GOVERNMENT has been placing significant emphasis on Information Communication Technology (ICT) and thus far, there have been great achievements since the launch of the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project. In line with this objective, Minister within the Ministry of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran and Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, yesterday, officially opened a computer training programme organized by Minister Ramsaran for youths of East Ruimveldt.
The training programme which will run for seven weeks for 14 youths in every batch will be held at the East Ruimveldt Community Centre.
Minister Ramsaran, while encouraging the participants to take the exercise seriously and to garner whatever knowledge is offered, said government has, and will continue to address the social needs of communities, with the aim of ensuring that youths acquire a life skill.
He added that thus far, much work has been done to ensure that the community centre remains functional, so that persons can make use of the facility to learn a trade.
“We have been working assiduously to ensure that this community is up-to-standard. Since then we have had persons embarking on volunteer work to clean and rid the community of garbage and Minister (Robeson) Benn has also helped us with excavators and other equipment to clean silted canals and drains,” he said.
Minister Ashni Singh, while echoing the importance of ICT in Guyana, emphasised that it is a subject that government has placed at the top of its national agenda, since tomorrow’s world is one which requires a computer literate nation.
“President Jagdeo has said that no child must be left behind and that every Guyanese must have the skills to function in the world of tomorrow and, as such, the government has been pushing the implementation and development of ICT in Guyana,” he said.
Approximately 70 ICT labs were constructed in secondary schools across the country and to date, efforts are moving apace to ensure that even adults receive the same training, since it is Government’s policy that, ‘No individual is too young or old to learn ICT.’
To ensure that this is further boosted, $1.8B has been earmarked for ICT development through the OLPF, in this year’s National Budget.
“The fiber optic cable from Brazil to Guyana which we are working assiduously to have installed will ensure that high speed internet becomes readily available to supply the business demand. This will also create much more jobs as much more call centres will become operational,” the Finance Minister added.
After the ceremony, a tour of the computer lab was conducted. (GINA)