THE recent announcement by Education Minister Shaik Baksh that all secondary schools will have computer laboratories by June next year is extremely good news for the education sector.
It further demonstrates that the government is committed to its goal of making every citizen computer literate and to advance the country’s Information Technology (IT) capacity.
Mr. Baksh said 70 of the 110 public secondary schools in the country will be outfitted with computer laboratories at the end of this year and equipping the remaining schools is expected to be completed by June next year.
According to the minister, work on the schools slated to have computer laboratories by yearend is moving well and each school will have at least 30 computers.
He also stressed that the IT targets in the strategic plan cannot be achieved with the government’s resources alone and appealed to the Guyanese diaspora, the old students’ associations of the various schools, non-governmental organisations and the business community to play their part.
Apart from the investment by the government, he noted that Global Partnership for Literacy (GPL) has made a commitment to install systems in 50 schools, and to date, that Canadian based non-governmental organisation has already done so at seven schools.
However, as the Ministry of Education continues to push ahead with plans to increase students’ access to IT, it is also ensuring that teachers are trained to use the computer as both a teaching and learning tool.
In keeping with this thrust, some 70 trainers from the various education districts recently completed a refresher training course at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).
The initiative, which was part of the newly-launched continuous professional development programmes administered by NCERD, aims to bring the ministry closer to achieving the targets set out for IT in its 2008-2013 strategic plan.
The ministry is definitely on the right track because computer literacy and training in the near future will not be an option but a necessity because the world is in the IT age with this technology becoming applicable in almost every facet of human endeavour.
At the same time, IT technology is improving at an amazing pace and students and adults alike in Guyana will have to be prepared to cope with the rapid technological changes and the best place to start that preparation is in the school system.
IT competency and capacity are absolute essentials if Guyana is to make the socio-economic quantum leap.
In the U.S., the computer systems design and related services industry is among the economy’s largest and fastest sources of employment growth.
Employment there increased by 616,000 over the 1994-2004 period, posting a staggering 8.0 percent annual growth rate. The projected 2004-14 employment increase of 453,000 translates into 1.6 million jobs, and represents a relatively slower annual growth rate of 3.4 percent as productivity increases and offshore outsourcing take their toll.(‘Industry output and employment projections to 2014’ by Jay M. Berman, Bureau of Labour Statistics)
However, the main growth catalyst for this industry is expected to be the persistent evolution of technology and business’ constant effort to absorb and integrate these resources to enhance their productivity and expand their market opportunities.
Employment of computer and information systems managers is expected to grow between 18 to 26 percent for all occupations through the year 2014. (Career Guide to Industries 2006-07).
These statistical facts clearly indicate that Guyana is heading along that superfast IT lane and in this regard, the plans and innovations being implemented by the Education Ministry are timely and appropriate.