Jordan’s Educational Startup Abwaab is Now Offering All Online Academic Content For Free

As schools worldwide have shut down due to the current pandemic, parents and students have had to familiarise themselves with e-learning services. Schools rushed to implement systems to allow students to continue their semesters digitally, and just as you would expect, inspired a slew of Gen Z’s flocking to TikTok to document their pain and turmoil with having to deal with laggy servers or poking fun at the whole situation.

However, even before the COVID-19 outbreak, Jordanian startup Abwaab has been championing online learning for secondary school students. The Amman-based platform launched in late 2019 in an attempt to provide quality education that’s available to all Arab students across the region. The lessons are made up of five minute visually-engaging videos, delving into one specific topic in a subject, which currently include Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

“The inspiration behind Abwaab was to be able to use this booming age of tech to democratise education in the Arab world,” Abwaab co-founder and CEO Hamdy Tabaa told StartupScene back in December. “And especially to curb the dependency on private tutoring that is very prevalent in the region.”

According to a report by the British Council in 2016, a staggering $2 billion is spent on private tuition per year in Egypt, which is roughly equivalent to 25% of the entire education budget. And in a study made by the Dubai School of Government (DSG) found that more than 65% of 12th graders in the UAE attended private tutoring lessons.

 “Before co-founding Abwaab, I used to work for Uber for five years. I saw first-hand how tech can be used to revitalise an industry and impact a society and the economy,” explains Tabaa. “Witnessing that change drove us to start Abwaab, and to strive for equality in education across the region and to be able to engage students like never before in their education. We’ve also adopted an assessment system that uses performance analytics to provide insights to the students on their performance.”

After 90 days of their founding, Abwaab was selected as a finalist to take part in RiseUp’s Pitch by the Pyramids competition in December 2019. “It’s such a thrill. We’re only 90 days old and managed to design a product, interview loads of students on what they feel like they’re missing out on, vet teachers, rent a studio, build a UI and start production,” said Tabaa. “I owe that to our incredible and diverse team. Despite being small in number, our passion and belief in the cause of providing equal opportunity for high-quality education to Arab students everywhere.”

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abwaab has made their subscription, which gives you access to all their lessons, free for a limited time only. You can claim your free subscription here.