Special activities

Many experts believe that computer literacy has become the fourth pillar to the traditional three tenets of education: reading, writing, and arithmetic, and that a failure to acquire the now requisite technical knowledge will prevent large segments of population from realizing the fruits of the Information Age. The Department of Census and Statistics recently conducted a Household Survey on Computer Literacy. The main objective of this survey was to assess the computer literacy of household population in the age group of 5 to 69 years and e-readiness of households. It also examined the availability of ICT related infrastructure facilities and use of computers and e-mail/Internet etc at households.

This survey covered the whole country other than Northern Province and Trincomalee district in the Eastern Province. Number of households surveyed was 19,628. Altogether 63,225 persons in the age group of 5 � 69 years were interviewed. Report of this survey will be released soon.

Grama Niladari Divisions of the country have been categorised according to their levels of poverty. The Department of Census and Statistics compiled a report depicting these levels of poverty. The report was presented to Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickremanayake at his office recently by Director General of the Department D.B.P..S. Vidyaratne. This report is useful for regional planning, poverty eradication programmes and the allocation of Development aid.

The Department of Census and Statistics conducted a household survey on Computer Literacy of Sri Lanka during the first six months of year 2004. In this survey, about 11,400 households covering all districts other than the Mulativu and Kilinochchi were enumerated.

Several indicators on the home computers, use of e-mail and internet etc, have been compiled using the data collected from this survey. Findings of this study can be considered as a baseline survey, results of which can be compared with future follow-up surveys to monitor the progress of the development of the Information and Communication Technology sector in Sri Lanka.