As the schools re-opened for third term today, teachers and students from Shashe River School in Tonota had a memorable day as the Minister of Education and Skills Development (MESD) Hon Dr. Douglas Letsholathebe handed over one hundred and forty seven (147) laptops to teachers and one thousand seven hundred and forty seven (1747) laptops to students.
When handing over the laptops, Hon Minister said the Ministry has started implementing the School Digitalization project, which is in line with the Reset Agenda number three (3) being Digitalization, and the Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan (ETSSP) priority Ten (10) being Utilisation and Integration of Information Communications Technology (ICT) .
The implementation of ICT-based teaching and learning in schools is the main goal of this project. He said the project is made of five (5) main focal points being Internet connectivity, ICT device provision, capacity building, eContent production, and learning management system development.
The Minister emphasized that the Government of Botswana has been working to restructure the educational system in order to produce students who are ready for the 21st century and who will be able to shift our economy from resource-based to knowledge-based.
Dr Letsholathebe further said Covid-19 pandemic especially during lockdowns and frequent closing of schools, highlighted the need for technology-enhanced teaching and learning and this hastened efforts to support the digitalization of education.
To date, eleven (11) out of thirty four (34) senior secondary schools in the country have received their devices. and For the effective utilisation of these devices, the Ministry has committed resources to the training of teachers on ICT Integration teaching pedagogies. Fifty two (52) National Trainer of Trainers have been trained and by the end of this week, one hundred (160) School Focal Persons would have been trained
