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| Thursday, 4 November 2004 |
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IT Education gaining ground in public school system by Chandani Jayatilleke ICT or Information Communication Technology Education is shaping up well in the school curricula with the introduction of General Information Technology (GIT) in the Advanced Level stream in 1,000 schools since early this year.
The Government has given priority to promoting ICT education in the school system. Basically IT was available in schools for a number of years, but it was not institutionalised. It was not brought into the curriculum as a subject till early this year. From next year, this will be increased to 2,000 and IT will also be introduced as an optional subject in the O/L stream, according to the Education Ministry. Currently, the Education Ministry has the human resource capacity to handle these 1,000 schools. However, to increase the number of schools, that offer GIT as a subject, more teachers are required. "At present we are training teachers in batches to strengthen IT education in schools. At present, about 1,500 teachers are being trained in our training centres in Malambe, Colombo and Kamburupitiya, CEO/Managing Director, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), Dr. Lalith Gamage told the Daily News. Next year, we are planning to revise the curricula to be on par with world standards. IT is also a subject that needs lot of revising, he added. The Ministry also plans to recruit a large number of unemployed graduates to train as IT teachers, under its graduate employment program. Dr. Gamage said if the basic needs for training the teachers are fulfilled, the capacity can be increased and introducing IT in the Ordinary Level won't be a problem. According to Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Tara de Mel: "If we have all the facilities such as the computers and trained, confident teachers, our ambition to make IT available to all classes at the earliest will be a reality soon. We are now upgrading the teaching methods in this area as well. The funds needed are available through the World Bank and the ADB." IT is a 'must-learn' for all sectors and all fields. "Therefore, IT should be available to the students of all levels. We have lined up several other programs and long-term plans to promote IT education in the country including the introduction of computers to teach other subjects in schools." For instance, Dr. Gamage said science can be taught in schools with the use of computers. "This is a more practical and easy way to teach science. Take a practical exercise of mixing two chemicals in a science lab in school. This can be easily done with a computer and the results can be seen and analysed in a few minutes than doing it in the traditional way," he added. Most countries - both developed and developing - extensively use computers to teach in schools. Considering the current infrastructure and the speed of the teacher training programs, Dr. Gamaga believed that such education through computers can be introduced by 2006. According to Dr. Gamage, there are programs to provide IT training for school principals. "We are training 2,500 principals in the first stage." Talking about the potential the country has in implementing IT programs in the public sector, he said: "We are yet to harness the full potential in our strengths. We must introduce more IT related activities in the public sector to provide a better and an efficient service to the people. I think, there's lot of room for more technologies to come in and lot of potential for improvement in this sector," he added. "Even if we have lots of funds and lot of plans, nothing would work out swiftly, if we don't have the right human resource capacity. That's why we have undertaken to train a large number of teachers and other Government officials on the use of IT," he said. To cater to these requirements, there are programs namely e-government initiative and 'Vishwa Gnana Kendra' under the Government's ICT Agency, the institution promoting IT education in the country. The e-government initiative is aimed at training and introducing information communication technology in various Government offices and departments. The Vishva Gnana Kendra program plans to take IT into villages and bridge the IT gap between rural and town communities. Two very successful institutions that operate in a classic manner after the introduction of IT solutions are the Passport Office and the Bank of Ceylon, Dr. Gamage said. However, the biggest challenge in achieving the desired results from these initiatives is the lack of quality human resources. Secondly, people and parents are confused about IT education and on finding right institutions that provide proper and quality education. "There are so many institutions that claim to offer IT education, but the parents should find out details about these institutions and what kind of qualifications they offer. They could do so with our institution at any time," he said. |
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