How AI and remote learning platforms are transforming education in the Middle East

Special How AI and remote learning platforms are transforming education in the Middle East
In Saudi Arabia, the e-learning market reached a value of $1.6 billion in 2021, with forecasts suggesting it will more than double in size by 2027, transforming traditional classroom learning. (AFP)
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Updated 15 March 2023
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How AI and remote learning platforms are transforming education in the Middle East

How AI and remote learning platforms are transforming education in the Middle East
  • Remote and hybrid forms of learning used during the pandemic are now considered the future of education
  • Schools and online platforms are adopting new digital tools to augment and enhance their teaching

DUBAI: Technological advancements are transforming the way young people in the Middle East are taught as traditional educational systems adapt to new tools, techniques and teaching arrangements.

Remote and hybrid forms of learning became commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic to help maintain uninterrupted schooling. Now, such arrangements are considered the future of education.

In fact, many schools have taken digital learning beyond the combined physical and online teaching model by introducing classes through artificial intelligence.

Private tutoring and online tutor banks are likewise adopting the latest technologies in AI, augmented reality, virtual reality, robotics and blockchain.




Foreign student Shayma, attending the French International Lycée in Riyadh, studies at home on March 23, 2020 as schools are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. (AFP) 

“School students have started using AI. Its usage is a certainty and its capability to tackle complex numerical problems in physics, chemistry and math is appreciable,” Imbesat Ahmad, CEO and co-founder of Filo, an instant-tutoring app, told Arab News.

While AI adoption in schools in the Middle East is still in its infancy, Ahmad believes the technology has significant advantages when used as an assistive tool.

According to a recent report, titled “Middle East and Africa EdTech and Smart Classroom Market Forecast to 2027,” published by ReportLinker, the market for these tools in the MEA region is expected to grow from about $3.5 billion in 2019 to more than $7.6 billion by 2027.

In Saudi Arabia alone, the e-learning market reached $1.6 billion in 2021, with forecasts suggesting it will more than double in size by 2027.

Another report, “Saudi Arabia E-Learning Market: Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027,” compiled by IMARC Group, says the sector will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.05 percent during the same period.

“Traditional classrooms in many ways have undergone a sea change,” said Ahmad. “They are no longer bound by a whiteboard and 2D figures and teachers are using videos to explain certain topics better.”

Indicative of this trend is the launch this year of KITMEK, the Middle East’s first interactive digital school taught by an AI teacher. Operating exclusively in a game-based metaverse, it offers students a global curriculum from kindergarten to grade 5 for just $1 a month.




KITMEK offers underprivileged children free education through its sponsorship program. (Supplied)

“The future is digital schooling and AI teachers as they can deliver the highest quality education, customized to the child’s learning capabilities,” Anand Kadian, CEO of KITMEK, told Arab News.

“All sectors have had a digital revolution and now it’s time for the education system to evolve.”

In addition to covering core curriculum subjects, the online school gives students the option of taking additional classes on phonics, life skills, communication skills and financial literacy.

Students can earn coins during their classes by answering questions correctly, which they can later use to play games on the platform.

“Children can learn and relearn at their own pace as well as easily access lower grades to revise any topic they want,” said Kadian.




Anand Kadian, CEO of KITMEK. (Supplied)

The curriculum includes four exams per grade and is based on a growing multilingual system. Accessible on a basic phone with no Internet connection, the platform also offers underprivileged children free education through its sponsorship program.

Up to 70 percent of children in lower- and middle-income countries are deemed to be in “learning poverty,” meaning they lack a basic age-10 literacy, according to UNESCO, UNICEF and World Bank research.

“Children going to school can use this platform for tuition and for ones who cannot afford to go to school, this becomes a home school,” said Kadian.

However, despite recent advancements in AI technologies in the sector, educators remain hesitant about scrapping classroom teaching altogether.




Saudi students sit for their final high school exams in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. (AFP)

“While AI learning is certainly a growing trend in education, it should not be viewed as a replacement for traditional teaching methods,” Manal Hakim, co-founder and CEO of Geek Express, a MENA-based online coding school, told Arab News.

