Abstract:
The study was carried out to identify information and communication technology skills needs of administrative assistants in Colleges of Education in Bayelsa and Rivers States. Four research questions and four null hypotheses were developed to guide the study. Survey research design was adopted in the study. The population for the study was 316 subjects, which comprised of 198 administrative officers and assistants from the Federal College of Education (Technical) Omoku, Rivers State and 118 administrative officers and assistants from Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education, Sagbama, Bayelsa State. Random sampling technique was adopted in sampling 196 respondents which include: 98 administrative officers and 98 assistants from the two colleges that constituted the sample for the study. The instrument for data collection was a 41-item structured questionnaire. The instrument was divided into two categories of ‘Level of Importance’ and ‘Level of Performance’ and validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach alpha method and reliability coefficient of 0.80 was obtained. Out of the 196 copies of the questionnaire administered, 185 copies were retrieved representing 94.4% rate of return. Data collected were analyzed using mean to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Based on the data collected and analysed, the study identified: ten database management skills, seven spreadsheet management skills, ten computer networking skills and eight internet skills that are needed for effective performance of administrative assistants in Colleges of education in Bayelsa and Rivers States. There were no significant differences (p<0.05) in the mean ratings of the responses of Administrative officers and Administrative assistants on their performance in database management skills, computer networking skills and internet skills in Colleges of education in Bayelsa and Rivers States. Although, there was significant difference (p<0.05) in the mean ratings of the responses of Administrative officers and Administrative assistants on their performance in spreadsheet management skills in Colleges of education in Bayelsa and Rivers States. Based on these findings, the study among others recommended that: the States government through its ministry of education should help package the identified ICT skills items in database management, spreadsheet management, computer networking and internet communication into programmes for re-training the administrative assistants for ICT skill update in the States and that employment criterion should be based on ICTs skills of the administrative assistants in the Colleges of Education and other parastatals in the states.
