Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, has said the federal government is planning to engage workers in more training on information and communication technology programmes.

Ms Walson-Jack disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja while supervising the Senior Confirmation and Promotion (Compro) Examinations for workers across paramilitary and agencies at various centres within the Federal Capital Territory.

She said that the initiative was to enable public servants to gain more experience in the area of technology, as the public service sector was gradually changing to meet global standards of operations.

The computer based test, currently being conducted nationwide, has a total of 13,993 participants.

She stated, “So, we are coming up with lots of training on ICT, which we believe will help workers as we go along with the CBT exercise. You will recall that these exams used to be written ones, but recently, we made them computer-based.

“And so it’s expected that as we go along, it will encourage public/civil servants to begin to take IT and digitalisation seriously because the test is computer-based and they need to have IT knowledge to be able to pass it.’’

According to her, digitisation is one of the pillars under the Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP-25) to reform the sector.

Ms Walson-Jack said this could only be achieved through ICT, which required civil servants to key into it.

“You know that under the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP-25), digitalisation is one of the pillars of the reforms, and so we have moved from a written test to a computer-based test,” she said.

She, however, used the medium to acknowledge the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board for doing an excellent job to ensure peaceful conduct of the exercise.

She said, “I will like to use this opportunity to appreciate JAMB, which is our partner in conducting this examination, and we are looking forward to having a seamless exercise in subsequent exams.’’

Similarly, Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office, office of the HCSF, Fatima Mahmood, acknowledged the officials who conducted the exams amid some technical challenges.

She stated, “There may have been few technical hitches during the conduct of the exams, but how you manage the process is what counts, and I can see excellent management here; the candidates were attended to promptly.

“Everybody is behaving in an orderly manner, as expected of the public service officers of the nation. In all, I think the process is going on smoothly.’’

One of the candidates, Hasan Abubakar, who expressed excitement over the exercise, said he was forced to learn computers when he knew that there were no more written exams.

“When I got the job, I never knew anything about computers, but I have to force myself to learn it, and I must confess that it has helped me a lot. So I’m excited,” he said. 

(NAN)