02 Jul 2015

Orange Foundation will, on July 16, award top achieving students in the Special Needs Category at the Botswana Examination Council's (BEC) sixth annual excellence awards. 

The awards, a press release from Orange stated, were in recognition of the student’s hard work and excellence in their final examinations, despite the situation they found themselves in. 

It also stated that disability and education were some of the main pillars of the Orange Foundation, therefore supporting the initiative was part of the foundation’s strategy that aimed at supporting inclusion and recognition of people living with disability, as well as to promote their access to education.

“We believe that identifying and awarding these students for excellence will go a long way in motivating them to believe in themselves and consequently give them the confidence to integrate in to society and contribute to economic development of the country,” said public relations and foundation manager at Orange Boga Chilinde-Masebu in the release. 

At last year’s awards, Orange awarded laptops equipped with JAWS software to students who are visually impaired. 

JAWS is a software that makes learning for the visually impaired easier as it converts written text into spoken words and reads out the info in the computer screen through speakers or headphones.

Meanwhile, the awards ceremony is an annual occasion organised by BEC in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Skills Development to recognise high performing students in their PSLE, JCE and BGCSE examinations. 

The awards were launched in 2010 initially to celebrate the nation’s top achievers, in the BGCSE.

However, it was extended to not only embrace top excelling performers at BGCSE, but across the PSLE and JCE top achievers. 

It is envisaged that the awards will act as a catalyst and motivation for candidates who register for BEC examinations to perform at their best. ENDS