ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF BIOLOGY STUDENTS (A CASE STUDY OF ETSAKO WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE)

ABSTRACT The study was carried out on the assessment of impact of technology on students’ academic performance in Biology education in secondary schools in Etsako West. The research was guided by three objectives: First to evaluate Current Practices and Use of Technology in terms of availability and functionality. Second, to identify the challenges and barriers faced in adopting and implementing technology in biology education. Third, to analyse Impact on Learning Outcomes of technology on students' academic performance. The study examined the availability and functionality of technology gadgets, identify the challenges of biology teachers and students in terms of assess to technology, and analyse the impact of technology use on the academic performance of Biology students. The study revealed that a good number of the sampled schools do not have access to technology-based approaches to teaching and learning but rather depend on the traditional method. Survey research design was used and the study employed quantitative approaches where observation, checklist, school records and likert scales were used for data collection. In that essence,150 questionnaires where distributed to respondents drawn from six schools while 140 were received by the researcher. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentages and correlation to test the hypothesis. Findings revealed that many schools did not have technology gadgets. The test for the hypothesis showed a strong correlation between availability and functionality of technology-based equipment with students academic performance in Biology education with a value of 0.859. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected. Recommendations were given to government, proprietors and teachers on ways to ensure availability, functionality and proper handling of these equipment for effective teaching and learning.