The Namibia National Teachers' Union ( NANTU) launched a Digital Device Scheme for teachers in Namibia.

The scheme aims to equip teachers with digital competency skills and integrate ICT into teaching and learning.

At the launch, NANTU, in partnership with GIZ, handed over 200 laptops to teachers in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture.

The union's Secretary General, Loide Shaanika, also disclosed that, as part of the initiative, they successfully trained 800 teachers, with a total training value of N$2 million, last year.

"We want to target at least 30 thousand teachers to be trained, which means every school should have a trained teacher with ICT literacy skills and integration. The launch today is the second phase of the initiative, where all teachers will acquire a laptop at a reasonable price in order to enhance their digital literacy skills and transition to harnessing technology in teaching."

"I still believe that our teachers can be empowered to play an active part in our national transformation agenda, and that can be done and continues to happen when we do create a wider and deeper ownership of the commitment," were the sentiments of Education Executive Secretary, Sanet Steenkamp.

Also speaking at the event was the Head of Programme at the Global Campaign for Education, Leumer Wolfgang, who said, "The focus should be on learning outcomes and not digital inputs; to help improve learning, digital technology should not substitute but be a compliment to face-to-face interaction with teachers. No screen can ever replace the humanity of a teacher. Even if connectivity were universal, it would still be necessary to demonstrate that digital technology offers real added value in terms of effective learning."

The National Coordinator of the Namibian Education Coalition for Civil Society Organisations, Martin Matsuib, called for ICT policies to mandate that teachers utilise ICT for teaching and learning in schools.

"It does not say that at least 5 percent of the current teaching you are conducting in the classroom must use technology, or that in your lesson preparation, there should be some elements of using digital technology, and when you give homework, at least 1 percent of your homework should be using online technology, so the ICT policy is just general and does not address the issue of using technology in classrooms."