Availability and the use of computer and internet by secondary school students in Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

This study identifies the availability of internet use among 1000 secondary schools students Benin City, Nigeria. Internet has become a useful tool for education. Access to information communication technology (ICT), the internet in particular, has provided people especially students with a foundation for meeting their information needs. Many private schools can boast of computer laboratories, but only few can pride themselves on Internet access. Another frustration is the capacity to use the Internet. Methodology adopted is the survey design in which questionnaires was used for obtaining data. The target population of this study was students from private secondary schools in the cosmopolitan city of Benin. Multi-stage sampling method and purposive sampling was adopted in the research. 1000 students were selected from 20 private secondary schools across the two (out of three) local government of Benin City. Result showed that students have the capacity to use the internet which they learnt from friends and family members. However, the level of internet access in schools is poor despite the schools having computer laboratories. Students access the internet from their homes and cyber cafes since they are denied access in their respective schools while most of the students use the internet for educational activities. Internet availability should be considered as one of the most important scientific tools in schools. Key words: Internet, internet access, computers, secondary schools, Benin City.