A proponent of using AI technology only as an assistive tool, she said “it can enhance the learning experience and provide personalized learning opportunities, but it cannot fully replace human teachers.”

At Geek Express, students can learn to develop video games, websites, apps and AI models by attending coding courses and programming camps across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

The online tech school, which holds a K-12 accredited curriculum, offers live and interactive courses where students are able to join Microsoft-certified trainers on Zoom to develop their own projects in a student-centered, gamified learning journey.

As the market for these tools continues to grow in the Middle East and Africa, Hakim thinks it is highly probable that online learning will become an established component of the education system.

“The integration of online learning and classes into educational curriculums will require collaboration between educational institutions, edtech companies and policymakers to ensure that the technology and content are effective and meet the needs of students,” she said.




Manal Hakim, co-founder and CEO of Geek Express. (Supplied)

To facilitate a swift transition from traditional to digital teaching models, Hakim says educational institutions could incorporate online learning platforms and tools into their existing curriculums to offer blended learning options for students.

This would involve a combination of traditional face-to-face classes and online learning activities, such as virtual classrooms, discussion forums and video lectures.

Hakim also says schools could offer the option of online courses to students who prefer remote study. This could be achieved through collaborations with edtech companies and online learning platforms by licensing the technology and developing customized solutions.

“These courses and programs can be designed to meet the same learning objectives and outcomes as traditional in-person courses,” she said.

FASTFACTS

  • The edtech market in the Middle East and Africa is expected to grow from about $3.5 billion in 2019 to more than $7.6 billion by 2027.
  • In Saudi Arabia alone, the e-learning market reached $1.6 billion in 2021, with forecasts suggesting it will more than double by 2027.

Despite the lifting of pandemic restrictions, many students continue to rely on private online tutoring lessons, practice exams and on-demand learning to help improve their grades and meet their educational goals.

“The trend of students opting for private classes outside of school is likely to persist in the coming years due to the increasing competitiveness of academic environments and the desire for students to gain an advantage over their peers,” said Hakim.

Filo made its entry into the education space during the pandemic by providing access to one-on-one personalized learning in real time.

“In a period where traditional learning was at a standstill, the platform provided student access not only to an ‘academic expert’ but also to a ‘domain expert’ that strategically planned their courses for uninterrupted study as well as an ‘academic counselor’ that continually monitored a student’s progress and provided real-time feedback in areas where they needed to improve,” said Ahmad, the Filo CEO.

He said as the edtech landscape evolved over the past three years, synchronous learning emerged as the go-to mode of education for students — an approach supported by parents.




Iraqi pupils wearing protective masks attend class on the first day of the new academic year the northern city of Mosul, on November 29, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (AFP)

Offering students access to the largest tutor community worldwide, composed of more than 60,000 teachers, Filo claims to be serving about 3.5 million students globally and conducting more than 70,000 classes daily.

“The platform connects students to a live tutor within 60 seconds, allowing them to overcome academic hurdles in real time, 24/7, throughout the week and even on Sundays,” said Ahmad.

Since the platform’s launch in 2020, several educational trends have become evident, according to him. “Student behavior has evolved from asking specific questions or numerical problems to also requesting the tutors to explain the entire concept,” he said.

“They are going as far as to say, let us explain it to the tutor to fully know whether we have understood the concept thoroughly,” demonstrating the advantage of one-to-one tutoring, which is often unavailable in traditional classrooms.

Referring to a learning format that allows students to complete courses in a shorter period of time compared with a traditional semester, Ahmad said: “I believe accelerated learning will be adapted by teachers soon. We can expect it to become a trend.”

