CONSUMER CONCERNS..ICT – WAY TO WIDER KNOWLEDGE, EDUCATION AND PROSPERITY

Jun 18, 2017 News

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PAT DIAL
The Ministry of Public Telecommunications recently held its mid-year press conference in which it adumbrated its Information Communications Technology (ICT) programes. The Minister, Catherine Hughes, assisted by her Adviser Lance Hinds, Floyd Levi, Chairman of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), and Philip Wallcott, Director of Communications and Social Management of the NDMA outlined what is to be achieved in the near future.
One of the themes of the press conference was that Guyana has to catch up with the rest of the world in ICT because Guyanese society cannot be fully functional and productive except it is computer literate and masters ICT.
The Guyana State had long recognized this need and five or six years ago had moved from identifying the problem and planning into doing. At this time, a revolutionary scheme was launched giving for free one laptop for every family and providing training in computer use and care to all laptop recipients. Thousands of people including school children were exposed to computers for the first time and this drive was bolstered by the secondary schools offering ICT as a CXC subject.
Knowledge of computer use is now fairly widespread, especially among the youth and provides a good launching pad for the successful achievement of the Ministry of Telecoms’ programmes.
In setting out its programmes, the Ministry did underline that the various activities will have to be undertaken almost simultaneously if they were going to be impacting and successful.
In the first place, all communities throughout the country must be connected. This is important to unify the country more tightly and prevent communities from being isolated and neglected.
In helping communities to be connected, Wi-Fi hot spots would be set up in public places such as libraries, NIS offices, post offices and parks. Such hot spots would in effect be information and education centres.
The Government Ministries and other Government agencies would be computerized and there would be interconnectivity among them. The computerization and interconnection of Government Ministries was planned a few years ago. An office was established to accomplish this but it did not achieve much.
It is now confidently felt that with the new team, computerization of the Government offices would be achieved. The full computerization of Government offices would improve their administrative efficiency and be using less staff. The public visiting such offices would have waiting time eliminated.
When Government offices are interconnected, they would regularly and quickly know what each is doing and if, for example, they are dealing with the same matter, they could co-relate and save themselves and the public much time.
The development of an ICT strategy and connectivity in the Education sector would advance the intellectual strength of the country. Both learning and teaching become easier and more thorough and students would be able to do their research without depending on teachers. In a system where there is teacher absenteeism, the use of the computer could help to fill the breach.
The Ministry’s programmes also make provision for computer training of all school children during the long August holidays. Such training will inevitably bring to the fore such skills as coders, web developers, programmers and animators among others.
ICT in the modern world is linked to economic development from many standpoints. For example, the availability of an ICT skilled workforce would attract industries such as off-shore hubs. The availability of such a workforce would allow local industry to computerize and become more efficient and productive.
In his presentation, one of the Minister’s teams felt that there may be some resistance to the ICT drive because some districts and communities may perceive it as a government or partisan programme or project and may be lukewarm to it. We think such a fear is unfounded as people are very pragmatic and go for what is in their interest.
In addition to training the school children during the August holidays, the Ministry has a much more ambitious plan to train the adult population and even those who are elderly. Training of the elderly would be a great achievement. When this is achieved, the last pocket of resistance would have been eliminated.
Computer devises are not affordable to many people. Thought should be given to assembling computers in Guyana. One commercial firm – Star Computers – actually assembles most of the computers it sells more cheaply than the brand names. This also makes it easier to effect repairs. It is quite likely that if computers are assembled on a large scale, the unit cost may come within the means of most people.
ICT has brought development and prosperity to several countries such as India and China. Guyana, though not in the league of India or China, does have some special advantages such as it being English-speaking and is located close to North America and Latin America. . .

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