ICT – The way to wider knowledge, education and prosperity

THE Ministry of Public Telecommunications recently held its mid-year press conference in which it adumbrated its Information Communications Technology (ICT) programmes.

Minister Cathrine Hughes, assisted by her Adviser Lance Hinds, Chairman of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), Floyd Levi and Director of Communications and Social Management of the NDMA Philip Walcott, 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.

Guyana had long recognised this need and, five or six years ago, moved from identifying the problem and planning into doing. At this time a revolutionary scheme was launched to give one free 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 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) 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 Telecommunication’s 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 in unifying the country and preventing 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 computerised and there would be interconnectivity among them. The computerisation and interconnection of Government Ministries were planned a few years ago and an office was established to accomplish this but it did not achieve much. It is now confidently felt that with the new team, computerisation of the Government offices would be achieved. The full computerisation 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 with economic development from many standpoints. For example, the availability of an ICT skilled workforce would attract industries such as offshore hubs. The availability of such a workforce would allow local industry to computerise and become more efficient and productive.

In his presentation, one of the Minister’s team members 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 devices are not affordable to many people. Thought should be given to assembling computers in Guyana. One commercial firm – Starr 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 being an English-speaking country and being located close to North America and Latin America.

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