NO COMPUTER
LITERACY, NO JOB
By Mawutodzi K. Abissath
 |
| Daily Graphic October 8, 2004 |
On
Thursday, September 16, this year, Dr Alex Glover-Quartey, the Head of Ghana
Civil Service, did not mince words at all when he told Chief Directors that
anybody who was not computer literate would not be appointed Chief Director
again in the service.
In
fact, Dr Glover-Quartey did not only make a mere statement, but gave a fiat:
"I have decided that all Chief Directors must endeavour to become computer
literate by 31st December this year," he ordered. (Observers are watching
000; my pen no bi sword!).
Dr
Glover-Quartey seems a smart Head of Civil Service in modern Ghana. Do you know
the venue where he gave this technological marching order? At the plush
Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT. That is the only place in
Ghana where no ICT-minded person can challenge you if you give such an order or
directive.
And
the occasion itself was a One-day-workshop organised by the Civil Service
headquarters in Accra to "Validate Agency-Specific ICT Policy
Statements". Participants for the event were made up of Chief Directors of
all ministries, regional Co-coordinating Directors from all the 10 regions of
the country and IT Directors from the ministries.
When
Dr Glover-Quartey opened his mouth to address the powerful decision makers of
the, service, he churned a quotation by Juan Somvia in Decent Work: "No
Society can succeed in a globalised environment unless its people have adequate
knowledge and skills."
The
truth of the matter is that the government has come out with a policy document
known as the Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD), which presents the
vision of Ghana in the information age. The policy is said to have set out the
road map for the development of Ghana's information society and economy and
provides a basis for driving and facilitating the socio-economic prosperity of
the country in the emerging information and knowledge-based world.
It
came to light that under the ICT Policy agenda, a number of specific
Information and Communications Technology strategies, initiatives and action
plans were to be undertaken by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service in
collaboration with the Ministry of Communications to promote e-governance and greater
use of ICT in the delivery of government services in the country.
Some
of the strategies to be adopted include: 1. Modernisation of the civil service
to improve its efficiency, effectiveness and service delivery through the
department to ICT. 2. Implementation of e-government programme initiatives
"and action plans such as Government to Government (G2G), Government to
Business (G2B), Government to Citizens (G2C) and Government to Development
Partners (G2DP).
Improve
basic computer skills of Civil Servants through in-service training; 4.
Development and the enforcement of ICT standards, guidelines and best practices
within the Civil Service. 5. Re-engineering of the business process within the
Civil Service environment and finally 6- Implementation of the New Partnership
for African Development (NEPADs) ICT
initiatives and achieving the goals and targets on the UN millennium
declaration.
How
does the Civil Service intend to achieve these laudable strategies? Never forget the famous African proverbs
which says: "If a blind person threatens to throw a stone at you, then you
must know that his or her foot is already on the stone."
According
to Dr Glover- Quartey, the Civil Service ICT Vision and Plan of Action is to
establish a Civil Service College of which the Civil Service Computer Centre
would be an integral, part. Some enthusiastic civil servants are anxious and
itching to know how soon the College and Computer Centre would start operating.
If
the Centre had been in existence before the Chief Directors were given the
December 31, computer literacy order, it would have been wonderful
"paaa". In any case the Chief
Directors don't need a Civil Service College to learn how to use computers.
The
truth is that some of them, especially "the first generation" Chief
Directors have had computers sitting like a decorative museum piece, on their
desktops from the day Adam was created in the Eden Garden. And most of them are
just battling with a disease called "Computer phobia", which prevents
them from using the tip of their index finger to boot the computer. Whatever be
the case, the concept of the Civil Service College is most laudable and can be
said to be long overdue. It's vision and mission, as were enumerated on that
occasion by its 'Commander-in-Chief,' Dr Glover-Quartey is heartwarming and
soul moving.
The
college, it is learnt, among other things, is to facilitate continuous
improvement and development of global competitiveness, skills and competencies of
civil servants to enable them to provide world class services to citizens and
the private sector. This continuous education and training for all citizens,
especially for government employees is known as e-learning for life in
Singapore.
The
acquisition of this type of skills, competencies, ideas and information is
referred to as intangible capital in digital economy being run in Singapore. If
a country like Singapore is leading in E-Government services delivery in the
world it is because that country's entire Civil Service has been the first
sector to be computerised when it started its journey on digital economy. What
Singapore did was to educate its citizens in general and public servants in
particular. That is what is known as Government to Employees (G2E) in the scope
of E-Government strategies.
Whether
Ghanaians like it or not, ICT has come to remold the entire globe into an
e-World. And a time will soon come where you can be a PhD holder in mathematics
from the "University of Heaven", but, if you are not a computer
literate, it is not the Head of the Civil Service who will not appoint you as a
Chief Director, but the system itself will flush you out.
The author works with the
Information Services Department (ISD) abissath@gmail.com
NB: This article was first published the Daily Graphic October 8, 2004
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