The nature and impact of the coronavirus on developing countries like Guyana brings into sharp focus the importance of accelerating the growth of the information technology sector in order to better position it to address priority concerns when these arise, Starr Computers Chief Executive Officer, Mike Mohan has told the Stabroek Business.
The comment was made during a broader discourse between Mohan and this newspaper on the subject of the role of information technology in supporting the teaching/learning process in Guyana during the current protracted schools closure.
With schools across Guyana now officially closed since March 16, efforts to institute information technology-driven virtual classes have had only limited effect mainly on account of a lack of access to equipment by children from less well-off homes, and a less than adequate countrywide IT infrastructure.
Noting that the nature of COVID-19 had compelled the need to resort to virtual classrooms in order to help keep the teaching/learning process going, Mohan told the Stabroek Business that the nature of the challenge which the virus had thrown down globally had drawn attention to the reality of the central role that information technology has to play, not just in education delivery but in various other critical spheres of our existence.
Asserting that his comments had derived from what he sees as an intervention that can serve Guyana as a lesson for the future, Mohan told the Stabroek Business that his views ought not to be mistaken for any opportunity to make a “sales pitch” at this time. He insists, that like some other poor countries, Guyana’s IT infrastructure deficiencies have left an important aspect of its defenses vulnerable in the wake of the global coronavirus onslaught.
“The application of Information Technology tools fits in with a pattern of responses that are entirely appropriate given the nature of the coronavirus and the lifestyle changes that it requires us to make. Humans need to work, communicate and socialise while re-educating ourselves from home,” Mohan asserted.
Statistics have shown that over 80% of the workforce in developed countries resell services which can easily be digitized (computerized). Unfortunately in Guyana, under 20 per cent of our services are automated while another 60 per cent are manual,” Mohan told Stabroek Business.
While acknowledging that developing countries like Guyana had, in many respects, been caught unawares by the advent of the coronavirus, the Guyanese businessman said that the reality of the challenge and the attendant consequences ought to serve as an important lesson insofar as fashioning critical tools for the country’s development is concerned. He said that the advent of the coronavirus had created a situation in which in order “to stay employed and educated” people now have to work from home, a circumstance the now requires “an immediate rapid fast-forward effort to acquire IT equipment with proper maintenance support and internet connectivity to develop our technology skills.”
And according to Mohan the advent of the coronavirus and the limited options that had been left open for education delivery has effectively meant that the need to significantly improve the national IT infrastructure had now risen to the level of a “national emergency.”
The single largest IT equipment and services provider in Guyana, Starr Computers has thrown both its doors and its knowledge-base open to the education sector, frequently offering computers and other equipment at reduced prices and enabling visits to its frequent displays and briefing sessions on information technology-related issues. Last week, Mohan told the Stabroek Business that since there is as yet no telling when actual classes will recommence, schools should move to “reach out” to old students, through alumni or otherwise, to help provide equipment that can support and expand virtual classes.
And according to Mohan, even as the discourse involving government, the private sector and the populace on the issue of the weaknesses in the local IT sector had ensued, Starr Computers had “worked assiduously with its vendors and local partners to make IT hardware affordable and available with full warranty to the Guyanese population.” He noted that while internet costs remained affordable to the business and middle classes there was need for government and the internet service providers to negotiate “a more affordable pricing level for low-income families.”
Mohan, meanwhile, is calling for the setting up of more internet hotspots in poor communities in order to spread access to IT-driven communication much wider than it is at this time.
And according to Mohan it is important that local businesses learn the “important lessons” arising out of the coronavirus episode and the measures that they have had to take to survive. “Employers, hopefully, will learn to save operating costs by encouraging their employees to work from home. Their savings on building rentals, insurance, security, and transportation costs will justify the costs of installing facilities for their staff to work from home. In addition to that, children will be able to share access to their parents’ internet connection for home-schooling purposes.
“In some cases, STARR Computers may be able to help parents add low-priced virtual desktops to their company home systems so that other family members can also have IT access,” Mohan added.
