This has been a special situation requiring a special response. One which demands that Botswana gird up its loins for similar future challenges. The immense catacomb of interleading and often intermingling helix of hopelessness and helplessness brought about by COVID-19 has left many utterly exasperated. We have had to dig deep to survive bringing into mind an idiom Afrikaans speaking Batswana would be familiar with: Ek is so klein soos ‘n muis maar so groot soos ‘n reus (“I am as small as a mouse, but as big as a giant”). Doubtless that the buffeting by COVID-19 should result in a Damascene moment for Botswana.
Therefore, it seems to me that the greatest lesson is that to cope fully with curve balls from pandemics and similar calamities, such as Bovine Pleuropneumonia of the 1990s, Botswana must redouble investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The COVID-19 situation dredged up a memory from university when science-based students would refer to those from other Faculties as “Others”. Perhaps that puffed up sense-of-self about the importance of science, technology, data and medicine in our lives was not a flight of fancy after all!
During the early days of COVID-19, local tertiary institutions seemed to have received an increase of vitality by coming up with innovative measures to combat the pandemic. The sense of inspiration and hope was much like that evoked by the smell of petrichor. Images were splattered all over the press of this or that innovation. Well, that ambition appears to have fizzled out. What COVID-19 should teach us, nonetheless, is that for humanity to survive, its ability to innovate must be sustained. While many Batswana have been trained in science-based fields over the years, the stretch testing exercise visited upon the country by COVID-19 has demonstrated very palpably that we are still very short on these skills. Another lesson which COVID-19 has demonstrated in leg-crossing detail is that it is not enough to be certificated in STEM areas. The individual must also have the requisite skills and experience.
Therefore, more children at BGCSE/IGCSE and A-Levels should be encouraged to get into STEM areas. Government should invest in these skills more aggressively for years to come. There has never been a better time to signpost sensible career opportunities in this area. Thus, in building capacity for the country, Batswana children must be provided with the right skills to navigate a 21st century that is being radically reshaped by COVID-19, whether here or abroad.
At some point, Germany was criticised for having too many hospitals. With COVID-19, that cynicism has turned to praise. For its part, Cuba, despite an economic embargo imposed on it for decades, has produced more medical practitioners than it seemingly needs whom it now loans out to countries in need of such skills. The Germany and Cuba cases illustrate that a country can never be too prepared and that it is certainly unhelpful to be below capacity in critical skills. Similarly, Botswana needs to invest in STEM skills in abundance, state-of-the-art hospitals as well as multi-purpose laboratories in strategic areas of the country to enhance delivery, innovation and research.
