It took a pandemic for Trinidad and Tobago to realise the disparity in the number of children who needed to access online classes and children without access to digital devices.
When covid19 hit and stay-at-home measures made it necessary for the education system to pivot to online classes, Government discovered that while there was a digital data device in most homes, for many there was more than one child who would need to use it.
That gap has since been reduced through corporate donations of 23,000 devices and the distribution of about 14,000 laptops – out of an order by the State for 20,000 – for 65,000 students.
How did Government, which made promises in its last budget to develop data-gathering systems and promote digital transformation, not know there was a disparity between the number of devices available in a home and the number of children who need to use them? The answer is there was no available data on digital use among families.
Data is one of the key ingredients in decision-making, whether in the home, in a business, or on a national scale. Without up-to-date data many decisions and policies would be made by “guess.”
The Central Statistical Office (CSO) has been a source of information on the country’s GDP, population, rate of inflation, employment and other aspects of the economy. Its information was once readily accessible to the public. But in recent years, it became under-resourced, its building on Independence Square, Port of Spain fell into disrepair and was bulldozed. The office was relocated to Frederick Street. Several bodies have since complained about lags in data which do not paint a proper picture of the country.
With a drive for digital transformation, through a dedicated ministry, a proper database on the social and economic sectors of TT is imperative.
[caption id="attachment_914682" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Safety officer Lisinda Popty directs traffic on a construction site on Valencia Main Road, Valencia. DevelopTT provides approvals across state agencies. - Photo by Roger Jacob[/caption]
While the CSO continues to provide information for public and economic decisions, stakeholders said more must be done, starting with the passage of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) Bill which has been has been in a parliamentary committee since 2019.
The devil’s in the data
The bill, laid in Parliament in 2018, is meant to replace the Statistics Act, which currently provides for the taking of censuses and the collection, analysis and publication of statistical information.
The bill would give statisticians more autonomy to disseminate or authorise the dissemination of official statistics, along with conducting censuses and surveys, collaborating with individuals, firms and other stakeholders to develop a national statistical system.
State agencies such as the Board of Inland Revenue and the National Insurance Board, along with other public bodies and private enterprises, would have t
