ICT Development in Botswana: Connectivity for Rural Communities

The paper motivates for the need for rural communities in Botswana to gain access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). It generally acknowledges the excellent telecommunications infrastructure in the country, and the stated policy of the government and the Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) to provide universal access to ICTs. The paper then explores why the policy and the infrastructural endowments have not combined to make Botswana an “information society” according to the timeframe envisaged in the national vision document, Vision 2016. Citing the phenomenal growth of the mobile phone in the Botswana telecommunications market, the paper proposes that a nascent information society could be upon Botswana, if only the mobile cellular platform and Internet connectivity could be fully harnessed to give people a foothold into the vast ICT field. The paper outlines the technological, institutional and policy issues that need to be tackled to ensure that Botswana’s rural communities get the benefits of new ICTs, with particular emphasis on the need for integrated public access centres and a new legal framework guaranteeing access to information

ICT development in Botswana : connectivity for rural communities

The paper motivates for the need for rural communities in Botswana to gain access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). It generally acknowledges the excellent telecommunications infrastructure in the country, and the stated policy of the government and the Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) to provide universal access to ICTs. The paper then explores why the policy and the infrastructural endowments have not combined to make Botswana an “information society” according to the timeframe envisaged in the national vision document, Vision 2016. Citing the phenomenal growth of the mobile phone in the Botswana telecommunications market, the paper proposes that a nascent information society could be upon Botswana, if only the mobile cellular platform and Internet connectivity could be fully harnessed to give people a foothold into the vast ICT field. The paper outlines the technological, institutional and policy issues that need to be tackled to ensure that Botswana’s rural communities get the benefits of new ICTs, with particular emphasis on the need for integrated public access centres and a new legal framework guaranteeing access to information

An artificial neural network model of the Crocodile river system for low flow periods

With increasing demands on limited water resources and unavailability of suitable dam sites, it is essential that available storage works be carefully planned and efficiently operated to meet the present and future water needs.This research report presents an attempt to: i) use Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for the simulation of the Crocodile water resource system located in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa and ii) use the model to assess to what extent Kwena dam, the only major dam in the system could meet the required 0.9m3/s cross border flow to Mozambique. The modelling was confined to the low flow periods when the Kwena dam releases are significant. The form of ANN model developed in this study is the standard error backpropagation run on a daily time scale. It is comprised of 32 inputs being four irrigation abstractions at Montrose, Tenbosch, Riverside and Karino; current and average daily rainfall totals for the previous 4 days at the respective rainfall stations; average daily temperature at Karino and Nelspruit; daily releases from Kwena dam; daily streamflow from the tributaries of Kaap, Elands and Sand rivers and the previous day’s flow at Tenbosch. The single output was the current day’s flow at Tenbosch. To investigate the extent to which the 0.9m3/s flow requirement into Mozambique could be met, data from a representative dry year and four release scenarios were used. The scenarios assumed that Kwena dam was 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% full at the beginning of the year. It was found as expected that increasing Kwena releases improved the cross border flows but the improvement in providing the 0.9m3/s cross border flow was minimal. For the scenario when the dam is initially full, the requirement was met with an improvement of 11% over the observed flows

Mobile phones in Africa: how much do we really know?

Mobile phones are a crucial mode of communication and welfare enhancement in poor countries, especially those lacking an infrastructure of fixed lines. In recent years much has been written about how mobile telephony in Africa is rapidly reducing the digital divide with developed countries. Yet, when one examines the evidence it is not at all clear what is really happening. In one country, Tanzania, for example, some observers point to the fact that 97% of the population lives under the mobile footprint, while others show that ownership is very limited. These extreme values prompted us to review the situation in Africa as a whole, in an effort to discover what is really going on

An investigation into the roles of principals as instructional leaders in the Setla-Kgobi area project office of the central region in the North West

Thesis (M.Ed) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2010The purpose of this research project is to determine empirically the roles of principals as instructional leaders. Ever since a new educational era started in the new South Africa, schools cannot afford to be led by ignorant school principals. For schools to be efficient, instructional leadership roles have to be defined and each role should be carried out diligently. Success in schools can only be realised if school principals are capable of implementing the school curriculum according to instructional leadership principles. The tasks of instructional leadership have to be streamlined. The school principal must concentrate on the most important and key functions of his work. This approach would lead to the realisation of the school vision and mission Both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms and methodologies were used for gathering data from eighty-four public schools in the Setla-Kgobi Area Project Office of the Central Region in the North-West Province. Participating schools were randomly selected. The sample consisted of forty-two schools (thirty primary schools, six middle schools, six secondary schools) and eight randomly selected teachers from each school were used in the study to answer questionnaires. Nine school Principals or Deputy Principals from Setla-Kgobi Area Project Office (i.e:- three primary schools, three middle schools and three secondary schools Principals or Deputy Principals) were purposefully used in the study to answer interview questions A quantitative approach was used to quantitatively analyse derived data. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was employed with the help of the statistical consultant of the North-West University. The computation of percentages, mean, standard deviation and Chi-square was conducted. Secondly, a qualitative descriptive approach was used to analyse data that was qualitatively gathered. A Textually Oriented Data Analysis (TODA) strategy was adopted in this regard. The findings exposed that principals were not effectively fulfilling their roles of instructional leadership. The findings also revealed that principals were not monitoring and moderating the quality of education that students were getting from teachers. Principals were found to be ineffective and they failed to plan their work adequately. Recommendations given by the participants suggest that there is need for principals to be more focused. They .also need to have a vision and mission statement for their schools. More energy should be directed at monitoring the quality of learning and teaching that takes place in schools. Participants reflected a poor picture of principals as instructional leaders. More effort should be put into the students' instructional achievement, teacher motivation, supervision of training and the use of external subject experts. Whole curriculum evaluation should be earned out regularly at every school, so as to provide feedback to students and teachers. Principals should have checklists that will guide them towards the realisation of their aims and objectivesMaster

Using MATLAB as a teaching and learning tool for beam bending problems in mechanics

This paper presents a MATLAB solution for the shear force, bending moment, and deflection as continuous functions of the distance measured from the left hand support for a simply supported beam carrying concentrated and uniformly distributed loads. The solution has been cast in such a way that it can easily be modified for the beam to carry any number of these loads. The solution provides an easy way of determining the maximum values of the functions and their locations. Using numerical values for a particular loading, the solution and graphs for the above functions are presented as obtained from an actual MATLAB script, which has been included at the end of the paper in Appendix 1. The reader who has access to MATLAB is encouraged to use the script to verify the results presented. Also mechanics lecturers who are involved in engineering undergraduate education will find the script very useful in terms of demonstrating the effect of various concentrated and uniform loads on simply supported beams. Key Words: standard beams, MATLAB scripts, numerical solutions, engineering education. Botswana Journal of Technology Vol.13(2) 2004: 12-1

2007 telecommunications sector performance review

The document reviews and assesses performance in the telecommunications sector in terms of the principal goals of the telecommunication reform process in Botswana: attainment of universal service; efficiency of services; and achievement of regional balance within the country. The paper establishes the benefits that have arisen from the reforms; identifies any shortcomings; and poses what it considers to be future policy and regulatory challenges