STATUS OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMAND NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN THE DIVISION OF LAGUNA, PHILIPPINES.

Abstract

The study sought to determine the status and indicators of teachers " ICT competency and National Achievement Test performance of pupils; relationship between the teachers " demographic profile and teachers " ICT competency, schools " ICT program and ICT infrastructure. The descriptive correlation survey was adopted and 1,012 teachers from 9 districts in the Division of Laguna were given questionnaire. The statements on competencies were based from the 4 domains of National ICT Competency Standards for Teachers which are social and ethical, technology and operation concepts, pedagogical, and professional domains. The findings revealed that competence on social and ethical, technology and operation concepts, pedagogical and professional domains obtained means were interpreted at basic level. In terms of NAT performance of 42 schools, 17 are big schools and 25 are small schools, only 4 schools obtained Moving-Towards-Mastery (MTM). The status of School " s ICT program in selected clusters in terms of Teachers " ICT competence and Curriculum Integration with mean scores of 2.10 , and ICT Infrastructure mean of 1.64, with an overall mean of 2.02 was interpreted at Progressing level. The relationship between the teachers " demographic profiles and teachers " ICT competency was found significant, however no significant associations were found between schools " ICT program and ICT infrastructure. All indicators of ICT competency skills of teacher respondents were not significant and did not affect significantly the NAT performance. The school administrators need to provide in-service trainings on ICT , improve schools " ICT facilities to enhance teachers " ICT competency skills and increase level of ICT integration to instruction. Philipppines fax no. (049) 827-0421. ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 5(3), 1230-1237 1231 of Education (DepEd), e-learning and the use and application of ICT must be employed in all subjects because this is now the most viable intervention in educational reform. DepEd is giving its best to make Computerization Program one of the most functional, if not the greatest program, being implemented at present. The times call for education to aim towards advancement of technology. This can only happen with the installation and use of computers and other equipment which call forth for modern technology and advance learning. The Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program or UNDP (2001) states, " ICT is a pervasive input to almost all human activities. It breaks barriers to human development in at least three ways: by breaking barriers to knowledge, by breaking barriers to participation and by breaking barriers to economic opportunity. " Even in the daily lives of teachers and school heads, the rapid advances in ICT can create new things such as storing information, retrieving information, handling, distributing and utilizing information. The advancement of ICT according to Ocampo (2002) 9 is intertwined with globalization and together creates a new paradigm called the network age.