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Kathmandu Thursday October 11, 2001 Ashwin 25, 2058.
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Government
to train over 10,000 youths in IT
By Ram Sharan Sedhai
KATHMANDU, Oct 10 - With the objective of
producing required manpower in the country, Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) is
going to provide training to over 10,000 youths in information technology (IT) soon after
Tihar, one of the biggest festivals of the Hindus.
The ministry is going to provide the training to
10,100 youths in three categories: lower, middle and high level as per the budgetary
announcement of the government for the current fiscal year.
Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat in his
budget speech for fiscal year 2000/01 had announced "A target of imparting training
of lower, medium and higher level skills in various aspects of IT to 50,000 youths in
association with the private sector and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) within
three years".
The government has appropriated Rs 200 million
for human resource development and awareness building for the current fiscal year to
promote development of IT, which will be spent through the Ministry of Science and
Technology.
According to Mahesh Man Shrestha, Secretary at
the Ministry of Science and Technology, the ministry is going to provide low level
training to 6,000, medium to 3,700 and high level to 400 youths soon after the end of
Tihar.
"This year we are providing training to
10,100 youths and we will meet the target of imparting IT training to 50,000 youths within
coming three years", he said. The candidates would be selected through free
competition from all over the country, but priority would be given to the oppressed,
people from remote areas and women candidates, he added.
The government is planning to provide 90 per
cent subsidy to the fees of low level trainees, 60 per cent to medium level and 50 per
cent to high level trainees, according to secretary Shrestha. The training would be
provided in association with the private sector IT training institutes in Kathmandu,
Biratnagar, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi.
The minimum academic qualification for the three
tiers of training is SLC (School Leaving Certificate), certificate level or plus two and
graduate level for low, medium and high level trainees respectively.
Apart from giving training to the youths, the
ministry is also going to provide a one-month computer training to 300 teachers of public
high schools and 200 gazetted and 200 non-gazetted government officers this year.
Secretary Shrestha said that in keeping with the
complaints teachers made last year, the ministry is planning to provide certain allowance
for trainee teachers for their food and accommodation during the training period.
He also said that process has been initiated to
establish Venture Capital Fund to minimize the risk exposure of the fixed capital employed
in the production of hardware and software, in association with the private sector.
"Construction of IT Park at Banepa,
Kavrepalanchwok district which is 26 kilometres east of the capital, is on progress.
Contractors have been pre-qualified and acquiring land and fencing the area is also
nearing completion", he said.
In order to generate awareness among the general
public about information and communications technology (ICT), the ministry is planning to
telecast an awareness programme in association with Nepal Television, he further said.
Secretary Shrestha also said that the ministry
has initiated talks with some Japanese companies for joint venture agreement with the
private companies and it has also been consulting with the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) for establishing service centres in 15 different parts of the country.
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