Computer literacy:

Five year fast track program planned

Disna Mudalige

The Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministry has planned a five year fast track program to increase computer literacy to 75 percent by 2016 which is 30 percent at present, Ministry official said.

The Ministry expects to raise the country’s rank to be included in the first 50 countries in the United Nation’s World Information Technology Development Index. Sri Lanka is in the 79th place, according to this index.

Programs will be launched in school level and vocational training institution level for this task and a broader national program will be implemented to improve the computer literacy among rural communities.

About 12,000 public servants in various grades are given basic training about Information Technology (IT). The Ministry plans to provide this training to 250,000 State sector employees. Under E-Social Development Program solutions for daily routine work of the people will be introduced using modern IT. The official said that prominence is given to introduce IT to the Government sector to re-arrange the whole sector. Technical and financial aid will be continued to develop small and medium scale private IT institutions.