ANCL, ICTA sign MoU:

ICT training for provincial correspondents

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.(ANCL) and the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) to provide special Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training for provincial correspondents with the objective of enhancing their efficiency of reporting.

ANCL General Manager Abhaya Amaradasa said ANCL has been looking for new ways to publish newspapers, specially Sinhala newspapers using ICT.

"Mainstream journalists already use computers. Provincial correspondents fax their reports. This is a time wasting process. If the correspondents have a good IT knowledge, work will be much easier and quicker for the editorial staff. Provincial correspondents working for Sinhala newspapers need to improve their IT skills and it is absolutely vital proper time management using New Media be infused in them," Amaradasa said.

ICTA has agreed to provide assistance to train 300 provincial reporters in 19 training centres across the island.

"We train all public servants ranging from Honourable judges of the Supreme Court to clerical grades. They are now comfortable with IT. ICTA conducted research to find Sinhala characters and they have succeeded in even finding original Sinhala numbers. We would now be focusing mainly Northern and Eastern Provinces." ICTA Director M.D.R. Senanayake said.

ANCL Director Editorial Seelaratne Senerath, Company Secretary Kumudu Gunewardena, ANCL Director Operations Upul Dissanayake, Chief Administrative Officer Rohana Aryaratne, ICTA Director E. Fernando and Nalini Senasekera, ICTA Programme Head, Human Resource Development, editors and journalists also participated.