Celebrating Internet Day with real measures

Editorial from our sister paper Ultima Hora WE celebrate Internet Day with games, establishment visits etc, when what the administration should really be doing to commemorate this day is investing a lot, an awful lot, to cut down - the ideal would be to eliminate - the digital breach which even today separates some citizens from others. It is true that Internet is not the entire universe, that there are many other ways and means to attain informative and formative objects, but it is also true that it has become a basic tool when it comes to facilitating access to certain sources of information and exchange. We may think that in daily life many people make use of Internet as a simple means of entertainment, but mention must be made of the utility of this vast virtual universe as a source of knowledge, a search for clues and most of all, as one more element in the field of research, study and business. Hence its importance. Anyone unable to move around the World Wide Web easily will have few opportunities of reaching the highest level in many fields. Our students, therefore, need an easy, cheap and universal access to Internet. If the major communications firms are not capable of offering it, it will have to be the administrations who promote the necessary policies so that no student remains outside the web. To begin with, all the classrooms in all the educational centres in the Balaerics should have sufficient computer facilties, something which obviously is not happening at present. Large classes prevent young students from having sufficient access to this type of tool and so it is the parents, at home, who have to see that this deficit is covered. Editorial published in the biggest Spanish newspaper in the Balearics, on May 18, 2006.