Benefits and Bottlenecks of Information Communication Technologies in Enhancing Quality Education in Institutions of Higher Education in Kenya

The inclusion of information communication technology (ICTs) in institutions of higher Education is a sure way of enhancing the quality of education in developing nations in the 21st century. As a developing Nation, Africa, stands to develop faster in all areas than ever before in particular, the E-Learning and ERP technologies have the potential to revolutionalizing methods of data harnessing, implementation and management. Through these innovations, the quality of education shall concomitantly be enhanced. However, how well equipped is the African Country, Kenya, to better use Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) within the ICT system in administering data gathering, implementation and management in institution of higher learning These institutions offers training for Manpower Development required for Political Economic and Social Development of the nations and therefore are required to have better ICTs infrastructure to enhance quality education. Researchers of this paper addressed threefold objectives in institution of higher learning in Western Region of Kenya. The first objective was,. to establish the benefits of using ICTs in education management in higher learning institutions. Second objective was to find out bottlenecks, if any, of using ICT system in the management of data in institution of higher learning in higher learning institution of Western Kenya. The third objective was to outline strategies to alleviate challenges in the employment of ICT in higher institution of education in Western Kenya. The target population was the academic staff in institutions of higher Education that are directly involved in the management of Education, they were 325 in number. The sample for this study was, 60 (80 %) CODs and Deans of departments and schools/faculties respectively; and 210 (84 %) Lecturers. The study instruments were questionnaires and interviews schedules. The findings indicated that ICTs impacted on data flow and access of information that improved the quality of education in institutions of higher learning however incompetency and limited ICTs hindered the inclusion of ICTs in institutions of higher learning. Among the strategies that can be employed to alleviate challenges to ERP included training of the teaching personnel in using the advanced ICT software and giving the financial support to institutions of higher learning, Accordingly, we recommend that institution of higher learning should appreciate the benefits from using ICTs and advocate for their frequent use, emphasize on financial support by government and demystify ERP systems and their uses in institutions