Digital Technology as a Tool for Inclusive Educational Management in South-South Nigerian Universities

This research looks at how South-South Nigerian public institutions utilize digital technology as a tool for inclusive educational administration. The research used a descriptive survey approach.  80,382 teaching and non-teaching employees from federal and state-owned institutions in the states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers made up the study's population. However, the research was restricted to two universities—one federal and one state-owned—due to accessibility and closeness. To ensure sufficient representation, a sample size of 398 respondents was calculated using the Taro Yamane method at a significance level of 0.05. To guarantee that teaching and non-teaching personnel were included proportionately, stratified random selection was used. The Digital Technology and Inclusive Educational Management Questionnaire (DTIEMQ), a structured questionnaire with a 4-point Likert scale, was used to gather data. Expert review was used to determine the instrument's validity, and Cronbach Alpha was used to ensure its reliability. The result was a coefficient of 0.80, which indicates satisfactory internal consistency.  In order to address research issues, data were analysed using mean and standard deviation, and hypotheses were evaluated using an independent t-test using SPSS version 27.0 at a significance level of 0.05. The results showed poor infrastructure and low levels of digital knowledge, yet digital technologies have tremendous promise for inclusion. The focus of the conclusion was on systemic change via policy alignment, infrastructural development, and capacity creation. One of the suggestions made is that in order to improve inclusive educational management outcomes, the government should concentrate on ongoing investments in digital infrastructure, ongoing staff training, and the integration of assistive technologies with the provision of useful ICT support systems.