Information And Communication Technology Usage By Junior High School Students In Ablekuma Central Sub-Metro District Accra

Abstract Information and Communication Technology in the education policy of Ministry of Education made it mandatory for all students to be proficient in ICT literacy skills before coming out of each level of education in Ghana. In furtherance of this policy ICT was made examinable at both the Basic Education Certificate Examination BECEand Senior School Certificate Examination SSCE. The study examined the extent and character of Junior High School students involvement and interaction with ICT outside the normal school settings in Ablekuma Central sub-metro district of Greater Accra. A researcher-designed questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Reliability analysis and test-retest carried out on the questionnaire produced Cronbachs alpha value of 0.814 and 0.79 validity coefficient. Random Stratified Sampling was used to select 123 students from a group of 564 Junior High School students during the summer of 2014.The study found the public Internet caf to be a central activity for Junior High School students in accessing and using ICT outside the traditional school settings. Results of the study also confirmed that ICT has some gender attributes that favoured boys in some way such that its access and usage tend to be biased toward the interest and fashions of boys in a manner that made them more confident and more likely to use ICT than girls.