myWeb launched

Within the next three years the government planned to more than double the number of households who had access to the Internet, Local Government Minister Austin Gatt said.

"At the moment there are 50,000 households who have access. It is an achievable feat and together we can get there," Dr Gatt said.

He was yesterday speaking, together with Education Minister Louis Galea, at the Mediterranean Conference Centre where he launched the initiative dubbed 'myWeb'.

'myWeb' is geared to eradicate the digital divide by offering the public free computer and internet courses.

"Unless we eradicate this digital divide, the number of social inequalities will continue to grow. The present Internet penetration is not enough and our future depends on it," Dr Gatt said.

Despite this, Dr Gatt said that overall Malta fared well in the field of information and communication technology when compared with other applicant countries and its only serious competitors were Estonia and Slovenia.

When the ministry set out the mandate of the eMalta Commission it had stressed that it should adopt a pro-active approach towards the development of a first-class information society.

'myWeb' is the launching pad to increase Internet penetration and from next week applications will start being received from those wishing to take the government up on its offer to learn how to use the computer.

In collaboration with the Education Ministry, the public has the opportunity to avail itself of a free computer course of 20 hours to learn the basics of computers.

The courses will be held at the different Internet centres of government schools, which the Education Ministry has agreed to leave open after school hours.

The curriculum was specifically tailor-made in collaboration with the ICT Institute of the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology.

Those who successfully complete the course will get a permanent free Web-enabled e-mail address and a number of free hours of pre-paid Internet access to ensure they can continue building on what they learnt, Dr Gatt said.

Applications for this course will be available during this week's IT fair and from local councils in December. Apart from the traditional classroom-based learning, the commission is also striving to deliver this awareness programme through other channels.

These include an e-learning Web- site where people can learn on-line, as well as having the lectures aired on television through 20 one-hour programmes.

Meanwhile, as from next month free Internet cafes will also open in every local council across the island.

Dr Gatt said the government would also be fulfilling its electoral promise at the beginning of next year by providing every Maltese citizen with a free e-mail address.

This initiative is being done with the full involvement of local Internet service providers who are also partly subsidising it.

"ISPs were vital to help us translate this promise into reality. This step will make us among the most advanced countries in Europe which has a clear programme for accessibility and in implementation," he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Galea said that when the two separate national strategies for IT and inclusive education were set up, nobody would have dreamt that eight years later they would be working together towards the same goals.

Dr Galea also said the government had worked hard to ensure that students in government schools had access to a computer and today there was a computer for every seven students.

EMalta Commission executive secretary interview - IT Supplement