30 Jul 2025

The newly built digital laboratory and the refurbished reception classroom at Tewane Primary School are a testament to the government’s human rights-based approach to national development.

The Minister of Communications and Innovation, Mr David Tshere said this at the unveiling of infrastructural facilities valued at P2.5 million on Tuesday.

He said government was committed to providing state of the art computer facilities with free and accessible internet to improve the quality of education in Botswana.

The minister said cultivating digital literacy from grassroots was the way to ignite a nationwide digital culture adding that the digital centre would enable learners in Tewane to eloquently contribute to the digital economy.

Mr Tshere, who is also Mahalapye West MP, highlighted that President Advocate Duma Boko, unveiled the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), a bold economic policy direction that designed to pivot the country from the National Development Planning approach to a more implementation-based approach focused on specific actions by various ministries, and agencies including state owned entities and parastatals.

He said BETP was conceived and developed to be a nationwide document based on input from all stakeholders including communities and private sector.

Mr Tshere further said that government believed that there was an urgent need to transform government business from its current slow bureaucratic pace to a more agile and responsive one of which the centre of this transformation would be digitalisation.

He said his ministry understood the importance of building a nationwide ICT ecosystem that would enable all other sectors of the economy to move with speed,

Mr Tshere said that even though the digital world presented immense opportunities, the downside of it was that it inevitably brought with it cyber criminals, the matter that the ministry was intensely aware of and pro-actively developing counter measures for.

He encouraged students of Tewane Primary school and all students across Botswana to learn at a young age as it was key, particularly digital skills stating that in a digital economy, new types of jobs emerged that required immense digital skills.

Universal Access and Service Fund (UASF) Chairperson, Mr Itumeleng Batsalelwang said that one of the key factors for the success of the digital economy was digital literacy.

Mr Batsalelwang said that for this reason over the years they partnered with the ministries of education as well as that of local government to enhance digital literacy in young people.

He further said they went around the country with the objective of promoting the use of computers in schools especially schools in remote areas where resources were limited.

Mr Batsalelwang said they visited Tewane Primary School last year, together with other schools in Mogobane, Mabele, Ditladi and Kgomodiatshaba to carry out an ICT needs assessment to see which schools they could assist and Tewane was selected.

He further said Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) and the UASF were honoured to have played a role in bringing connectivity to yet another remote school and kept alive the hopes of the leaners in becoming part of Botswana’s digital transformation journey.

The School Head of Tewane Primary School, Ms Olivia Ntseme said Tewane Primary School was a small school with a population of 150 learners, ten teachers with 17 of the learners being reception class.

She also said the school had been struggling academically with fluctuation of results each year and therefore, she hopeed that the introduction of the digital centre would assist her school and make a difference in the lives of learners as they would be computer literate.

Ms Ntseme said the package was milestone for the  school because the information would be readily available.

The project consists of a digital centre with its fixtures and fittings, 30 desktop computers and two laptops, interactive smart board, local area network, a heavy duty multi-functional printer, Internet connectivity, refurbished reception classroom, furniture for reception classroom as well as 30 tablets for reception class pupils.

It was made possible through the partnership of BOCRA, Mahalapye District Council and Office of the District Commissioner. ENDS