Developing capacity of huge number of Designated Officers (DOs) on Right to Information Act (RTIA) has been an uphill task for the Information Commission. Thousands of DOs and the trend of their transfer to other positions made it almost impossible to train them up on provisions of the act and their specific responsibilities. But capacity of the DOs is an essential precondition to the disclosure of information under the RTI Act. When organizing conventional training for the DOs was getting extremely difficult, an alternative way had to be found. And thus came the idea of online training.
With this understanding, MRDI developed an e-Learning training operational manual on Right to Information Act, 2009 for the Information Commission with support of the World Bank. A well reputed e-learning platform Eliademy or OpenLearn software was used for the purpose. Developed for the Information Commission, the product was handed over to the Chief Information Commissioner at a ceremony in presence of Cabinet Secretary and other high officials.
Appreciating the initiative Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said, adequate knowledge on RTI is essential for DOs to promote people’s access to information and they should complete this online training course.
Chief Information Commissioner Professor Golam Rahman said, “Officers are responsible to serve the people for their welfare. This online training will help them to carry out their responsibility in an efficient way.”
This e-learning platform is user friendly to allow Designated Officers to follow the content easily and also to allow the administrator (the Information Commission) to maintain it.
The platform has opened up an opportunity for the designated officers to know the provisions and rules of RTI Act properly and accomplish their responsibilities of disclosing information accordingly. MRDI has been extending necessary assistance to the Information Commission in operating the platform.
