Senators want internet access for remote, backward areas
A Senate panel on Thursday demanded the provision of the internet for the remote and backward areas of the country apart from equipping people in these areas with digital gadgets to make them tech-savvy.
This was directed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunication. The committee met in the Parliament House on Thursday and was chaired by Senator Rubina Khalid.
Noting that the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic had changed the world, Senator Khalid expressed that an educated generation of a country testified to its bright future. She lamented how people had raised their voices over the extended closure of businesses but no one had raised their voice over the closure of educational institutions for the past three months.
The Senator said that while schools, colleges and universities have shifted classes online, numerous issues had surfaced. The least of which, she said, was that the system often malfunctions when too many people use it at the same time.
The committee chairperson highlighted that the biggest problem was at the public school level where children of the poor people study. These people, she said, cannot afford to buy either laptops or smartphones nor are their teachers capable of conducting online classes without being trained first.
She directed the federal education and Information Technology (lT) ministry as well as the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to prepare an effective strategy to resolve all matters and to make better options available to students in the future.
The committee chairperson further lamented that many people in the country still do not have access to the internet while many of them did not have any means to access it. She advised the government to make digital devices such as laptops and smartphones cheaper and directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to inform the panel about the duties imposed on their import and registration fees.
Senator Dr Shehzad Waseem suggested establishing a Citizen Digital Connectivity Hotspot to make technology accessible to people living in remote areas of the country.
The government, Dr Waseem said, will have to subsidise the system due to the low purchasing power of people in these areas. Senator Kulsoom Perveen said that the experiment of online classes can only succeed in Islamabad as people in Balochistan can’t afford internet and there remain many areas which still do not have power.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2020.