The Middle East has emerged as the fastest growing market for EduTech companies, with some key international players reporting they saw the biggest jump in subscribers from the Middle East, a new report shows.
Within the region, the UAE scored big in online education growth globally last year, attracting several international players to the country, according to the report by RedSeer Consulting, an online services sector consultancy.
Online platforms also increased the depth of their offerings last year in the region, as coronavirus pushed more students to study from home.
“Though most EduTech platforms have seen a drastic rise in the number of new subscribers to the platforms in several parts of the world, leading international players have reported up to a 5 times increase in subscribers from the Middle East last year, compared to 2019,” the report revealed.
“With a global population base and the country being the business hub of the region, [the] UAE has been at the forefront of developments in the education sector in 2020,” the report said.
“Demands [for a] highly skilled workforce in the country, a pro-education government and ease of doing business enable the EduTech sector’s favourable growth opportunities in the UAE,” it added.
The report, however, did not show the online education market size in the UAE, either in valuation or the total number of subscribers.
The report also predicted that the exponential growth in subscribers in the region is likely to induce content providers to offer more localized content, further enhancing interest from consumers.
Sector experts described the fast growth of online education in the Gulf region as a testimony of the growing acceptance of technology to learn and up-skilling by the multi-ethnic population of the country.
“The acceptance of up-skilling and re-skilling using online means has gained significant acceptance in the region.
“Employers are increasingly becoming open to candidates who studied using an online medium, while consumers are also more open to the idea of skills enhancement using online methods,” Sandeep Ganediwalla, managing partner of RedSeer Consulting, told Arabian Business.
Sandeep Ganediwalla, managing partner of RedSeer Consulting.
Ganediwalla said in the UAE more than 1 million adults took an online course in 2020 to improve their skills, a 50 percent increase compared to 2019.
The report also pointed out that while many international EduTech players are leveraging their large content base to gain a foothold in the UAE market, the regional players have identified and worked to identify niche gaps using their local experience to strengthen their position in the market.
“Online education brings in the element of comfort and reliability, and the UAE has recognised the value of it, keeping in view the exorbitant amounts parents spend for private tutoring,” Shery Kurian, founder and CEO of TutorComp, an India-based edutech firm which partnered with the Dubai government last year to offer online tutoring, told Arabian Business.
“Post-Covid-19, the education scene across the world has seen a major shift as the culmination of technology and teaching skill became the absolute need of the hour to keep up with the learning process of students,” Kurian said.
Shery Kurian, founder and CEO of TutorComp.
Begin, Ashtar, Zedny, TutorComp, upGrad, Geek Express, KoolSkools, Aanaab, Praxilabs and Bairns are among the EduTech players that entered the UAE market last year.
The RedSeer report said professionals in the UAE who were made redundant, took up specific courses to bulk up their CVs and job prospects.
“Many students went on to learn their courses of interest or supplement their university education with other courses online,” the report said.
Free trials and auditing courses were the key in reducing the threshold for almost all consumer segments as consumers could take the course and pay only if one needed a certificate, the report said.
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