ASSESSMENT OF THE PERCEIVED IMPACT OF HOME INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY ON PUPILS’ SOCIAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

The study investigated the perceived influence of home information and communication technology (ICT) on the social skills development of primary school children in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Education Authority, Enugu State, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised 1,803 primary five pupils in the 62 public primary schools in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Education Authority, Enugu State. A sample of 317 primary 5 pupils drawn through simple random sampling technique was used for the study. The instrument used for data collection was a Perceived Impact of Home ICT on Social Skills Development Questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was determined through a preliminary survey in Udenu Local Government Education Authority, Enugu State. Using Cronbach Alpha reliability estimate, reliability indices of 0.84 and 0.75 were obtained for the two clusters of the instrument. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. The null hypothesis was tested using t-test statistic at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that majority of the pupils do not have access to home ICT. The findings also revealed that home ICT has positive impact on pupils' social skill development. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that provision for easy access to home ICT should be made by the Local Government Education Authority to enable the pupils develop their social skills.