UAE-based edtech company Alef Education has announced that it will be bringing its services into the Indonesian education market after signing a partnership with the country’s Ministry of Religious Affairs to supply madrasahs with access to its digital learning platform, impacting around 500,000 students.
“Alef Education has had the opportunity to positively influence the learning outcomes of students in the United Arab Emirates and USA in schools that have adopted our cutting-edge edtech platform,”said Geoffrey Alphonso, CEO of Alef Education.
“This is part of a long-term vision where we hope to positively affect the lives of millions of students throughout the world”
“We hope to translate our experience and our success and make the same impact in Indonesia, beginning with schools under the Ministry of Religious Affairs. This is part of a long-term vision where we hope to positively affect the lives of millions of students throughout the world.”
The company said the content it will offer will be Grade 7 Mathematics and is closely tied to the Indonesian education curriculum. It plans to expand to supply Grade 8 and 9 over the next two years, and that content for all levels will include a mix of short videos, games, and assessments.
“We are truly grateful for the strong support we have received from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and hope that this experience can lead to a wider engagement in the country,” added Nadir Zafar, COO of Alef Education.
“With this, we are also signalling our intent to grow in Asia, where there is a rapidly growing demand for education technology products.”
According to M Niaz Asadullah, professor of development economics at the University of Malaya, “Indonesia is home to one of the largest and most diverse education systems in the world”.
“It includes thousands of Islamic schools, or madrasahs, which cater exclusively to the educational needs of children from Muslim households,” he explained.
While all other schools are managed by the Ministry of Education, the country’s Ministry of Religious Affairs oversees madrasahs, which can be roughly categorised into “modern-style schools but are distinguished by having a better understanding of Islam” and those which “teach Islamic studies with an emphasis on classical Arabic books”, with the latter being more prevalent.
“Not only do Indonesian madrasas systematically attract children from poorer households, but poor families also are more likely to send their daughters to madrasas compared to their brothers,” he added.
“Indonesian madrasas systematically attract children from poorer households”
The company further added that a report published by the World Bank in May this year “says that Indonesia has all the potential to be on the front lines of the education technology market”.
The partnership will begin from July 2021, while Alef Education said it is also eyeing future expansion into Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
