Taking Literacy Further

I WOULD like to react to the letter that was written by an e-commerce student in South Africa on 11 April 2006 titled ‘Govt Website Disgrace’.

This student made a crucial observation about the Government’s website at this juncture when all countries are striving to manage changes as dictated by information technology. I visited the website of the government of Botswana at www.gov.bw and can’t agree more with that student.I don’t know whether our PM had time to investigate what is referred to.What is so impressive about the Botswana website is that all government departments are listed under their ministries.One can for instance go to their Ministry of Education and find all information that one needs about their education system and structures, which is not the case with ours.Maybe our Government needs to introduce an ICT basic literacy programme for our MPs and members of the National Council in order to empower them to search for information and disseminate it via the Internet.In my view, literacy education should not just be limited to those people who can’t write and read – it should be taken further so that our leaders can play a meaningful role in their daily activities.If our politicians do not understand this new world, they may serve as stumbling blocks for development in their constituencies instead of spearheading development.It could be due to low IT literacy levels among some of our leaders that the opinion expressed by that student is considered a non-issue.Hence, it will be difficult for them to approve money to embark on IT-related development such as the creation of acceptable websites for the Government.Maybe some of our leaders have not even visited our Government’s website since they were appointed.At the moment the only IT equipment that I see our leaders utilising is a cellphone.I hope the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairman of the National Council would consider this piece of advice as very crucial to the achievement of Vision 2030.If you train all Regional Councillors and their Governors how to search and send information via the Internet, they will inspire their people who will in turn start to do the same.Hola Damases WindhoekI visited the website of the government of Botswana at www.gov.bw and can’t agree more with that student.I don’t know whether our PM had time to investigate what is referred to.What is so impressive about the Botswana website is that all government departments are listed under their ministries.One can for instance go to their Ministry of Education and find all information that one needs about their education system and structures, which is not the case with ours.Maybe our Government needs to introduce an ICT basic literacy programme for our MPs and members of the National Council in order to empower them to search for information and disseminate it via the Internet.In my view, literacy education should not just be limited to those people who can’t write and read – it should be taken further so that our leaders can play a meaningful role in their daily activities.If our politicians do not understand this new world, they may serve as stumbling blocks for development in their constituencies instead of spearheading development.It could be due to low IT literacy levels among some of our leaders that the opinion expressed by that student is considered a non-issue.Hence, it will be difficult for them to approve money to embark on IT-related development such as the creation of acceptable websites for the Government.Maybe some of our leaders have not even visited our Government’s website since they were appointed.At the moment the only IT equipment that I see our leaders utilising is a cellphone.I hope the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairman of the National Council would consider this piece of advice as very crucial to the achievement of Vision 2030.If you train all Regional Councillors and their Governors how to search and send information via the Internet, they will inspire their people who will in turn start to do the same.Hola Damases Windhoek