Dept rolling out ICT services in provinces

THE Education Department has been rolling out information communication technology (ICT) services in all provinces since 2014, an official says.
Thomas Podarua, the department’s assistant secretary for ICT, made the statement on the final day of the governors consultative forum on education yesterday.
“The department has been providing ICT infrastructures to all provinces since 2014, these are, the email services and education management information system (Emis) for data collection purposes,” he said.
The department aims to roll out the services in the districts.
Podarua said only six districts had received the services this year.
He said although the service was provided, there were issues on understanding the systems, especially when it comes to using it.
“Out of the 22 provinces, only 17 are fully utilising the system while the rest are having problems with fully understanding the benefits of the services provided,” Podarua said.
He said the department faced issues with computer literacy, especially at the provincial level.
“We need staff to go through some computer training to help them utilise these systems, especially when it comes to data entry.”
The department urged the governors of each province to assist by providing training.