30 May 2018

Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) has trained 294 Information Communications Technology (ICT) teachers from the central region.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony of ICT Teachers’ Training Programme recently, BIUST vice chancellor, Professor Otlogetswe Totolo said ICT together with education empowered citizens to be aware of their rights and to participate actively in shaping public policy, governance and development.

He said ICT facilitated inclusiveness by enabling citizens anywhere to access information and knowledge and was seen as an important catalyst and accelerator for development, having the ability to attract investment, create jobs, promote knowledge building and sharing, facilitate innovation and contribute to good governance and more efficient and transparent provision of services.

The overall goal of ICT in education he said was to articulate the relevance, responsibility and effectiveness of utilising it in the education sector with a view to address current sector challenges and equip learners, teachers and communities with skills that met the national and global demand of a 21st century knowledge society.

Prof. Totolo said ICT skills were a critical contribution to socio-economic development because of their central importance to the knowledge economy and could contribute to the development of other important aspects such as critical thinking, information retrieval, analytical capacity, problem solving, communication and ability to understand and manipulate new media.

He said the development of inclusive knowledge societies that granted all citizens access to information, education, freedom of speech and employment could be significantly accelerated by ICT, adding that such developments must also be guided by concern for the environment, making sure that issues such as e-waste were taken care of.

Central region chief education officer, Ms Mmamosetsana Maposa thanked BIUST for the support, noting “we are happy that you have continued to support us unconditionally.”

She said so far teachers, from Mahalapye, Palapye, Serowe, Bobonong and Tonota benefited from the programme and the target was to reach at least 15 teachers in all schools from the remaining three sub-regions.

Ms Maposa appreciated computer awareness teachers and computer studies teachers who formed Botswana Schools ICT Association, for taking the baton from the Ministry of Basic Education to deliver on ICT initiative.

The Central region, she said took up the initiative through teachers to improve ICT literacy in schools starting from primary, junior and senior schools.

Ms Maposa further said the ministry had set high standards to improve the quality of education by making full use of ICT, adding “We want educators who can produce learners who can fit anywhere in the world.”

To realise the dream, she said the ministry had since embarked on a nationwide ICT infrastructure development, where schools were being supplied with tablets to add on to the desktops available. ENDS