 


Turkiye detains dozens of people in raids following suicide bomb attack

Turkiye detains dozens of people in raids following suicide bomb attack
Updated 57 min 45 sec ago
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Turkiye detains dozens of people in raids following suicide bomb attack

Turkiye detains dozens of people in raids following suicide bomb attack
  • On Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance to the Interior Ministry
  • Two police officers were slightly injured in the attack

ANKARA: Police detained at least 67 people across Turkiye on Tuesday in a sweep targeting people with alleged links to Kurdish militants, days after a suicide bomb attack in the Turkish capital.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said police carried out raids in 16 Turkish provinces, detaining 55 people suspected of being part of the “intelligence structure” of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. At least 12 other suspected PKK members were rounded up in a separate operation in five provinces, Yerlikaya wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The PKK has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye and is considered a terror organization by the United States and the European Union. Tens of thousands of people have died since the start of the conflict in 1984.
On Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance to the Interior Ministry hours before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was set to address Parliament as it returned from its summer recess. A second would-be bomber was killed in a shootout with police.
Two police officers were slightly wounded in the attack. The suspects arrived at the scene inside a vehicle they seized from a veterinarian in the central Turkish of Kayseri after shooting him in the head, officials said.
The PKK claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a news website close to the group, while Turkish authorities identified one of the assailants as a PKK militant. Hours later, Turkiye’s Air Force carried out airstrikes on suspected PKK sites in northern Iraq, where the group’s leadership is based. The Defense Ministry said a large number of PKK militants were “neutralized” in the strikes.
Yerlikaya did not clarify whether the people rounded up on Tuesday were suspected of direct involvement in Sunday’s attack.


Syria says Israeli airstrikes in an eastern province wounded 2 soldiers

Syria says Israeli airstrikes in an eastern province wounded 2 soldiers
Updated 03 October 2023
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Syria says Israeli airstrikes in an eastern province wounded 2 soldiers

Syria says Israeli airstrikes in an eastern province wounded 2 soldiers
  • The airstrike targeted positions in the Boukamal region along the Iraqi border

BEIRUT: Syrian state media said Tuesday that the Israeli military carried out airstrikes in a strategic eastern province wounding two soldiers and causing material damage. There was no comment from Israel on the reported strikes.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, quoted an unnamed military official as saying the airstrikes late Monday targeted military positions in Deir Ezzor.
The eastern Deir Ezzor province that borders Iraq contains oil fields and has been a strategic province throughout Syria’s conflict, now in its 13th year. Iran-backed militia groups and Syrian forces control the area and have often been the target of Israeli war planes in previous strikes.
Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activist collective Deir Ezzor 24 said the airstrike targeted positions in the Boukamal region along the Iraqi border, a stronghold for Iran-backed militia groups. Both said they could not identify the source of the airstrike.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, including attacks on the airports in the capital of Damascus, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.


Tunisia rejects EU financial aid, casting doubt on an immigration deal

Tunisia rejects EU financial aid, casting doubt on an immigration deal
Updated 03 October 2023
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Tunisia rejects EU financial aid, casting doubt on an immigration deal

Tunisia rejects EU financial aid, casting doubt on an immigration deal
  • The July deal included a pledge of 1 billion euros in aid to Tunisia to help its battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with the migration crisis

TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied on Monday rejected financial support announced by the European Union in September, saying the amount is small and goes against a deal signed three months ago.
Saied’s move could undermine the “strategic partnership” from July that includes measures on combating human traffickers and tightening borders, and which came during a sharp increase in boats heading to Europe from the North African nation.
The European Commission last month said it would disburse 127 million euros ($133 million) in aid to Tunisia as part of the deal to fight illegal immigration from Africa to Europe.
“Tunisia rejects what the EU announced, not because of the small amount ... but because the proposal conflicts with the memorandum of understanding signed in July,” Saied said.
The July deal included a pledge of 1 billion euros in aid to Tunisia to help its battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with the migration crisis.
The smaller amount announced by Europe 10 days ago, however, has frustrated Tunisian authorities struggling to improve public finances and raised fears among credit rating agencies that the government could default on foreign debts in coming months.
The dispute between the two parties has coincided with the arrival of record numbers of migrants from Tunisia and North Africa to Italy’s island of Lampedusa.
Tunisia last week postponed a visit by a delegation from the European Commission to discuss the details of the migration agreement.
Last month it also denied the entry of five members of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee for meetings over the political situation in Tunisia, saying it would not allow interference in its affairs.
Some European countries, including Germany, oppose the immigration deal, saying it does not address human rights issues and the political situation after Saied seized power, shut down the Tunisian parliament and began ruling by decree in what the opposition says was a coup.


