Effect of ICT Equipment and Teaching Resources on the Academic Performance of Grade IX Public Secondary Schools in Karachi

Abstract

Secondary public schools in Karachi were facing the problem that they did not have resources of teaching in their computer labs due to which student suffered and their academic performance was affected. Teaching effectiveness depends upon the resources of teaching or ICT equipment such as lack of computers in computer laboratories. Internationally, research proved that the importance of ICT equipment and used of ICT can enhance the academic performance of public school students. MS Word, MS Excel, PowerPoint and computing practices are some of the tasks in computer laboratories. It is also believed that public school student’s achievement rate could be increased to improve the results. The purpose of this study was to augment the importance of computer usage in public schools and integrate it in teaching. Effective teaching could be done by the ICT. Teachers of public schools in Karachi somehow are not aware how to integrate teaching through ICT training session for effective academic performance. The method of collecting sample in this research was qualitative in nature. During the survey of the study, participants were asked questions. The study was carried out in Major Ziauddin Din Abbasi Secondary Public School.  Data was collected and used for analyzing. Sample size for students was 20, while teacher’s sample size was 40. Out of 40 teachers, 19 teachers were from Public schools and 21 teacher from private school.  There were two variables in this research; one was independent variable which was equipment of ICT and rest results and performance of students dependent variable. The study focused on the fact that If ICT equipment were available in computer school computer laboratories, effective teaching would be done as it would enhance the student's academic performance. In case of unavailability of ICT equipment, neither effective teaching would be done nor the student's performance would be increased. If one thing increased, the other thing would increase or if one thing decreased, the other thing would decrease too. In this study, the researchers found out the relationship between the ICT equipment or teaching resources in computer laboratories and how they affected the student's academic performance and effective teaching. This study revealed that there was significant relationship between ICT and students’ academic performance. Both students of secondary public school and teacher of both public and private sector confirmed that ICT has a direct effect o students’ learning skills. Training sessions regarding ICT could also be done for both students and teacher for integration of ICT in education.