Known to be a hotbed for technology innovation in recent times, the UAE has strongly emerged as the epicenter of EdTech vertical in the Middle East. According to recent report from GlobalData, UAE’s EdTech market which stood at $1.5 billion in 2023 is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over nine percent through 2028. In such hypercompetitive market scenario, one entity that has been positioned a notch higher than the rest is Etqaan.
A nextgen EdTech platform facilitating effective assessment of Arabic language and its related subjects, Etqaan was developed by Impact International, a language education school with operations in in UK and UAE. Dr Yousef Omar (CEO, Etqaan & Impact Services International), a highly reputed Arabic language training and teacher education professional with over two decades of industry experience across Europe and Middle East, started Etqaan with a vision to revolutionize the assessment of Arabic language and its allied subjects by introducing an interactive and high quality assessment platform that is at par with international standards.
“During my tenure at various universities in the UK, including the University of London, I was engaged in a lot of projects pertaining to language training, language teacher education, curriculum and course design. I observed that unlike other languages, there was no proper assessment benchmarks for Arabic language or other subjects taught in Arabic. Thus, I embarked on the journey to bridge this critical gap that existed in the industry and came-up with the Etqaan platform that facilitates proper assessment of students”, says Dr Yousef.
One-Stop Destination for all Stakeholders
Standing true to its vision of fostering ‘unlimited learning for everyone’, the Etqaan platform is catering to the needs and pain point of all stakeholders in the education ecosystem, be its students, teachers, parents or educational institutions.
Comprising of a variety of practical assessment tools that are easy, effective and enjoyable, the Etqaan platform enables students to measure their language competence, knowledge and skills. Built in full compliance with national and international frameworks such as CEFR, ACTFL and many others, Etqaan also enables teachers to easily complete internal & external assessments without having to worry about any regulatory hassles, and also facilitated their self-evaluation.
Further, while the platform helps parents to track the progress/performance of their kids at school, it also enables educational institutions to carry-out administrative tasks, compare their achievements & performances with other national & international institutions, identify discrepancies, and device an appropriate action plan to improve in the coming days.
Etqaan is the only Edtech Platform in Arabic that Provides a CAT4 Target and Strategies for Arabic and provides Map testing. This platform is used across Ministry, International, Public, Private Schools and language schools in higher education where Arabic is taught globally.
“Our platform comprises of stimulating and interactive activities that allow students to train on all kinds of national and international assessments. By taking internal and external benchmarked tests, students can identify their weak areas and receive the necessary support from educators to improve in those areas. Additionally, by automating cumbersome tasks such as report generation and data analysis, our platform spares teachers’ time and energy, which could otherwise be used for more critical tasks.
Further, equipped with evidence-based assessments that measure both progression and attainment of students, our platform also enables parents to see accurate reports, identify their child’s learning challenges, and play an active role in helping them improve in those areas”, adds Dr Yousef.
Tech-driven Platform Enhancing Client Experience
Developed with the help of leading educational specialists and top developers, technology has been the foundational pillar for Etqaan platform. While advanced coding facilitates question generation as per the desired learning standards & outcom es, the inbuilt comprehensive reporting systems enables teachers to identify learning gaps, access tailored training materials, and provide real-time support and actionable feedback to students.
Further, flexibility and agility have been the cornerstone of Etqaan’s design, wherein this esteemed edtech conglomerate collaborates with regional experts and tweaks its platform to effectively cater to diverse, multicultural audience. In light of this, the platform also has a feature called Create/Recreate Assessment that enables learners and educators to make necessary changes in the education content whenever needed.
“We have a robust Quality Assurance (QA) system backed by a team of educators, academics, and technical experts who constantly engages with schools, teachers and other stakeholders to ensure that we meet their requirements. Additionally, our collaboration with content creators, assessment specialists, examiners, and academic professionals from across the world helps us ensure our content reflects cultural relevance while also maintaining academic rigor, providing students with the highest-quality learning experience. Through continuous trials in the UAE, Egypt and Qatar, along with the recent launch of Etqaan Pro, we’ve fine-tuned our platform to serve a global audience effectively”, Dr Yousef further explains.
Our collaboration with experts from across the world helps us ensure our content reflects cultural relevance while also maintaining academic rigor which makes impact
Exploring Beyond Horizons
Currently catering mostly to private international schools, going forward, Etqaan plans to work more with the government sector and ministries of education, while also strengthening its position in higher education (university sector) as well. In light of this, it is already in talks with concerned education authorities such as RAK Department of Knowledge, KSA, and Egypt to do a pilot project for schools in the region.
Additionally, the company is also in talks with tech companies in the UK to integrate AI into the platform to facilitate generation and regeneration of the assessment questions. Most importantly, will also be launching Etqaan MFL (Modern Foreign Language) by September this year, through which it aspires to cater to other language training such as French, Spanish, German, Mandarin, Hindi and Russian, to name a few.
Dr Yousef Omar, Founder & CEO, Etqaan
With a bachelor’s degree from Cairo University, master's as well as PhD in Language Pedagogy & Applied Languages from the prestigious University of London, and PG Diploma from The London Institute of Directors, Dr Yousef is one of the most distinguished Arabic language training educators & language education establishments in the world today. He boasts of an extensive 22+ years long career, during which he has worked with numerous renowned universities across Europe and Middle East, and the highlight of it being setting-up the first teacher training program for teachers of Arabic and the development of the MA Programme in Arabic language teaching at the University of London.
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