We need people who can think out of the box and are constantly seeking better solutions and innovations.
Deputy Permanent Secretary (IT and E-Government) at the Prime Minister's Office and Overall Government CIO Abdul Mutalib bin Pehin OKSS Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yussof yesterday said this in his capacity as chief guest at the closing ceremony of the 15th Inforama 2010 going hosted by Masin Secondary School.
In his speech, he outlined three main points: i) ICT capacity building in schools, going beyond Inforama, ii) ICT capacity building for the civil service, one of the top priorities of the e-Goyernment Strategic Plan of 2009 - 2014, and iii) reaching the citizens - making e-Government relevant to citizens and the general public.
The chief guest later urged students and teachers to go beyond Inforama to develop their ICT skills, encouraging them to continue learning outside the classroom environment.
To have the right ICT skills and capacity for innovation, both student and teacher must not only be trained, retrained and mentored, but must also have unlimited access to the right ICT facilities, he said.
ICT has transformed our learning environment and by using ICT we can achieve learning outcomes in ways previously unthinkable.
Hence, the government, through the e government programme of the Ministry of Education, has laid the foundation for ICT-use in education, such as setting up ICT labs in primary and secondary schools, which indirectly paves the way for innovative use of ICT in schools.
According to the chief guest, this year more action points have been implemented through a two-prong strategy managed by a special committee on monitoring ICT HR training fund to be spent over the next few years.
It is to equip a target audience of 400 IT staff under the e-government National Centre (EGNC) with at least one professional certification and secondly, to send 27,000 personnel from the civil service (including teachers and non IT personnel) to courses ranging from basic IT training to professional certification programmes as well a mass ICT awareness programmes.
"One of the on-going ICT HR programmes that have been initiated by the government since 2008 is the ICT Conversion Programme. Under it, selected candidates from the civil service with non-IT background are sent to attend a one-year ICT postgraduate programme at NUS in Singapore.
"This year, three non-IT government officers who happen to be teachers and education officers have been selected to attend the programme. The government also plans to send more officers to attend similar ICT postgraduate programme in countries such as Korea, India and Australia.
He said the government invests great efforts to make the e-Government initiative relevant and meaningful to the general public. One of the government work plans for 2010 this year is to continue engaging feedback from citizens.
Getting to know customers' demands is one of our strategies to help prioritise the right and highly demanded common services to be made available online.
He also hopes all participants have increased their ICT awareness, and encouraged them to further develop their ICT skills as well as gain confidence in themselves.
The day saw the chief guest presenting certificates and prizes to the winners of Inforama 2010, before later touring the booths to have a closer look at the works of the participating schools and students.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Achong Tanjong
Quelle/Source: Bru Direct, 01.08.2010
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