Bring a computer to the rural areas
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| Director of Dong Nai Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Mr. Pham Van Sang hands over A Certificate of Informatics to trainees in Binh Son commune. |
The first course in Binh Son commune, Long Thanh district, attracted 39 trainees, 17 of which are officials working in this locality and 22 of which join the course with their own money. After doing the course for four months, the first 39 trainees have been qualified for A Certificate of Informatics, 17 of which are officials of the locality with tuition fee funded 100 percent in case they are issued A certificate.
With these results, districts like Tan Phu, Dinh Quan, and Xuan Loc have asked for extension of pilot scope and deployment in is locality. In this situation, DOST organized a meeting to collect opinions of the rest localities and agencies, branches and sectors in the province. Eventually, localities and agencies, branches and sectors are agreed on the plan to multiply the program in the province.
To implement effectively the document no. 4825 produced by the provincial People’s Committee on July 27, 2006, DOST will collect equipments, devices from various sources to carry them to remotes areas where there have been a lof of difficulty in equipments to open informatics classes for officials and employees. Simultaneously, DOST also called for a group of young and enthusiastic teachers of Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT) to come to stay with local people to teach and hold a final test for all trainees.
With the aim of popularizing A Certificate of Informatics for 50 communal officials and employees, DOST has suggested communes register the list and send it to DOST. Then, DOST will work out a plan to inform Districts’ People’s Committee, trainees as well as units participating in teaching. By the end of the course, DOST will apply the list to HUFLIT to arrange a final test. The university will inform DOST about the test results and then DOST will tell district's People’s Committee and trainees about them. The district's People’s Committee will pass a list of trainees passing the test to send it to DOST for their payment return.
Program no. 50: A lever to computerize and reform public administration.
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| Trainees doing the final test |
Ever since the program was carried out, there have been almost 6,900 trainees applying for study and over 5,300 ones passed the final test along with 300 ones studying for the time being. Due to necessity of this program, more and more trainees have applied for study. While, at the beginning of the program in 2005, there were only 39 trainees, in 2010, there are nearly 7,000 ones applying for this. Most of trainees in this course would apply for their work.
Ms. Vu Thi Hai, a teacher of Dac Lua commune High Schoool, Tan Phu district, happily told us, “Informatics is not only simply used to type documents and do simple calculations, but also a teaching aid of teachers nowadays. Due to development of society, real demands of life and national educational reform, our nation’s education have to quickly apply informatics in teaching unless it will be educationally backward. For this reason, although we are very busy, we still arrange to take time to study and finish our work well.”
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| Trainees of Dac Lua commune come to study |
Mr. Dao Huy Tinh, Chairman of Dac Lua Commune People’s Committee, also confessed that, informatics competence of its communal staff was still low. Word processing is still difficult for them, not yet mentioning applying other advances in science and technology in their work og management. Therefore, when the program come to the locality, it has been responded actively. After the course, many officials have applied effectively their knowledge gained in the course in their work of management, contributing fairly substantially to work of public administration reform.
Mr.Nguyen Hong Phu, deputy head of the advisory and training department of Software Development Center directly under DOST, says, the program has received positive responses from local authority and trainees in the course, so deployment of this program has got a lot of advantages. However, because of age difference, teaching trainees still encounters a lot of difficulty, especially for older ones.
Till now, although the program has not finished, its effectiveness is substantial. Most of commune officials and employees have been well schooled by experienced teachers. Besides, with learning on site and needless to travel far, their work has not been influenced much.
Reported by Truc Linh, translated by Hoai Thu