03 Nov 2019

Orange Botswana through its Digital Schools programme has donated digital equipment to Etsha 13 primary school in the Okavango sub district.

Etsha 13 primary school received a digital kit comprising 50 tablets, two raspberry Pi servers pre-loaded with content, a projector, speaker, projector screen and 50 headphones.

The gadgets are meant to enhance teaching in schools and increase use of technology by children at an early age, as technology has crept its way into learning and teaching environments since the dawn of the 21st century.

Speaking at the handover ceremony on October 31, Orange Botswana regional sales manager, Mr Gakenabetsho Kgori said in their Digital Schools programme, they worked with the Ministry of Basic Education to develop educational content based on the curriculum.

He noted that the content covered all subjects taught in upper primary school and was accessible anytime to students.

“The content was designed specifically to be highly interactive to create and build interest in the minds of young learners.

We spent three days training the teachers and children on the use of the equipment to ensure that they maximise its potential to get the best results,” he said.

Mr Kgori also noted that to ensure sustainability and demonstrate the long term commitment to the initiative, they undertook qualitative assessments and review of the programme a few months after launch of each school.

The assessment, he said, was done in collaboration with the department of curriculum development and evaluation as well as teachers and students from different beneficiary schools.

“We also used this process to get feedback on areas of improvement on the content,” said Mr Kgori.

ICT and Media Services acting director in the Ministry of Basic Education, Ms Louis Ngope said with such an initiative, schools were transforming from a basic education system to the most advanced system of digital education.

She therefore encouraged Etsha 13 community to embrace the technology and utilise it to the maximum.

Ms Ngope also appealed to the school management and teachers to allow children full access of the equipment for them to explore technology and enhance their learning methods.

She also noted that with such gadgets, pupils now had a broadened scope of learning new things through research as the uploaded content was not only confined to Botswana.

Etsha 13 primary school head, Mr Isaiah Ndjavera commended Orange Botswana for the gesture, noting that the donated equipment would enhance learning and consequently improved results.

He therefore promised that the school would always give feedback when need be, on how the programme was progressing at the school. ENDS