A MEMO ON EXECUTION OF THE BOTSWANA EDTECH DIGITAL REVOLUTION TO PERMANENT SECRETARY IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION & SKILLS DEVELOPMENT 2023 THROUGH EMBRACING EDTECH STARTUPS
Edtech is one of the fastest-growing segments in the education market. But why hasnt Botswana’s education system adapted? In today’s fast-paced world, the skills we obtain from schools via certificates, degrees or vocational training aren’t quite enough — there’s always something new to learn to improve performance, and industry 4.0 has been the greatest example on how initiatives around education cannot ignore technology. It’s early 2020, and everyone seems to have gone crazy on the internet. COVID-19 hit the world and education systems where panicking — as a response to the new rules for health and safety, the entire world shifted to the digital realm. Schools switched over to online mediums and continued to deliver content, albeit with more classroom disruptions and noisy classmates who didn’t know about the mute button. “All is good”, the education sector was fully online- why has this changed and what must be done;
The How ;
1. Intentional Tech Disruption and Humility grants a leader of any Ministry of Education and Skills Development with a heightened sense of empathy and compassion in their work to have immediate impact. New age leaders who display noticeable humility indicate that they have had to walk through a major failures at some point and this case point will allow community of practice from solutionists like edtech startups. This major acknowledgment of lack of agility of the education system in Botswana has humbled us at Ngwana Africa, and we believe that the new Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education & Skills Development carries this humility into everything they do- and they will succeed at re-imagining education in Botswana. This trait enables leaders to think creatively and critically about impactful, mission-driven, and potentially disruptive edtech ideas from the market as a solution- Botswana talent entrepreneur are the opportunity if enabled by the environment. To recognize that the education business is counting on new technology driven leadership to action pieces of tough decisions for execution is the first of a way to win towards impact by mapping the edtech startup ecosystem in Botswana.
2. Blockchain enabled EdTech Platform: A blockchain-based e-learning platform is the first solution over traditional e-learning platforms. Ngwana Africa proposes to support Ministry of Education and Skills Development with this first advantage being a blockchain-based e-learning platform that is secure. The blockchain is a distributed ledger that stores all the information related to a transaction- hence for this case point- the ETSSP. This makes it difficult for anyone to tamper with the data and also to in real-time re-engineer the education system. A blockchain-based e-learning platform is tamper-proof because it is impossible to change or remove information once it is recorded on the blockchain. Another advantage of a blockchain-based e-learning platform is that it is transparent. The information on a blockchain-based e-learning platform is visible to everyone, which allows students and teachers to track their progress and reviews. This transparency also makes it easier to find and compare e-learning platforms. Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers. The ledger is shared across a network and records all the transactions that have taken place. Blockchain can create an e-learning platform in several ways.
3. Implement Awesome CoderDojo STEM Initiatives Immediately: Learning the code should be a KPI for every student in every school in Botswana. Coding is a skill within easy reach for most people with basic computer literacy skills and can lead to employment in a growing industry for anyone willing to work hard- especially those new age students seeking to be creators in the digital economy. If advanced technical skills such as coding, cloud computing, data science and artificial intelligence are essential for the future of work, then it fair that there are important questions that need answering: What does it take to become a coding developer or a data scientist and to find employment opportunities as a Motswana learner? Can anyone become a coding developer? Field Experimentation in Malawi , Kenya and Rwanda are there to replicate. The first coding school project funded by UNHCR’s Innovation Service was the ‘App Factory’ in Malawi, a project initiated by Remy Gakwaya, a young Burundian refugee who started by voluntarily teaching basic programming to other refugee youth. Students spent up to six months working with Gakwaya with some support from software technicians at Microsoft, learning to design apps and to code their way through the problems they encountered in their everyday lives.
Building on the experience in Malawi, the Innovation Service decided to test another solution with different partners and a different context in Rwanda. In Botswana initative Ngwana Africa led by Mooketsi Bennedict Tekere implemented an Africa Code Week initiative that trained over 5000 teachers and 50,000+ learners across Botswana on coding- why has this failed? This project raised over 5M pula in funding and had corporate support from big corporate like World Bank, UNICEF, Orange Botswana, Debswana and SAP. The project aggregated what could be the current existing coding ecosystem in Botswana. Why hasn’t this been sustained and continued?
Here are some reflections and considerations for those who are interested in setting up a coding school:
1- Partnerships: Starting a coding school requires a range of expertise, and so it is crucial to partner with the right organizations. Most likely a project will require the following types of partners:
a) Partners to provide ICT equipment and connectivity: In Rwanda and Malawi connectivity was provided by the Innovation Service, while ICT equipment was provided by Hewlett Packard (through Microsoft 4Afrika) for Malawi and MTN for Rwanda. An alternative is to partner with a national or local institution with established computer labs to host the trainings.
b) Partners to provide and teach the coding curriculum: In Rwanda our implementing partner Alight worked together with local innovation technology lab K-lab to design the curriculum. In Malawi the students were following a Microsoft approved course that leads to Microsoft accredited certifications.
c) Partners to link students to jobs: Alight and K-Lab are establishing partnerships and mentorship programmes with companies in Rwanda. In Malawi, the UNHCR country office has engaged the private sector to support learners with job growth and opportunities.
d) The relevant Ministry in the country may be needed to align the curriculum to the national education programme or to facilitate access to additional opportunities as pathways. The curriculum may have to be designed in consideration of the computer science or AI programmes offered by national universities or technical and vocational training institutions.
For every partner it is important to keep in mind the long-term sustainability of the partnership and to regularly assess shared values. While a large tech company might be interested in providing equipment and connectivity for a year as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), this on its own will not be enough to ensure the viability and success of a programme in the long-term. Running an educational facility that supports coding requires more than a one-off investment: ongoing support over time from a wide range of partners is crucial. While the private sector can help with establishing grants to cover investment costs (large startup costs), in the long-term this needs to be coupled with a solid plan and partnerships with local institutions to cover recurrent costs, training and support.
To Conclude: The new operational mindset change landscape by Government of Botswana marked also by the COVID-19 pandemic lesson has highlighted the importance of digital inclusion and digital connected education. Our company is committed to supporting these areas through the Digital Access and Inclusion initiative to ensure learners benefit from virtual learning opportunities. Coding schools, if comprehensively and sustainably designed, represent a promising space to meet these goals in the future of Botswana. Government role must be to enable this space as a new asset class for the future Motswana. Innovation requires culture and mindset change, which means we have to change how people think about startups in the edtech sector in Botswana. We are ready to support this and have all the tools and experiences to do it as Batswana entrepreneurs and Government role must be to enable.
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