23 May 2021

Selokolela Primary School has become the 24^th school to benefit from the Orange Botswana Digital Schools programme,which is a collaboration between the network provider and the government through the Ministry of Basic Education and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

The school received 50 tablets, 50 headsets, two servers, a video projector, a laptop, bluetooth speaker as well as free Wifi to kickstart the classroom digitisation, which was first launched in 2018.

Speaking at the official rollout on Thursday, Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation, Dr Lemogang Kwape noted that the project resonated with the government’s objective of using technology for development as well as Vision 2036 aspirations of being an inclusive society that provides equal opportunities for all.

He noted that education was key in ensuring such objectives were achieved, hence the programme would go a long way in bridging the gap. 

“Education is the great equaliser because it gives learners equal opportunities for the future, it does not only promote prosperity for individuals, but ultimately brings development to the whole country,” he said.

He noted that the classroom digitisation would augment government’s efforts and close gaps of book shortage since they would be uploaded and shared through technology.

Dr Kwape, who is also a Member of Parliament for Kanye South, applauded Orange Botswana for not only focusing on business operations, but also playing a role in giving back to the communities. 

He called on other businesses to align with the government’s policies and objectives and contribute towards enhancing education through technology.

He urged Selokolela residents to take care of the equipment so that more pupils continued to benefit and school performance could improve.

The acting director - ICT and Media Services in the Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE), Mr Taolo Tsimanyana commended Orange Botswana for identifying a gap in the education sector and committing to closing it. He said government’s ICT programmes were initially targeting secondary schools, hence the initiative by Orange Botswnaa was a welcome development.

“Orange decided to bridge this gap by focusing on primary schools, especially those in rural areas.

This is a very important collaboration because the use of technology enhances learning,” he said.

He said the programme would also help pupils with special needs since there was provision for recording for those with sight problems or adjusting fonts where necessary.

He also noted that the skills transfer associated with the programme continued to empower employees and pupils across the country.

For her part, Orange Botswana Legal and Corporate Affairs Director, Ms Lepata Mafa noted that the digitisation programme was beyond distributing gadgets since they had also digitised the school curriculum to include all subjects at various levels of primary education.

She noted that even though training of teachers and pupils was initially done by Orange Botswana, they had since capacitated MoBE personnel to handle training to ensure skills transfer within the education sector.

She said that there would be follow-up trips to evaluate and ensure that the programme was effective and improved where needed. Ends