26 Aug 2019

Students have been urged to embrace Information and Communications Technology (ICT) if they are to become 21^st century learners.

Speaking during the national science and technology week in Francistown recently, North East regional director, Mr Labane Mokgosi said students should be mindful that what mattered was what one could to do and not so much their qualifications.

He said education should be functional, purposeful and be able to take Botswana forward, noting that students should be allowed to explore technology limitlessly.

Mr Mokgosi implored teachers to strive to produce 21^st century learners with the help of the technology available.

He appealed to parents not to force children into things they were not passionate about.

The Ministry of Basic Education, he said, had provided 25 schools in the North East District with tablets so that learners could engage more with technology.

Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) representative, Dr Haniso Motlhabane said science and technology were important in life as well as for humans to understand the phenomenon of nature.

He said Botswana depended on natural resources but that time had come to rely more on knowledge as it never ended unlike natural resources.

Mr Motlhabane said with Botswana aspiring to be a knowledge based economy by 2036, emphasis should be on technology.

He said learners should liberate their minds and accept that they could do anything with or without qualifications.

Technology, he said, had positives and negatives but that it should not deter people to explore.

Ms Lesedi Nthobatsang from Botswana Open University (BOU) said the activity was part of educational activities geared towards developing the economy of the country.  Ends