By Lungile Ntimba
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) completed the first phase of its Ngiyaqonda! Project with the official handover of mobile devices at Ebuhleni Primary School in Soweto this week.
The project was launched to help tackle the literacy crisis in South African schools. A report from the 2030 Reading Panel evealed that approximately 80% of Grade 3 learners cannot read for meaning in any language.
It said in a statement that without this essential skill, many children were unable to reach their full potential, with the impact being most severe in disadvantaged communities.
Ngiyaqonda! is isiZulu for “I understand”. The research and development initiative integrates speech and text technologies into an Android application that guides learners to compose sentences in their home language as well as in English and is designed to enhance reading skills.
Funded by the Sport, Arts and Culture Department, it also incorporates artefacts developed in previous research projects funded by the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources.
The application was piloted with isiZulu-speaking Grade 3 learners at Ebuhleni, Sepedi-speaking Grade 3 learners at Pheladi-Nakene Primary School in Mamelodi and Afrikaans-speaking learners at Laerskool Die Krans throughout 2023 and 2024.
The CSIR said that in recognition of the pilots’ success and the positive social impact of the project, the CSIR donated the devices used at Ebuhleni Primary School during a project close-out event.
It said piloting in schools was a vital component of projects like Ngiyaqonda! because it helped the project team assess its efforts in real-world settings.
However, South Africa’s infrastructure challenges, such as connectivity and electricity issues, made it essential to cultivate strong relationships with pilot schools, the CSIR said.
These partnerships provided a crucial foundation for identifying and addressing any challenges that may affect application usage. By donating tablets to schools like Ebuhleni and Pheladi-Nakene, the CSIR was not only supporting future pilots, but also helping to overcome some of these infrastructure challenges to ensure smoother implementation in the future.
“By donating these devices to our pilot schools, we hope to strengthen our relationships with them and demonstrate our commitment to continuing work on this critical issue,” said CSIR senior researcher Laurette Marais.
“Without their willingness to invest time and energy, as well as share essential practical insights with us, no amount of technological development would move the needle on South Africa’s literacy challenges.”
She said the success of the project underscored the importance of the government, research institutions and end-users collaborating to maximise the social impact of technology.
The CSIR has applied for additional funding to advance to phase two of the project.
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