The approval of the ICT department’s proposal to purchase 85,000 laptops for 5,000 educational institutions across the nation is welcome news.
As a nation which has specifically focused on digitalization and has continued to use it as a tool to create a more equitable nation, bringing services to the fingertips of millions of people across the country, such initiatives are not only worth commending, but have in this day and age become compulsory if we are to see any significant improvements in our education sector.
The proposal -- which will also see the purchase of 5,000 routers and network switches in addition to other necessary equipment -- is an essential first step to creating a more digitally literate nation, not to mention the improvements that the learning process will see with a classroom more digitally equipped.
It has been a matter of some concern that many government services, which were exclusively available online, were left underutilized as a result of a lack of digital literacy amongst the Bangladeshi people.
There is no denying the extent to which technology has now come to govern our lives and we must equip our future generations with the knowledge, tools, and skills necessary to navigate a future where the ubiquity of technology is inevitable. The current Covid-19 pandemic has made it all the more obvious that we all need to know how to use the internet, or to work from home at a moment’s notice using digital platforms, which cannot happen without widespread digital literacy.
We encourage the government to follow up this laudable first step with many more. For any nation, especially a developing nation like ours, embracing tech is the only way forward.
