30 Mar 2021

Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNet)/Huawei partnership has donated ICT equipment worth P450 000 to Gaborone Senior Secondary School as part of efforts to bridge the digital divide. 

The equipment comprises 10 note pads, 20 computers and Internet connectivity worth P150 000.

Speaking at the presentation of the gifts on March 30, Minister of Transport and Communications Mr Thulagano Segokgo said the donation fulfilled the Maitlamo Policy aimed at making Botswana a globally competitive, knowledge and information-based society. 

Mr Segokgo said the policy highlighted  the ThutoNet programme pivotal to the provision of literacy, skills and knowledge required for both formal and non-formal learners. 

The programme’s aim, he explained, was  to provide all schools in Botswana with modern computers and Internet access at all times.

“As part of this programme, all teachers will be trained on how to use ICT as a classroom tool and formal ICT education will be introduced into the school curriculum to help prepare the nation’s children for success in the digital age,” he said. 

Mr Segokgo said one of the programme’s initial targets was to have all schools and libraries connected with computers and  Internet by December 31, 2010. 

Even though some government schools were connected through different programmes, many still needed to be provided with modern ICT facilities to promote e-learning, said Minister Segokgo.

He said the 1:7 computer per student ratio in all schools recommended for implementation by December 31, 2012 was yet to be realised.  Mr Segokgo said his ministry was working tirelessly to facilitate  achievement of the goals but was  hampered by the emergence of critical issues and unforeseen circumstances.

Resources were not only limited but strained forcing the ministry  to re-prioritise, the minister said.

He said faced with such challenges, government relied on organisations such as BoFiNet to assist in its efforts to develop a digital environment in the country. 

Meanwhile, BoFiNet chairperson Ms Pelani Siwawa-Ndai has outlined the organisation’s corporate social responsibility strategy which she said was aligned to the Maitlamo Policy.

“Today CSR handover is a result of the Fibre to the Home Phase 1 project. This project deployed an optic fibre cable network that provided high quality and high internet bandwidth in extension 3, 5, 11, 9 and 39,” she said. 

In addition, Ms Siwawa-Ndai revealed that BoFiNet had adopted a transformational partnership agreement across all its signed contracts. “These contracts stipulate that all signed projects should be associated with a CSR development initiative in the communities they operate within,” she said. Ends