Collegium Publishers embarks on digital migration
Launches E- books as part of Government ETSSP recommendations
Government is committed to ensuring that the Ministry of Education makes a full digital transition through the support of stakeholders in Education, says Deputy Director - Curriculum Development and Evaluation Government e- learning, Shadreck Majwabe.
Speaking at the launch of Collegium Publishers Ebooks launch recently, Majwabe said it was the dawn of a new age in terms of accessing information for learners in Botswana. He said for a long time, resources that are knowledge based had been the privilege for learners in the urban populace, but with the transition such as the one Collegium was spearheading, even learners in rural areas would be beneficiaries of digital learning.
“As part of our mandate in the Ministry, we wanted to create a digital model that is accessible to all learners.”
He said this digital migration is derived from recommendations of the multiple pathways of the learning model from the Education and Training Sector Strategic Plan ( ETSSP), which were first made on the backdrop of the GECAF in 1994.
As part of recommendations of the ETSSP Framework, Government made investments to fast- track e- learning and digital accessing of learning material. He said all stakeholders should be custodians of policy and do their part in ensuring that learning is not only effective and impactful but also affordable, convenient and accessible to all learners, particularly those from underresourced communities.
One of Government’s biggest supplier of educational material, Collegium Publishers, has launched their E- books services supported by Cape Town, South Africa based cloud services and digital publishing platform company, Snapplify.
CEO of Collegium, Terrence Showa said that pio
neering digital migration is a dream come true for the publishing company as they had for a long time wanted to transition because the world is moving towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Botswana should not be left behind. He said as a key stakeholder of Government, they felt that they owe it to the country to play a key role in this transition, more so that the company had benefited from Government for so long. He also added that the digital migration project also formed part of the company’s Community Social Responsibility ( CSR) programme.
“We put measures in place to get a functional system off the ground. We looked around for an experienced partner to collaborate with and we established that Snapplify are a perfect fit.”
Showa said gone are the days when learners would be forced to carry up to 30 books to school. “We carried out research, traveling across Botswana, even to rural areas to assess the situation in schools, and we found that some learners walk five to 10 kilometres to school; so imagine them having to carry so many books and how it tires them. This E- book service is a contemporary solution to this as now learners will have all the books they need downloaded and accessible on a single device.
“In 2019, Government called stakeholders in the publishing landscape and shared recommendations that education must be digitalised as derived from the ETSSP Framework. We heeded the call and vowed to ensure that the transition is not resource- heavy.”
Showa said that they had digitised their backlog of books and created new platforms. He also noted that their E- books model is 30 percent cheaper than the traditional publishing model which is a win for Government and other clients, adding that they use an off- grid system which means the payment is onceoff and one does not always need Internet connection to access a book once it’s downloaded.
Founder of Collegium, Naledi Ratsoma said they took on the challenge to transition because the world of education is fastchanging as the world embraces digitalisation.
“Now is the time to invest in creativity and innovation in education and information sharing and we at Collegium have in recent years made this a priority because we are leaders in the publishing space and should reflect ethos of adaptability and vision.”
“Before taking on this project, we had to ensure that we have the technical expertise, which is where Snapplify comes in. We also wanted a cost- effective model that offered cheaper solutions, particularly for the benefit of learners in rural areas.”