Latest news with #AfricanLanguages
News24
3 days ago
- Business
- News24
Meet Botlhale AI Solutions' Thapelo Nthite, who is making digital services accessible
Thapelo Nthite started his journey with a mechatronics engineering degree from UCT. The aim of Botlhale AI was to address social issues. They've formed several connections with strong companies. _______________________________________________ Artificial intelligence is here to stay, as they say. With many people incorporating it in their everyday routines and workflows, Botlhale AI aims to bridge the gap of African languages in AI. It breaks the language barriers for African businesses and their customers and unleashes human language technologies in African languages. We sit with the co-founder, Thapelo Nthite, who gives us insight into his journey. Inside his journey You studied for a degree in mechatronics engineering at UCT. What social issues do you aim to address and what career gaps do you aim to fill through your qualification? My journey into mechatronics engineering was marked by a valuable lesson I learnt from a high school teacher: that my qualifications, grades and achievements are not just credentials but serve as tools for creating a positive impact on society. With my co-founders, who also graduated from the same department, we set out to build Botlhale AI. We were on a mission to address social issues that mattered deeply to us, which was making digital services more accessible. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Thapelo Nthite (@ What Botlhale AI Solutions offers Share with us what services Botlhale AI Solutions offer. In an age dominated by digital technologies and information, the barriers to entry remain substantial for many people, particularly in Africa. This stems from a multitude of challenges, such as infrastructure limitations, smartphone accessibility, high data costs and most notably, language barriers. At Botlhale AI, our mission is to make digital services and information accessible to all, irrespective of the language they speak. We help businesses engage their customers in languages they understand and trust. And, we do this in three ways: call centre analytics tool, multilingual help desk and virtual assistant builder. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Botlhale AI (@botlhaleai) Growing the business Share how you got your first clients, and your expansion plan to attract more clients in and outside South Africa. As word began to spread about our mission and innovative solutions, several businesses reached out to us. They recognised the potential of our services in helping them overcome customer engagement challenges, and this initial interest came from inbound inquiries once our name started appearing in the media. In addition to expanding our language capabilities, we've also recognised the importance of strategic partnerships. We've formed strong collaborations with several companies that have a substantial operational footprint across Africa, such as Chenosis by MTN. These partnerships are invaluable in making our expansion plan smoother. By working alongside these established entities, we can leverage their expertise and reach to introduce our natural language processing services to a wider audience. Beyond Botlhale AI Solutions Apart from your business, what keeps you busy and fulfilled? While my business keeps me occupied and driven, it's the bonds I share with family and friends, as well as the freedom and satisfaction I experience while running, that contribute to a well-rounded and fulfilling life. Legacy and dreams What would you like to be remembered for one day as an entrepreneur and a person? In a world rife with injustice and inequality, my deepest aspiration is to be remembered as an entrepreneur and as a person who made a meaningful impact by striving to make our society better. My foremost desire is to leave a legacy as an entrepreneur who dedicated their life's work to improving the lives of others. In a rapidly evolving digital age, I sought to bridge the gaps that exist, ensuring that every person had access to vital information and digital services. However, I also want to be remembered for the person I am, not just for what I manage to achieve. I want to be remembered as someone who treated others with respect and fairness, offered a helping hand when it was needed, and made a positive difference in people's lives through simple acts of kindness. View this post on Instagram A post shared by (@tech_africa_)
The Herald
20-06-2025
- General
- The Herald
Children need rich, multifaceted teaching in their mother tongues to master literacy and learning
Learning literacy in mother tongues is the foundation for all learning. It makes sense for all children to begin learning in languages they are familiar with, so they can participate and engage in their learning more actively than they do when learning in unfamiliar tongues. In SA, many children start learning to read and write in their home languages from grades 1 to 3. As the children learn to read and write, they also need to have access to nurturing experiences with storytelling, reading and writing, arts (visual and performative) and text analysis. They also need access to books, libraries and reading role models who are family members at home, in the community and at school. Before 2025, many African language speaking learners experienced mother tongue education only in the foundation phase. When they reached grade 4, these learners had to switch to learning everything in English. This restriction of African languages to one or two periods a day in the intermediate phase, in particular, puts limitations on language and literacy practices that should continue to take place across the curriculum. This transition to English also put limitations on the number of published books in African languages that children can access. With the incremental implementation of mother tongue-based bilingual education starting in grade 4, African language learners will now also have access to African languages as they begin learning science and maths bilingually. This calls for a large production of learning and teaching support materials as well as supplementary non-fiction texts written in African languages or multilingually in African languages and English. This can ensure that reading and writing take place throughout the day and across the curriculum. This will ensure the daily literacy practices that shape them into becoming literate. The different iterations of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) results, every five years since 2006, have all pointed to poor reading performance among South African children. Though they all perform below the PIRLS benchmark, learners taking the assessment in English and Afrikaans do much better than those using African languages. The African language-speaking learners have had fewer opportunities to read in their home languages because they have little access to a wide variety of texts and to libraries and books at home. It is not surprising that the learners who do poorly in these assessments, even when they write in their home languages, come from working-class backgrounds, where it is more important to buy a loaf of bread than a book. Many interventions to improve literacy in the foundation phase have been carried out, with some arguing for a simple view of reading for working-class children. This means to improve the children's reading levels, teachers should focus on teaching decoding skills well. But there has been little appreciation for complex approaches to teaching literacy, which integrate the teaching of phonological awareness ( sound structure) with morphological awareness (understanding how words can be broken down into smaller units of meaning such as roots, prefixes, and suffixes) for African languages, teaching of reading with the teaching of writing, art (visual and performative) and storytelling for children from working-class backgrounds.
