Montenegro committed to raising level of digital literacy of its citizens

Podgorica, Montenegro (9 October 2014) – Today's Cabinet meeting discussed the information on current situation in the field of digital literacy of Montenegrin citizens, particularly civil servants.

Ministry for Information Society and Telecommunications has made significant efforts towards raising the level of digital literacy of Montenegrin citizens. The results achieved so far form a solid basis for further improvements in this area, Radule Novović of the Ministry told the press earlier today.

The “ECDL – for Digital Montenegro” project was particularly aimed at improving digital literacy of civil servants and was implemented with the support of the Regional ECDL Office and the EU Delegation to Montenegro. To date, the ECDL Core Certificate has been obtained by 615 civil servantse mployed in different ministries and the Secretariat General of the Government with a total of 80% transiency.

The data shows that 800 employees at the Montenegrin courts and 2000 professors in Montenegrin schools have also attended ECDL training programmes and obtained the ECDL certificate, which represents the biggest surge of digital literacy in Montenegro. In that regard, Montenegro belongs to a group of the EU countries with the highest number of certificates compared to the number of citizens. The ECDL (European Computer Driving License) is currently the most valid international certificate when it comes to computer and technology skills and is internationally recognised in 148 countries  worldwide.

By implementing the project, Montenegro has made great progress in terms of using information and communication technologies aimed at improving knowledge and skills in this area. Target group of this project were employees in ministries, courts and education. At the moment, Montenegro has 12 ECDL test centres which are licensed to conduct trainings and testing process in all cities.

Modernisation of  Montenegro's education system remains one the government's key policies and the Ministry for Information Society and Telecommunications will foster activities towards raising the level of digital literacy, the meeting emphasised. In that regard, the Ministry will work on introducing software tools in the learning process, which will raise the quality of education system and reduce costs, as well as the need for ECDL trainings for teachers.