Jordan Times
Monday, August 9, 2004
Ranks of computer literate
professionals grow by 1,100
By Rami Abdelrahman
AMMAN — Another 1,100 civil servants from 22 departments have joined the ranks
of computer literate professionals ready to make dealing with the government a
much smoother process.
The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT) recently
concluded the fourth phase of a national computer literacy programme, which
makes these employees now eligible to apply for the International Computer
Driving Licence (ICDL) and the Cambridge programme, certifying them in basic
computer skills.
The end game of the `ICT Literacy Training Programme for Government Employees'
is to prepare civil servants, particularly those in frontline posts, to be ready
to implement the e-government initiative.
According to MoICT Chief Information Officer and e-Government Director Mahmoud
Khasawneh, red tape will be cut significantly and procedures will be expedited.
“If you are applying to renew your passport, drivers licence,... etc,
e-government processes now mean you can finish all procedures in 10 minutes
rather than in one hour,” he explained.
As another example, Khasawneh said citizens' complaints about motorist
violations are processed at the Traffic Department, and the vehicle in question
is identified in a maximum of five minutes.”
Khasawneh said similar systems are also being applied in other governmental
organisations. He said the Income Tax Department would soon become part of the
e-government system.
E-Government is a national programme initiated by His Majesty King Abdullah. The
purpose of this programme is to enhance efficiency, accuracy, time and cost
effectiveness, transparency and cross-governmental integration.
The ministry has already trained 4,900 government employees and aims to finish
training 15,000 by 2006.
Khasawneh told the press yesterday: “We are focussing on organisational review
and restructuring and human resource development through continuous training and
learning... we want to develop the public sector worker's communication skills
as well as introducing e-government.”
The role of MoICT in ICT literacy training, for now, is to provide basic
training for the workers nominated by different governmental entities. Follow-up
training is left to the departments themselves.
“When we started our first phase in 2002, we trained 1,000 workers from 19
department at nine different training centres. The pass rate was 45 per cent due
to the inefficient setup, (i.e. the test was in writing),” said Amna Kilani,
head of change management at the Jordan e-government programme.
By the second phase, electronic testing was in place and 86 per cent of the
1,275 trainees from 29 departments participating passed.
According to Kilani, the results of the second phase motivated the departments
to take a stronger interest in the programme. “Some even started their own
computer literacy programmes and training departments, while others changed
their promotion requirements in order to include computer literacy,” Kilani
explained.
In the third and fourth phases, Kilani said, the civil servants themselves were
demonstrating individual eagerness to acquire computer skills.