Botswana interactive web-based platform e-Thuto was yesterday recognized today by the United Nations Public Service Awards 2020 for its valuable contributions to the communities in North-East Botswana after an exhibition a year ago at the Botswana Public Service Day.
The digital learning platform connects teachers, learners, and parents to enhance education by ensuring educational material and administrative information easily accessible.
The initiative is being implemented in the north-eastern region of Botswana of the part of the national government’s drive to digitalize learning across the country. It serves close to 35,000 students, from primary to high school level, in the region.
According to AllAfrica, six other initiatives in Asia, Europe, South, and Latin America are also being recognized today for finding innovative ways to deliver service. These include improving access to health care (Republic of Korea); helping low-income households benefit from social tariffs (Portugal), improving school attendance (Brazil), and making land transfers easier for the poor (Bangladesh).
The United Nations General Assembly had set aside 23 June as UN Public Service Day to celebrate initiatives and innovations that contribute to making a difference in public service delivery around the world. The day recognizes the work of public servants and encourages young people to pursue careers in the public sector.
Mr. Salani, the Coordinator of e-Thuto said, “We wanted to come up with a tool that will actually help our teachers and learners.
“It is about assisting the teachers so they can have access to teaching materials, be able to communicate and collaborate among themselves, and give more information to the learners.”
e-Thuto is also making it easier for teachers to refresh their skills and update their teaching materials as is finding administrative data on learners and teachers across the region.
Basically, e-Thuto is a two-part website consisting of e-learning and data management modules.
The e-learning module is open for use by teachers and students, with the possibility of parents actively participating in the ongoing learning activities.
Mr. Salami explains, “They won’t have to wait until the end of a term or end of year to find out about how their children are doing,” adding: And “teachers can easily and almost instantly connect”.
The second module, he explains, “manages the regional data of staff and student information. This has resulted in the creation of one virtual office where all the data in the region is stored and where information, including individual learning performance, can be accessed.”
As the rest of the country was making progress, according to Mr. Salani, the northeast was lagging behind the government’s drive to fully implement ICT policy in its education system nationwide. Hence, the project started as a way of offering content to teachers and learners;
Adding a data management module ended up making it more relevant. As data is no longer processed and stored manually, learners and teachers have a greater incentive to use ICT for learning and administrative purposes.
Access to technological hardware remains a challenge, however. “Individually, students do not all have personal computers, and not every teacher has one either,” says Mr. Salani.
Still, most schools are equipped with computer labs where access is free. And in trying to stay in touch with teachers, parents can always “communicate by SMS”. Something that wasn’t possible before.
In awarding the UN prize, the selection jury noted that the project had provided a platform for both learners and teachers to use and enhance ICT skills, while also offering enhanced data management of student and school performance.
The Jury said, “It has provided an effective learning environment that ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all,” said the jury.
The Public Service Award 2020 competition attracted 403 nominations from 67 countries. Fifty of those entries came from the African region.
TheUnited Nations Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide. Through an annual competition, the UN Public Service Awards promotes the role, professionalism and visibility of public service.
