20 Nov 2022

Development of child friendly digital content can enhance learning in the third world countries, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.

Speaking during the UNICEF World Children’s Day event in Zambia yesterday, President Masisi said since the world was becoming digitally driven, it was important for countries to digitalise their education systems. 

“In many ways more than one, the digital transformation should be embraced to empower children of all ages with tools that could make learning more fun and engaging,” he added. 

The tech savvy young generation, he said, would be more productive in a digital work environment. 

Consequently,  President Masisi said Botswana intended to leverage digital literacy and e-learning tools to prepare children and youth for the future.

 Government, he said, demonstrated this through issuance of learning electronic gadgets to all learners and teachers.

In addition, President Masisi said the SmartBots Strategy would enable Botswana to drive digital transformation. 

“SmartBots recognises that the transformation of the public service sector is a critical step and in this connection, Botswana has adopted a ‘whole of government’ approach to transform the public sector to accelerate digital connectivity,” he said. 

He stated that plans were underway to implement reforms that would enhance the quality of education and usher in a new dawn towards a knowledge-based economy. 

“In addition to the fruits of our investment in digitalising education, our transformation into a knowledge-based economy required that we enhance our current proficiencies and build new ones with our current resources,” he added. 

Though the regional event is still at its infant stage, President Masisi applauded participating countries; Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia for their commitment to the course through rectifying the Convention on the Rights of Children (CRCs).

He said the next move should be domestication of the agreements on the commitment to protect children’s rights. 

The signing of the CRCs, President Masisi said, was testament of the countries’ aspiration to leapfrog from been third world to first world. ENDS