04 Jul 2018

Orange Botswana, the Ministries of Basic Education (MoBE) and that of Local Government and Rural Development have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together in rolling out a digital education programme to primary schools.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Basic Education, Dr Collie Monkge said ICT is very important in the delivery of education, adding that the importance of the use of technology to support curriculum delivery cannot be overemphasised.

He further said in realising the use of technology in teaching, learning and education management, his ministry aims at improving ICT infrastructure in schools by computerising and connecting them to internet.

Dr Monkge said there is a deliberate move to equip teachers with ICT integration skills to enable them to mix teaching and technology.

“Our aim is to have electronic educational content in the form of e-books, interactive electronic assessment materials and educational videos accessed by all students,“ he said.

He further noted that schools in rural areas perform badly compared to those in urban areas because they have little access to information with many not crossing the 60% mark.

He said with Orange Botswana giving them an advantage of the gadgets, the school dropouts in rural areas will drop, whilst results will improve.

“Such efforts by organisations like Orange Botswana will actually help us deal with the kind of challenges we face as MoBE, ,” he said, adding that they are working tirelessly day to mobilise resources and stakeholders.

Dr Monkge encouraged schools to play an important role in providing security and safety for the gadgets.

Orange Botswana CEO, Dr Patrick Benon said the signing of the MoU signaled the official kickoff of the rollout of the programme, which is aimed at bridging the digital divide and leveraging on technology to improve access to education.

“At Orange we believe that it is truly important to give and enable all children access to education, providing them with material and equipment that will make their learning easier,” he said.

Dr Benon said the programme is expected to benefit a total of 30 primary schools with the first pilot phase being rolled out in five schools of Ntlhantlhe, Dikgonnye, Mmanoko, Sedibe and Moshopha  primary schools.

He said each school will receive a digital kit comprising 50 tablets and their cases, two raspberry Pi  servers pre-loaded with content,11 multi-socket adaptors, two dust resistant cases, a projector  and one screen.

He said on average 500 pupils per school will benefit from this programme, with an expectation of around 15 000 pupils benefiting from it when fully rolled out to offer 25 primary schools tablets with a server.  This is to bring technology to schools for students to learn it at an early age.  ENDS