03 Aug 2022

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) laboratory at Ditshegwane Primary School is expected to enhance education and bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas.

Sponsored by Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) through Universal Access and Service Fund (UASF),  the P2.8 million lab was handed over on Tuesday.

The lab is part of the Village Mobile Network Upgrades and Schools Internet Connectivity Project and is in line with President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s Reset Agenda for the development of 21st-century human resources. 

In his keynote address during the handing over ceremony, Minister of Communications, Knowledge and Technology Mr Thulagano Segokgo said the laboratory would give learners exposure to ICT while at the same time impacting the education sector. 

He said the lab typified projects which worked towards attainment of the national digitisation programme goals. 

Minister Segokgo stressed the importance of public-private partnership which he said had visible results. 

UASF deputy chairperson Mr Itumeleng Batsalelwang said the then ministries responsible for communications,  basic education, rural development, UASF and BOCRA signed an agreement to collaborate on the development of ICT infrastructure in remote and rural schools.

He said the aim was to facilitate learners and host villages to be part of the global ICT network community. 

 “We are here today to witness the launch of a project that integrates ICTs into education and seeks to rectify the imbalance between rural and urban schools,” he said.

About UASF, he said it was a specialised fund aimed at facilitating the extension of ICT connectivity and expansion of commercial broadcast signal coverage to Botswana’s unserved and underserved areas. 

Mr Batsalelwang said the organisation had focused its interventions on providing communications to areas such as Kgalagadi and Kweneng adding that the plan was to extend services to Southern and North West districts this financial year. 

“Batswana need access to ubiquitous ICTs to meaningfully take part in the digital economy that the country aspires to hence delivering these services to the people requires significant collaboration and investment,” he said. 

Mr Batsalelwang said for the project to succeed, it needed full ownership and oversight from partners. In her remarks, Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development Ms Nnaniki Makwinja expressed happiness at receiving a laboratory of this magnitude. 

She thanked BOCRA and UASF for providing the state-of-the-art lab which would help connect learners to the world and put learning at their fingertips. 

MP for Takatokwane Mr Tshoganetso Leuwe said ICTs played a major role in the education sector.

Through the lab, pupils would get the opportunity to learn through the Internet, he said.

The MP encouraged the school to utilise the lab fully and for the purpose for which it was designed. ENDS