Building Digital Bangladesh Grass root level information literacy skills needed

Bangladesh, May 8 -- Participants of an orientation meeting on 'Vision 2021: Digital Bangladesh' on Thursday viewed that the Digital Bangladesh vision is unique as it proposes to mainstream ICT as a pro-poor tool. So grass root level information literacy skills are a pre-requisite for building a digital Bangladesh. Science and ICT ministry in collaboration with Bangladesh Computer Council organized the programme at Barisal Aswani Kumar Hall to expand science and ICT services in greater Faridpur, Barisal and Patuakhali districts. It was presided over by Magistrate Rashedul Hassan and addressed by Yafes Osman, state minister for science and information technology ministry, Shawkat Hossain Hiron, Barisal City Corporation Mayor, Md. Mahfuzur Rahman, additional secretary and executive director BCC , Munir Hossain, ICT consultant and others. The science and ICT state minister also visited ICT Lab at Barisal Govt. B M College and attended a discussion meeting at college teacher's conference room presided over by college principal Prof. Dr. Nani Gopal Das and addressed by Prof A S M Kaiumuddin, secretary staff council, Prof. Ziaul Huq , secretary teacher's club and others. The science and ICT state minister informed that 1,200 ICT labs would be established at grass root level educational institutions. He also distributed 2 internet modems for 46 educational institutions and Tk.20, 000 as grants to 82 educational institutions of Barisal on this occasion. Speaker and participants of the programmes said the first and foremost challenge to materialize the Digital Bangladesh Vision 2021 would be to ensure overall connectivity at an affordable cost. With the intent to enhance connectivity emphasis should be provided on the establishment of infrastructures to "Connect the Unconnected" and importance must be given on laying more optical fiber to reach the marginal people of the country. The ability of a nation to use and create knowledge capital determines its capacity to empower and enable its citizens by increasing human capabilities, they said. Easy access to knowledge, creation and preservation of knowledge systems, dissemination of knowledge and better knowledge services should be core concerns of the Digital Bangladesh Vision 2021, they under scored.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from The New Nation.

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