies on Human resource management and material resource management, (see Figure 1.2)
Figure 1. 2. The Conceptual Framework
The figure show the relationship on the use of ICT skills in management of secondary schools which control the teachers information with subjects related to student grades of information and also the material used in a running school such as teaching and learning material, financial material with the way of keeping at safe side due to ingoing and outgoing within the school departments. ICT has been used in administer all human resources in schools, which include day to day instructional guidance of students, keeping records of students, teachers, counselors, librarians, coaches, and other employees. ICT has also been influential in the management of physical resources. It can be used in record keeping of physical resources as well as educational materials. Procurement process among other operations can be transacted with the help of ICT.
ICT can be also applied in financial administration through record keeping, preparation of budgets, and many other duties, Effective School management thus requires effective application of ICT in various spheres of management. Therefore the effective use of ICT in management of both human and materials resources will utilize the good performance of secondary schools.
1.8 Limitation of the Study
Limitations are conditions beyond the control of the researcher that may place constraint on the conclusions of the study and their application to other situation. Another challenge that was faced in the study was the aspect of time. The researcher worked under tight time limits from school and thus wasn’t able to comprehensively reach to other respondents within the sampled size so as to fill in the collected instruments. Some of the other limitations that were faced in this study included but may not be limited to access to experts for suppression and proofreading of the work.
1.9 Definition of Key Terms
Barriers: A barrier is any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to achieve an objective.
Challenges: These are to things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty in the application of ICT in schools’ administration Human Resource management: This is referred to as the overall role of provision direction, guidance, and managing the growth, operation, and maintenance of any human resource systems and programs in schools.
ICT: Information and Communication Technology and refers to the combination of manufacturing and services industries that capture, transmit and display data and information electronically (OECD 2002: 18; SAITIS 2000: 3) or Information and communications technology (or technologies), is the infrastructure and components that enable modern computing. Although there is no single, universal definition of ICT, the term is generally accepted to mean all devices, networking components, applications and systems that combined allow people and organizations (i.e., businesses, nonprofit agencies, governments and criminal enterprises) to interact in the digital world.
Human Resources: In this study, this term refers to all the employed staff members in the school set up.
Material Resource management: This is the possessions that are made by man Technology and buildings through his abilities and skill.
School Management: This term has been used to refer to those who are involved in day to day administration of schools, such as Principals, Deputy Principals, senior master among others.
Performance: is the production of valid results.
Head teacher: is a person (teacher) who is responsible for running the school.
Management: the organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to achieve defined objectives. Management is often included as a factor of production alone with machine, materials and money. The basic tasks of management include both marketing and innovation.
Secondary schools: a school intermediate between elementary school and college and usually offering general, technical, vocational, or college-preparatory courses.
Public schools: These are schools funded and managed by the government (Ministry of Education, 1990:23)