Artificial intelligence (AI) in some schools in Windhoek has proven to be an effective tool in education deliverables.
Yyeni AI, a software company whose mission is to provide individualised learning in large, overcrowded classroom settings in Southern Africa, is currently running a pilot project in three high schools using an AI teacher.
The AI teachers deliver lessons across all subjects to each child on devices, giving them individual attention in a personalised manner.
When entering the AI class, such as the one at A. Shipena Secondary School, you find learners more focused and attentive.
Vitalis Haupindi is a co-founder of Yyeni AI, and he explained the importance of the programme. "AI teacher we've built that delivers lessons across all the subjects to each child on their devices, one on one while they are still at school. So from seven until 13:00, these learners are in one classroom, and we have prepared lessons for them by just providing the objectives to the AI, and AI delivers a lesson to each child in a personalised way. AI will work with them to discover the answers and investigate the answers, and they will become a much, much, much higher-order thing in that area. And that's just more than just knowing how to read and write; it's critical thinking, and with a population that is well versed in clinical thinking."
Working in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture, the project tests learners's performance against an AI teacher and an in-person teacher.
It was established that performance increased by more than 30%.
"We've also given them preliminary tests, which show us how they're performing along the way, and those preliminary results are now showing us that these learners each have improved by at least two standard deviations. That's two marks or two samples. If a learner was scoring an F or, let's say, a C, they have now improved and they're scoring an A. And so the average, or that classroom, for example, he had been was 34%, or the test-driven, and then they were taught across three weeks when AI and then you didn't do preliminary tests. And the average is now 69%."
Lerato Eimann, a learner at A. Shipena Secondary School testified how the project has improved her learning ability.
"In physics, I get videos whenever I ask for them. I get pictures and diagrams, and if I ask for them, and it's a one-on-one thing like she's a friend to me, we get to communicate. The teacher gets to give attention to everyone that doesn't give attention individually, me and my agent, meaning, so then it gives me attention individually."
The idea is to have the project in all schools across the country, which the co-founder says might take seven to eight years.