EDUCATIONAL POLICIES FOR BRIDGING DIGITAL DIVIDE FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF BUSINESS EDUCATION IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This study investigated educational policies for bridging digital divide for effective teaching and learning of business education in senior secondary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria. Specifically, it assessed the extent of availability of digital infrastructure in urban and rural schools and examined the adequacy of educational policies addressing ICT integration. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population consisted of 801 business education teachers. A census sampling technique was employed. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, subjected to expert validation. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach’s Alpha, yielding a coefficient of 0.83, indicating high internal consistency.  Data analysis involved the use of descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while independent t-test was applied to test the two null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the extent of availability of digital infrastructure in both urban and rural schools was low. Similarly, educational policies addressing the digital divide were found to be inadequate.  It was recommended that government and stakeholders strengthen digital infrastructure provision, enforce policy implementation with proper monitoring for teachers to bridge the digital divide.