It should be hardly surprising that a survey has revealed that over 60 per cent of the teachers in Jamaica's secondary schools would require basic training in the use of computers if they are to deliver on the government's e-learning project.

That figure, we suspect, is in congruence with the level of computer literacy in the wider society and serves to pull away the veil from erroneous assumptions that are too often made about access to technology in Jamaica. Or, rather, it makes the point of a digital divide in Jamaica along class and economic lines, as much as it exists between rich and poor countries.

The point is, while mobile telephones, with their ever-expanding information and communications features, may have deeply penetrated Jamaica in recent years, the same cannot be said of computers. Mobile phones, for the most part, are relatively cheap instruments, which a competitive marketplace has made easily accessible.

Service providers, with their market gimmicks and pay-as-you-go schemes, have allowed consumers to go in and out of the market based on the state of their finances at a particular time. Such mobility is not easily practicable with computers.

In the first place, computers are, broadly speaking, big ticket items. They require financial outlays that the average employee, including teachers, may deem unaffordable, especially for a gadget that is not considered to be of critical necessity to someone's quality of life.

Unlike the mobile phone, it is not seen as vital to communication, or, like cable television, important to family entertainment. Moreover, the computer's great effectiveness to the regular user, is its capacity to democratise access to information. In that regard, access to the Internet is critical. And, therein, is the rub.

Internet subscription is not, in the context of Jamaica, cheap. And while recent offerings to the market of bundled cable TV and broadband Internet service may prove financially attractive, it comes short of the hardware. It was combining the two - communications band and handset - that was the marketing genius of the mobile telephone providers. It expanded the market.

In the absence of such private availability, the vast majority of computer and Internet access takes place at the workplace. People access their email account or go online from their company's computer. That leaves tens of thousands of people who do not work in environments where computers and their applications are readily part of their jobs.

Jamaican teachers are, up to now, mostly among this lot. Indeed, relatively few schools have fully equipped computer labs with Internet service. Fewer still have computers available in staff rooms. Where computers are available in school offices, they are largely used for word processing.

In that context, we are surprised that the administrators of the e-learning project did not immediately undertake a major training programme of computer literacy among teachers. We would have expected, too, that the education ministry would have included the utilisation of technology as a core subject at teachers' training colleges.

This issue goes beyond the use of technology in schools, however, and more to its availability to the wider society. Policymakers and suppliers need to find a way to bring cheap computer and broadband solutions - perhaps wireless - to Jamaican communities.

The conversation may begin with a look at how the mobile phone people stimulated the market.