AMMAN – A shortage in Arabic-language content online drove
entrepreneur Rama Kayyali and her partner Lamia Tabbaa to create “Little
Thinking Minds (LTM)”, a platform that has been offering original and engaging
language-learning resources since 2004.
اضافة اعلان
LTM, which was later joined by the third partner Salwa Katkhuda, has been selected as one of the ‘Elite 200’
companies for the 2021 GSVCup Competition.
In
an interview with Jordan News, Kayyali,
the co-founder and CEO expressed how honored she felt being nominated for the
award, “recognizes the top ‘Pre-K to
Gray’ educational technology (ed-tech) startups across the globe with a mission
to ensure that children have access to a better future through education.”
Kayyali pointed out the importance of taking children into account in
entrepreneurial projects. “The Middle East is among the youngest regions in the
world, with the highest population growth rates globally,” she said.
In Jordan, children up to 14 years old make up over a third (34.4
percent) of the population, according to the Department of Statistics 2020
report.
The entrepreneur said that according to
Arab Thought Foundation, “an
Arab child reads one book a year due to lack of access to leveled books and other factors such as
financial limitations, geography, and borders.”
Believing that “once you master your mother tongue, you can master
everything else,” the entrepreneur expressed concern over negligence of the
Arabic language. “We grew extremely frustrated that there was so much out there
in terms of English-language (learning) platforms but nothing in Arabic,” she
said.
As mothers themselves, the
entrepreneurs “found (their) passion in providing educational solutions to
other mothers who felt (their) pain.”
From books and CDs to mobile apps,
LTM ventures to boost children’s Arabic literacy both at home and in school.
Kayyali noted that some 450
schools in 18 countries are making use of LTM’s first platform, “I Read Arabic”,
which grants users access to more than 700 Arabic
books from over 20 publishers.
She added that refugees and
children from low-income families are also among the platform’s 180,000 beneficiaries.
As LTM grows closer to marking its
20-year anniversary, Kayyali said the work she and her partners have done has
finally started to pay off.
“Third party impact evaluations have shown that there was a 30
percent literacy gain between treatment and control groups, especially in
students utilizing our platforms in refugee camps and public schools,” Kayyali
said.
The entrepreneurial startup has won several awards. These include
the All Children Reading Grand Challenge for Development funded by USAID, World
Vision and Australian Aid, the Shoman Innovation Award, the Queen Rania Award
for Education Entrepreneurship, and Shera’a Award.
As for Kayyali, she is an Eisenhower Fellow, an Endeavor
Entrepreneur, and a recipient of the Arab Women's Award. She earned her MA in
Film and Media Production from the American University in Washington, D.C., and
her BA from the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill.
Although “the pandemic was
an eye-opener to the power of virtual learning… that allowed a whole generation
to resume their education under unprecedented conditions,” the pioneer noted
that “even prior to COVID-19, education technology has been witnessing high
growth and adoption by schools and parents.”
As
COVID-19 continues
to soften resistance to digital learning methods, Kayyali further believes that
adoption of “efficient and effective online learning combined with face-to-face
classroom interaction is the way of the future.”
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