PREPAREDNESS OF EDUCATIONAL MANAGERS FOR APPLICATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING IN THE MANAGEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study determined the preparedness of educational managers for application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the management of secondary education in Nigeria.  Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study.  The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of about 3000 education managers drawn from the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria (North Central, North East, North West, South West, South East, and South South). The sample of the study constituted 600 education managers drawn from the entire population using stratified random sampling technique. Instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire developed by the researcher on a 5-point rating scale of Very High Extent, High Extent, Moderate Extent, Low Extent and Very Low Extent. The instrument was validated by three experts in the Department of Educational Management and Policy, Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha technique and obtained a coefficient of 0.77. The instruments were administered directly by the researcher to the respondents with the help of six research assistants. Out of 600 copies of questionnaires distributed, 580 copies made up of 310 public secondary education managers and 270 private secondary education managers were properly completed, successfully retrieved and used for Data analysis. Data collected were analyzed using mean scores to answer the research questions while t- test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others that preparedness of educational managers for application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the management of secondary education in Nigeria are to a low extent with public secondary educational managers and to a high extent with private secondary educational managers. It also indicated a significant difference between their mean score ratings. Based on the findings, it was recommended that government authorities saddled with the responsibility of staff training and personnel development are urged to organize seminars, workshops and conferences for public educational managers on acquisition of relevant skills on the use of emerging technologies for application of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning in management of secondary education in Nigeria to attain preparedness. Also the need to make adequate provision of necessary facilities and technological materials for application was deemed essential.