Global Partnership for Literacy (Global Literacy) secured a very favourable endorsement by Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo two weekends ago in Toronto, and earned the Presidential go-ahead to roll out the SchoolNet Guyana Initiative.

This major milestone follows months of intensive behind-the-scenes efforts to establish the necessary groundwork for the mission of acquiring and integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT), supporting infrastructure and trained human resources into Guyana’s some 120 high schools serving approximately 68,000 students.

The preparatory groundwork encompassed extensive planning around issues previously encountered by overseas Alumni groups attempting to assist their Alma Maters. These issues include lack of designated lab areas, electrical problems, inadequate security, lack of computer trained teachers, maintenance deficiencies, no specific or structured IT programme in the curriculum and no sustainable plan. While students benefited from the exposure to computers, those benefits were limited when compared to the overall investment made.

Global Literacy, the project’s principal sponsor, is a Diaspora based NGO spearheaded by a board of well-qualified individuals from academia, the social sciences, business, engineering, technology, and project management, with on-the-ground support from the Ministry of Education.

In discussions with the board, President Jagdeo indicated that he was particularly interested in seeing rural and outlying districts covered by the programme: “Amerindian areas, Linden, Bartica, Essequibo, Berbice… we want to see every child in Guyana grow up in freedom and with the opportunity to develop to the fullest of their potential regardless of where they live”.

He also said that systems design should be appropriate to Guyana’s particular circumstances, that it should be cost effective, replicable from school to school, and scalable to school and community size.

This is very much in line with SchoolNet’s aims of bridging the technological divide resulting from limited resources and turning out a student and retrained worker-population willing and able to take up the challenges in our information society while developing the background, skills and knowledge needed to position them well for secure and productive employment.

Aimed at deriving maximum benefits from the investments in computer labs, SchoolNet will include distance education, peer-to-peer collaboration, and community kiosks to support after-school programs, continuing education and retraining for adults. Support has been lined up from Diaspora groups, alumni associations, private and public sector organizations, and donors such as Microsoft, Intel, Education Foundations and Equipment Suppliers.

The project is scheduled for roll out over five years. The President would like to see that time frame considerably reduced, however, to a large extent, that is dependent on the speed with which structural and infrastructure preparations can be completed at schools.

While ICT has been a boon to the world in general, it has also widened the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” both between and within borders. Even in the face of declining prices, the cost of computers, software and data communication lines remain out of reach for a large sector of the population in developing countries like Guyana.

In many areas, the infrastructure for reliable power supply and high-speed lines does not exist. President Jagdeo expressed particular frustration at the high cost and low quality of telecommunication lines in Guyana and said the Government is looking at buying bandwidth on the new fibre optic cable being laid from Trinidad as a way of mitigating the current monopoly situation.

He also noted that the project will have to take into consideration that there will be many first time computer users involved.

However, even at a rudimentary level, just turning out workers familiar with the technology has positive results. Further developing a good base of technology literate workers will attract outsourcing companies looking to locate.

Guyana provides more free of charge education and training to its population than any of its CARICOM neighbours and ICT is an important plank in its go forward development strategy. ICT is indispensible in today’s operating environment for business and government. It is necessary, in virtually all industries. For example, in the Travel and Tourism industry destinations can be promoted relatively inexpensively and bookings and reservations are made online. In the Agriculture Industry, farmers can increase their productivity by more effectively managing their resources. Sharing of information across borders becomes easier, and IT allows for the compiling, storing and disseminating information of local and regional interest.

The President sealed his approval by announcing that he would be tabling the SchoolNet project in cabinet for full endorsement and support.

Diamond High School’s New Computer Lab
Seeraj predicts increased paddy prices
By Tajeram Mohabir
RICE Producers Association (RPA) General Secretary, Mr. Dharamkumar Seeraj, has estimated that paddy prices will increase from around $2,800 per bag in the last crop, to between $3,000 and $4,000 this crop.

Speaking recently with the Guyana Chronicle, Seeraj explained that the availability of input at cheaper prices, and the regularisation of the financial situation in Europe, will be contributory factors for the price augmentation.

He said that, by the time of harvest of the second crop, which begins in August, the global financial environment should be under control, alluding to banks providing loans to rice traders.

The RPA General Secretary is urging farmers to capatalise on the cheap inputs and also to use the good weather to increase the quality and productivity of their output.

He said Guyana is hoping to secure new trading markets and to expand its export quota to Haiti, a country it is trying to get a 17 per cent export duty removed on Guyana’s rice entering its market.

Seeraj is optimistic that, as the financial crisis resolves, Guyana will gain more access to markets in Europe and noted that, by 2010, it will have duty and quota free access to those markets.

The RPA will soon meet with exporters to encourage them to export direct to Europe at better prices, rather than to sell their commodity to a third party.

The low prices for paddy in the first crop, he said, was due to high input costs and the low global stock-to-use ratio for grains and cereals, which prompted a panic in buying.

Rice price for the last five years rose from an average of US$379 per tonne to US$602 per tonne in the first crop of 2009, a situation which has caused many major foods exporting countries, including those that export rice, such as India, Pakistan and Thailand, to clamp down on their export.

Seeraj stressed that, in response to the high prices and the perceived shortage, all food-producing countries had expanded their cultivation.

He pointed out that this has resulted in the first crop of 2009 being a bumper harvest, causing the major food exporting countries to relieve their export ban.

The international rice sector, the RPA General Secretary noted, was also severely affected by the global financial and economic crises, which triggered the collapse of many banks in Europe and North America, which provide working capital for the buyers of local rice.

“In this financial situation, you had less and less contracts for less and less quantities, for less and less prices, and that is what created this difficulty for us in the first season,” he underlined.