Most people don't even know Estonia, but if you have been using "Skype" to make those Voice/Video calls, its high time you know that this is the country that invented Skype. It is one of the highly advanced countries in the world when it comes to Technology.
The Education System
In Estonia, parents are able to monitor the progress of their kids in school by simply logging into an online portal. On this portal they are able to check the weekly timetables, attendance, reports, assignments, teachers comments and can even get to know more about the teachers conducting the classes as well. If your child skips class for instance, you will be notified with an SMS in real-time; this makes it easier for parents to attend to the matter immediately. If your child has an assignment to do, you will be notified by SMS as well, which makes it easier for you to know & check if your child is actually doing all these assignments thoroughly. At school, students use Tablets, learning is done in a paperless environment, no need to carry all those heavy textbooks at all, all the study material is loaded on the Web-enabled Tablet. Assignments are submitted online, not on paper.
We need to embrace the idea of introducing such a system here in Botswana & most African countries & enhance our children's learning ability, getting parents involved in their child's learning progress at school.
Health System
Everyone in Estonia has a Biometric Identity card which they can use everywhere. When visiting the clinic or hospital, all you need is your ID....Doctors will attend to you & write Digital reports & prescriptions using the online portal & if you happen to run out of medication, you can get to the nearest pharmacy; the pharmacist will use your ID to access your medical records, checkout the medication prescribed Digitally by the Doctor online & give you the right medication. Its that simple! The system keeps logs of whoever checked out your medical records, this is great because it even enhances the patient's privacy, if anybody secretly checks out your medical record, the system will log this & they can be easily tracked down using the system logs and the necessary action shall be taken. This system could be quite handy in Africa, no need for long queues anymore, more patients can get help quickly in a completely paperless environment, and you can get to see all your medical records easily in one place (Online Portal).
Transport & Public Safety
You don't need to carry money around in Estonia, your Biometric ID is the answer to everything you need. When travelling with public transport, all you have to do is pull out your ID once you reach your destination, simply scan it on the Biometric reading device & the charge will be deducted from your bank account instantly. The same applies to shopping as well. Even if you get mugged, thieves wont get a penny coz you don't carry any cash on you at all, all you have to do is report this matter immediately to the police & they will take care of the rest. The police are always connected, they have systems that are up-to-date, in their cars & if they see anything suspicious, they will stop and check the criminal records of anyone or any vehicle they suspect on their system in real-time. This kind of approach enhances public safety.
Department of Lands & Housing
instead of having a stampede all the time like here in Botswana when it comes to land allocation, why cant we have a system in place that could ease this process?! Applying for land in Estonia is simply done online, the allocation process is done electronically, there is no need to stand in long queues all day. All you need to do is simply connect to the internet, fill out the online form, verify your identity using your Biometric ID, a verification code will be sent to your phone (Mobile ID), verify the code & submit it online. That's it!
One more thing in Botswana is the tedious process of having to renew your ID/Omang, you always have to go to that office to check if its ready, why cant you check the status of your ID online, if its ready then you know that you are not gonna waste your time going over there!
Business
Instead of having to wait for so many days to register your company, it only takes 15 minutes to register a business/company in Estonia & your business could be up & running instantly. You can even sign business documents Digitally using your Smartphone/Tablet or Laptop/PC. Paying for taxes is a breeze, you simply file them online from the comfort of your own home or office, avoiding those long queues. It has been found that more people are now paying for their taxes in Estonia, all because of the convenience of this system.
Voting
Voting in done electronically in Estonia, all you have to do is login to the online portal using your ID & phone to verify your identity, go to the voting section, browse through the available candidates, select your best candidate and vote for him or her. its that simple! you can vote as many times as you want but the system will only register your last vote. Imagine the hectic process of having to prepare for millions of people to vote, using the traditional system?! that's a headache! how about a Billion people? yeah that's even worse!
CyberSecurity
Implementing such an Ecosystem raises issues of Cyber attacks....if we are gonna have a system like this in place, we gonna have to have a team of highly skilled & experienced Cyber Security researchers in both Penetrating Testing & Computer Forensics. Penetration Testers or Ethical Hackers will constantly try to attack this system & file reports on any vulnerabilities or loopholes they found in the system; The Forensics team will take a closer look at these reports & implement better ways to secure the system to avoid any intrusion by malicious hackers. An Incident Response Team will have to be put in place to catch these bad guys in a jiffy.
However...looking on the brighter side of things....this entire Ecosystem can bring some Great benefits to most African countries & even improve the economy as well.
Convenience at its Best!
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