The government has implored the private and education sectors in the nation to work together to reduce the digital divide between the rich and the poor and between rural communities and urban communities by way of improving ICT skills of the citizens. Speaking yesterday at Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka during the AfriConnect/VVoB ICDL Media Breakfast, the Minister of Education, Hon Dora Siliya MP, stressed than development will only be accelerated by the mainstreaming of ICT skills across the whole citizenry. Ms Siliya called on private sector players and education institutions to provide ICT literacy training that is relevant to the development of Zambia and she singled out the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) as a tool that can help move Zambia forward by way of improving ICT skills.She also recognised the importance of ICTs in enabling development.
“ICTs, both directly and as an enabler for other sectors of the economy, are a space to share ideas and experiences, and to inspire dialogue on new and innovative ways which can create opportunities for countries like Zambia”, Ms Silya said. [pullquote]“Computer skills are more important than ever, required for nearly half of all jobs now compared to less than a third in 1997”[/pullquote]
However, Hon Siliya reiterated that it was almost impossible to enjoy the benefits of ICts without use of ICts in education and indeed ICT education itself to improve skills.
“Computer skills are more important than ever, required for nearly half of all jobs now compared to less than a third in 1997” she added. “People looking for new jobs should be aware that computer skills are necessary in today’s modern workplace. In an increasingly technological work environment, employees need to develop IT skills to be able to work successfully within a business as many key functions are based around computer use. For people in work there are two key clusters of skills that are rising in importance.One of those, broadly, is IT skills.”
The minister also took time to thank partners who are working with the Ministry of Education to improve ICT infrastructure and ICT skills within the education sector and indeed the entire economy. She thanked the Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVoB) for sponsoring ICT Education projects in the education sector and especially colleges of education. She also thanked AfriConnect for helping schools with connectivity and for developing eLearning platforms that make it possible for schools to access locally produced education content online and indeed via local computer connectivity.
Speaking earlier, the ICDL Country Manager, Mr Shalala Oliver Sepiso called upon the banks that were invited to the event to adopt ICDL as the defacto computer competence certification and to demand it before employing people into the financial sector. He cited Zimbabwe where the financial sector has set ICDL as an industry standard for computer literacy and competence. Mr Shalala further mentioned that Zambia now has 28 registered training and testing centres prominent among them being UNZA, ZCAS, Mpelembe Secondary School, New Horizons, ICT Resource Centre and many others.
“ICDL is no longer an option. The only option is how to do ICDL,” Mr Shalala concluded.
Meanwhile, Dr Astridah Scholten, the Programme Manager for VVoB thanked the Minister on behalf of the Zambian government for the relationship between the Belgium organisation and the Zambian institutions of learning through the Ministry of Education. The the ICT provides economic opportunities to both urban and rural populations.
“At the request of the Zambian Ministry of education, the VVoB multi-year programme is focusing on the improvement of the quality of the teacher training,” she said. “In Zambia, only one child out of three makes it to the higher grades of primary school because primary education is free and because of the population growth, the pressure on the quality of education increases.”
He informed the meeting hat VVoB was sponsoring all colleges of education in Zambia to be ICDL Centres by June 2010.
Mr Mark Bennet, the Managing Director of AfriConnect stressed the importance of private sector investment in the education and social sector through infrastructure and training in ICT. He reported that AfriConnect through the iSchool project was helping schools to connect to the Internet and through ICDL was helping the nation to improve the levels of It skills. He called upon the banks t]invited to the event to take up the challenge of setting their own training and testing centres.
The event was attended by senior government officials, institutions of learning such as NISTCOL, Fairview, ZASTI; banks including Stanbic, Access, FNB, Barclays, Bank of Zambia and other keys institutions such as ZRA.
Africonnect is the in-country partner of the ICDL Foundation and so it is the coordinator of the ICDL certification in the country. With 28 centres currently offering the ICDL in the country, Africonnect is working with the Ministry to make ICDL affordable to schools and other institutions of learning. Kabulonga Boys High School of Lusaka recently became the first government school to offer ICDL and the University of Zambia will soon offer this certification to students at UNZA. Meanwhile the Ministry of Education is the first Ministry to offer ICDL to its staff as part of continuous professional development programme.
One doesnt even need training to use and be familiar with ICT,you only need access to a computer,the rest is just scroll and click,the more one spends time on a computer the more they learn new stuff and tricks
On another note;the govnt is quick to implore the private sector and corporating partners in ICT development,but the question is,what are they as a govnt doing to spearhead such initiatives,what policies have they put in place,what is there to motivate the private,what are they doing in the education sector with regards to ICT development at primary or secondary level.Everytime its thanking corporating partners and donors,when is anyone going to thank your efforts
Our ICT suck to the maximum,and it’s the government to blame…2 years ago I met one senior official at Comms Authority (whatever the new name is) over the IXP issue,the policies to be implemented to ensure we are not charged so much for traffic that is local,e.g. VPN to the office with the different ISP from the Home ISP…damn,she told me to write a paper…….right now some ISP have some kind of unofficial IXP,but if you check traffic from ZAIN to ZAMTEL,it goes to Europe ,pccw and then back to ZED….and we say we have a policy making body?
That is one single issue I can highlight….it’s a shame!!!!
It is very true that access is very important but what we learn on our own may be biased to what we like and so it may lead to us not being relevant to the commercial and other sectors. So standards are needed and having a certification like ICDL helps make sure that your learning even on your own is comprehensive (you are covering all aspects of the application) and relvant to the workplace. In Zambia, the government may not be putting alot of money into the ICT sector but we need to realise that it has made an enabling environment which has led to the setting up on extensive mobile phone services through 3 huge mobile phone companies and it has allowed unfiltered Internet acess which allows us to debate here through licencing more than 7 ISPs. Problem is the expensive services.
This is so sickening for Zambia! A major copper producer with the capacity to lay fibre all over the country and educate the masses! This is the opportunity we are missing and our great grand kids have the right to build and decimate all our graves for such a mistake. Nowadays ( i do not need to tell you this) but we can get degrees online, teach kids how to speak english etc, etc. Zambians are so thick! You always wait for aid and do not think at all! whats this ICDL gonna do? My six year old son has got it. Now I am teaching him core network skills, the same thing as the Chinese are doing, hence you Zedians will not compete! Please you silly minister, get someone with core skills to assist you before you take all Zambians to 2000 and IT moves at fast pace!! Common please.
@Kuomboka ne nsaka – Wow! Your six year old has ICDL? That must be a genius of a kid; why don’t you give us details about your kid as that could be the first 6 year old with ICDL in the whole wide world?
Chi Dora na chebve !! awe mwee!!!:o:-t:-t:-t:-t:-t:-s:-s:-s:-s
That is great and ICDL is the first step in the right direction. We need to ensure that we accelerate the offering of ICT from grade 1 to grade twelve and include the ICDL in the higher grades. As for teritiary education it has to be mandatory. We have now the neccessary legal framework to have e-commerce and egoverment grow in teh Country. We need synergies and together we can improve service delivery and each part should take up its role.
come, this issue shouldn’t even be subject to discussion, sometimes all government needs to act and then tell us what they’ve done and not whatr they’re going to do!!