Digital Literacy and Primary Educational System in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the enormous potential of ICTs and digital literacy in the educational setup, most primary schools in Benin City are yet to fully implement and take advantage of its numerous benefits to the teaching and learning process. This study therefore examined the possibility of incorporating digital literacy at the primary school level, as well as ascertains the extent to which electronic gadgets are available and accessible and the challenges militating against the implementation of digital literacy in private primary schools in Benin City. The research design adopted for this study is descriptive survey. Using the stratified random sampling technique, a total of 448 primary school teachers responded to the Digital Literacy Questionnaire in Primary School (DLPQS) that was developed by the researcher and used for data collection. The data analysis was done using simple tables of frequency counts and percentages. Findings from the study revealed that whilst 90.2 % of the teachers possessed Personal Computers (PC) and other electronic gadgets and were relatively proficient with the use of said devices, computers and digital gadgets were not readily available and accessible as 52.7 % of the teachers taught in schools that did not currently have a computer lab with 60.7 % not having access to the lab. Where available, 69.4 % of the teachers indicated that most of the computers where outdated and not functional and 79.5 % reported that the number of computers were insufficient. Findings also showed that – lack of/insufficient number of computers, poor internet connectivity and epileptic power supply were the major drawbacks in the use of digital literacy in the primary schools.