A Study on the Barriers and Supporting Features for Secondary School Teachers in Implementing ICT in Kurnool District

Abstract

: The integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning provides more opportunities for teachers and students to work better in an information age. However, some barriers may discourage teachers to integrate ICT in the classroom and prevent them to introduce supporting materials through ICT usage. Examining the barriers for using ICT in education can assist the educators to overcome the obstacles and integrate the ICT in everyday education. This study aims to investigate the teachers’ perceptions of the barriers and challenges preventing teachers to integrate ICT in the classroom and to identify the category of teachers feel difficulty with ICT and category of teachers easy with ICT. Therefore, a validated questionnaire was administered to 200 high school teachers who were selected from the five main educational mandals in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh. The findings indicated that although all teachers had a strong desire to use ICT in the classroom, they were encountered with some barriers. Insufficient technical supports at schools and little access to Internet and ICT were considered as the major barriers preventing teachers to integrate ICT into the curriculum. Moreover, the descriptive analysis of the results showed that shortage of class time was another significant barrier discouraging teachers to use ICT into the classroom.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the main barriers and possible enablers in implementing ICT. The data were collected by means of questionnaires from 200 teachers in schools. The findings indicate that the majority of the teachers feel the equal supporting and obstacles in implementing ICT.