Computer ownership increases rapidly:

Outstanding IT growth in Sri Lanka

Suraj A. Bandara

A survey conducted by a group of students of the Colombo University Arts Faculty on household computer availability and computer literacy in Sri Lanka revealed that the Information Technology sector together with English education has gained an outstanding growth among Sri Lankans.

It revealed that computer ownership at household level has increased rapidly. The survey also revealed that at least one computer is available in one out of every 10 household on an average in Sri Lanka.

According to the survey, the household computer availability in the urban sector is 23.6 percent.

A computer is available in one out of every four household in the urban sector.

The rural sector is 9.2 percent and estate sector 3.1 percent.

Among the provinces the highest computer awareness of 51 percent is reported from the Western province and the lowest of 29 percent from the Uva province.

In the Eastern and the Sabaragamuwa provinces it is 50 percent.

In Urban areas, almost one out of every three person is computer literate. However the Estate sector shows the highest growth of above 50 percent in both computer literacy and awareness.

Computer literacy among males is 22 percent, a little higher than that of 19 percent in females. Young generation (aged 15 to 19) shows the highest computer literacy rate among all the age groups in five to 69 years and the older age groups beyond 50 show a comparatively low computer literacy rate.

The Educational attainment and the Computer literacy is highly related and GCE (A-L) and above qualified group show the highest computer literacy rate close to 60 percent. English language has greatly contributed to computer literacy.

Those who are literate in English show a nearly three times higher computer literacy rate.

The survey also found that the English speaking ability among youth who have passed GCE (A-L) and pursuing higher studies has also increased.

Non English speaking family members in the middle class are keen on studying English and improving IT skills, the survey reported.