-over $222M allocated
CABINET has approved the sum of $222.9M for the procurement of computer equipment and accessories, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon announced yesterday.

The equipment, which will be used for computer laboratories for the 70-odd Secondary schools across the country, is part of government’s committed drive to boost the Information Communication Technology (ICT) programme in Guyana.
Luncheon said this would see 1400 computer work stations, 64 servers, 64 overhead projectors and 300 UPS being procured.

“The procurement, supply and installation contract that would allow 70 of the secondary schools, to be equipped with the fully functional computer labs, are intended to be concluded by the beginning of the 2011/12 school year,” he said.

Dr. Luncheon said this initiative, an element of the National ICT Strategy which is being implemented simultaneously with other programmes, will depend ultimately on bandwidth internet connectivity, such as the ‘One Laptop Per family’ project.
“The ICT strategy in education actually sees the computerization of the labs having an impact on the students and their access to technology and the feeling has been cultivated that students at CSEC, doing ICT,  numbers would triple over the next few years as the results of the computerization of the schools,” Luncheon told reporters.

The programme is made possible with support from the Commonwealth of Learning from the Commonwealth Secretariat and Microsoft.
To ensure that teachers in Guyana are fully equipped and technologically on par with advancements in ICT, training will also be provided to teachers at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).

According to the HPS, while the quality of training provided to teachers is expected to be drastically improved from basic to advance, it will also be decentralized not only at NCERD, but in Region Six. To date, over 3000 teachers have been trained in ICT.

Apart from this, the education ministry’s ICT unit has been developing programmes for both teachers and students to facilitate the improvement of their capabilities in the use of advanced technology.

These include the Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) programme, Success Maker and the supply of educational DVDs and CDs.