UN migration chief voices concern over Mediterranean deaths, pledges new solutions

UN migration chief voices concern over Mediterranean deaths, pledges new solutions
Updated 02 October 2023
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UN migration chief voices concern over Mediterranean deaths, pledges new solutions

UN migration chief voices concern over Mediterranean deaths, pledges new solutions
  • US former White House adviser Amy Pope started as head of IOM on Oct. 1 at a time of record forced displacement around the world and high political tensions over irregular immigration

GENEVA: The new head of the UN migration agency has voiced concern that the deaths of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean were being “normalized” and vowed to work with governments to provide options for economic migration to address the crisis.

US former White House adviser Amy Pope started as head of the International Organization for Migration or IOM on Oct. 1 at a time of record forced displacement around the world and high political tensions over irregular immigration.

Recently, an Italian minister and billionaire Elon Musk have criticized Germany for backing charities helping distressed migrants on the world’s most dangerous Mediterranean route, where 22,000 people have died or gone missing since 2014. Germany’s foreign ministry defended its policies.

Asked to comment on the debate, Amy Pope said: “Our biggest concern is that the deaths in the Mediterranean have been normalized and that people take for granted that this is just a cost of human movement.”

“If we are really going to stop people crossing the Mediterranean on rickety boats and dying as they do, we need to approach the situation far more comprehensively,” she said. 

She declined to comment directly on Musk’s remarks. Pope, who wants to build partnerships with private companies to manage migration better, won a tense election in May against her then-boss, becoming the first female head of the UN agency since it was created in 1951. 

IOM seeks to ensure humane and orderly migration and intervenes where needed. In her first press conference,  she vowed to work with countries that want to renew their labor forces like Spain.

“The evidence is fairly overwhelming that migration actually benefits economies,” she said, especially in wealthy countries with aging populations and low birth rates.

Pope said her first trip will be to East Africa to meet with the African Union Commission in Ethiopia and then to Brussels where she will meet with senior European officials as they search for a deal on handling irregular migration.


Tehran ‘opposes geopolitical changes’ in Caucasus, official says

Tehran ‘opposes geopolitical changes’ in Caucasus, official says
Updated 02 October 2023
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Tehran ‘opposes geopolitical changes’ in Caucasus, official says

Tehran ‘opposes geopolitical changes’ in Caucasus, official says
  • The annexation of this corridor, strategic to Tehran, would cut off Iran’s access to Armenia and consequently to Europe

TEHRAN: Iran on Monday said it opposes any “geopolitical changes” in the Caucasus, where it has long been angered over Azerbaijan’s desire to set up a transport link along the Armenian-Iranian border.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani, while voicing support for Azerbaijan’s reclamation of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region last month, said Tehran is “against making geopolitical changes in the region and this is our clear position.”

He was referring to the Zangezur land corridor which would connect mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan and then to Turkiye.

Relations between Baku and Tehran have been traditionally sour, as Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan is a close ally of Turkiye.

Following a lightning Azerbaijani military offensive that recaptured the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh enclave to the east of Zangezur last month, some experts believe that Azerbaijan’s leader Ilham Aliyev could now seek to launch operations in southern Armenia to create territorial continuity with Nakhchivan.

Armenian separatists, who had controlled Nagorno-Karabakh for three decades, agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Baku.

Nakhchivan does not share a border with Azerbaijan but has been tied to Baku since the 1920s — and is located between Armenia, Turkiye and Iran.

The annexation of this corridor, strategic to Tehran, would cut off Iran’s access to Armenia and consequently to Europe.

Kanani was commenting after the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, met on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, during a visit to Tehran.

They discussed “the latest developments in the South Caucasus” and “military movements in the region,” Kanani said.

“We have always supported the return of these occupied territories to Azerbaijan,” he said, referring to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Iran, bordering Azerbaijan and Armenia, has an Azeri-speaking community of around 10 million people, as well as an Armenian community of just under 100,000 people.

Ties between Azerbaijan and Iran soured in January when a gunman stormed into Baku’s embassy in Tehran.

He killed a diplomat and wounded two embassy security guards.

Tehran also fears that Israel, a major weapons supplier to Azerbaijan, could use Azerbaijani territory for an offensive against Iran.