Sri Lanka’s digital literacy definition, which is much simpler than that of UNESCO, has led to Sri Lankans being classified as “digitally literate,” even if they possess below-average skills. Accordingly, even five-year-olds are identified as computer-literate if they can play video games.
In an attempt to simplify the definition of a “digitally literate person,” the Department of Census and Statistics in its Annual Bulletin of Computer Literacy Statistics 2023 identified “a person aged 5-69 if he or she could use a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone on his or her own” as a digitally literate person.
Interestingly, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) defines digital literacy as “the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate, and create information safely and appropriately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship.” Given this definition, one wonders how a five-year-old could be considered “digitally literate”.
The Census Department report identified a computer-literate person as “a person aged 5-69 if he or she could use a computer on his or her own” and cites as an example the 5-year-old child if he or she can play a computer game.
Sunday times
