Empirical Study on Computer Literacy Level of Advanced Level Students in Sri Lanka (Focus on facilitated and less facilitated districts)

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become one of the basic building blocks of modern competitive society. Most of the countries in the world now consider understanding ofiCT and mastering the basic skills ofiCT as part of the core of education, alongside reading, writing and numeracy (UNESCO, 2002). Even though the successive governments in Sri Lanka have taken many steps such as providing computers to schools and training staff with a view to improve the ICT skills among school students, impact of these measures was not monitored at student level, and, therefore, the success of these practices is unknown. The purpose of this study is to measure the nature and the basic computer literacy level of Advanced Level students in urban areas of Gampaha and Badulla Districts. Further, this study identifies the differences and similarities of computer literacy between students of both districts and understands the gender difference in acquiring computer literacy by students. Based on the UGC Z-score, Gampaha was selected as a facilitated area and Badulla was selected as a less- facilitated area. The total sample size is of 200 Advanced Level students. Questionnaires were distributed for data collection. Their degree of literacy was measured in five areas as Basic computer operation and concepts, Word processing skills, Internet/Web skills, Multimedia skills and Email skills. Percentage method was used for data analyzing. Study revealed that Badulla District's students are showing higher level of computer literacy for every skill except Internet/Web skills when compare to Gampaha District's students. This is justifiable with their computer- student ratio. It is 1: 14 in Gampaha while it is 1 :9 in Badulla district. However all students show low level skills as 23.67% on Internet/Web base skills. In addition, study identified that the overall male literacy was higher than the female literacy in both districts.