Students and tutors at Uganda Institute of Allied Health and Management Sciences (UIAHMS) in Mulago can now access at least 10,000 textbooks, reading resources, and other curriculum materials, using an electronic library.
The library, the first of its kind at the institute, was recently launched by the director of ICT at the ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and National Guidance, Dr David Turahi.
Representing the ICT minister Frank Tumwebaze, Dr Turahi said health training is very dynamic and requires updated systems of training as well as competent trainers.
“Without ICT applications, the training process remains slow or even absolete and yet, the world around us is growing in knowledge each day,” Turahi said. “We must provide trainees with the full content they need so that they can perform to their professional expectation.”
The e-library was developed with support from UIAHMS and Intra-health, a health NGO with resources from USAID under their nationwide Strengthening Human Resource for Health (SHRH) project. Turahi said the project comes at a time when the ministry of Health's draft e-health policy and strategic plan calls for adoption of ICT use to develop and provide continuous education to its health professionals.
UIAHMS principal Alfred Otim said they have been strengthening the institute's human resource in order to make the project a reality.
“The burden of buying costly big textbooks has now been lifted from us. Our challenge now is to add more computers since we still have more space in the library,” Otim said, urging the students to use the e-library for academic matters instead of surfing ponography which will attract much serious administrative actions.
With a sitting capacity of 100 students and only 35 computers, Otim asked the ICT ministry to assist them with about 100 more computers. According to Johnson Kaboggoza, the tutor in charge of the e-library, students and staff can also access the library from their mobile phones.
“At the moment, you only need an IP [Internet protocol] address of the institution and then you can see the interface for the e-library. Internet access will also not be a challenge because we currently have about four WiFi spots and students are given the passwords,” Kaboggoza said.
He added that students will be able to access e-books for all the 22 programmes offered at the UIAHMS. At the launch of the e-library, the Strengthening Human Resource for Health (SHRH) project also supported UIAHMS with a water bath for use in pharmacy training and a bench top sterilizer.
Government-owned Soroti Pharmaceutical Training college and St Elizabeth Institute of Health professionals, a private institution in Mukono, also received equipment for pharmacy technicians.
nangonzi@observer.ug