EdTech in Iraqi Formal Education: A Brief on the Future Potential and the Current Situation

EdTech in Iraqi Formal Education: A Brief on the Future Potential and the Current Situation

The educational sector had to yield sooner or later to the advancements of technology. Educational Technology, or what has come to be known as EdTech, is the means to facilitate learning, performance improvement, and solving problems in education through the deployment of technological resources. In simpler terms, it is defined as any use of information and communications technologies (ICT) at any point within the education system, including ministries, schools, communities, and homes.

EdTech addresses many problems that are considered costly or resource-intensive. This includes the use of smartphones instead of supplying classrooms with computers and digital textbooks, as well as tailoring practice and instructions to the needs of each student. Unfortunately, the novelty of EdTech and the lack of supporting evidence to evaluate EdTech outcomes properly hinder its adoption to this day.

The EdTech industry is fast growing, with more and more learners pursuing digital forms of education and more institutions digitizing their operations. This is apparent by the amount of investments, which is 40 times greater than it was a decade ago. Venture capital investments in EdTech totaled 21 billion USD in 2021, with 46% of the deals exceeding 100 million USD. The online degree market is forecasted to reach $74 billion in 2025, with more people opting to study online, taking advantage of technological advancements.

European countries have been very well invested in EdTech throughout the years. In 2014, only 169 million dollars were invested in EdTech companies, but by 2020, that number increased to 785 million US dollars across Europe. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the value of EdTech and tripled the investments towards it, reaching a peak of 2.5 billion US dollars by 2021. 

The most prominent country in Europe that invested in EdTech was the UK, with 609 million US dollars pledged to EdTech companies. France came in second place with 487 million USD, followed by Austria and Germany with relatively the same sum of money, 301 and 297 million USD, respectively. 

As for Asia, India is leading the investments in EdTech. The main reason why India surpassed China in EdTech is that the Chinese government’s policies regarding EdTech mandate companies that teach the Chinese curriculum to go non-profit without the possibility of pursuing an initial public offering (IPO), or even taking in foreign capital. This resulted in many EdTech companies converting to climate and healthcare businesses.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point as more than 6 million primary school students, and more than 3 million secondary school students were forced to stay home after school closures. Such restrictions on the formal education system forced institutions to reconsider the importance of technology in the education sector. 

There is no hiding the fact that the Iraqi education system is facing many difficulties, such as a shortage of teachers, weak infrastructure, and multiple school shifts. Overloaded classrooms with a rushed schedule for the subsequent school shift and the very limited window for a university day, usually from 8 am to 2 pm, lead to low engagement between students and teachers. This leads to a substantial negative impact on a personalized learning journey for students.

EdTech has the potential to form a personalized educational journey for students, with more content than what is provided in the traditional classroom with progress that is self-paced, available teachers, room for discussions, and sharing of additional resources. Illustrated resources are rare in a typical Iraqi classroom, but they are in abundance online, with national and international experts' contributions.

Moreover, EdTech has solutions for school and class management. Its value proposition lies in organizing communication channels between multiple parties: students, their families, school management, and the teaching staff. For Iraqi educational institutions, communications and announcements usually take place on the school’s social media page, which is not ideal. However, such systems allow schools to deliver announcements, communicate with families, and even arrange for student enrollment.

EdTech can shape students into becoming more skilled in information technology through their interaction with well-designed platforms that suit their needs and meet the rising demands in the Iraqi market. The current information and communication technology skills of university graduates are not up to par; their skills in dealing with documents, sheets, presentations, and emailing are not learned in universities, and are usually self-taught, mostly through Edtech platforms.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the extent to which the technological skills of Iraqi students and the entirety of the educational staff were insufficient. The aforementioned insufficiency, coupled with the absence of in-person classes, created a perception that online learning is inadequate. The hesitancy towards online learning can be mitigated by the reintroduction of EdTech as a supplementary tool. It should come as an add-on to in-person learning, and not as an independent entity.

The motivation for baccalaureate students choosing a higher education discipline follows a hierarchical scheme, where medical fields are top choices, followed by engineering. This public perception is skewing the distribution of talent, causing some fields to be in dire need of talent that will eventually help sustain the diversity and growth of the Iraqi economy. EdTech can disrupt that through the provision of online career orientation sessions, presenting Iraqi youth with a clearer view of the current technologically driven world.

Introducing EdTech to the Iraqi educational system is a venture charged with challenges. In this segment, we categorized these challenges based on three points of view: the educational institutions, the educational staff, and the students. 

The General Directorate of Curricula at the Ministry of Education (MoE) is the entity responsible for the preparation of more than 164 Iraqi subjects. They have been remodeling and preparing the outdated Iraqi curricula for years to adjust them to the modern standards of educational outcomes and the needs of the Iraqi people. They have been, mostly, changing the pedagogy from dictating knowledge to a more interactive “questions and answers” manner. Despite the great efforts put forth by the directorate, much more effort needs to be deployed. The current curricula are still behind in many subject matters, and by Iraqi law, EdTech companies are not authorized to provide extracurricular content on their platforms. 

Private teaching institutions are growing in influence across Iraq, especially preparatory classes for the Baccalaureate exam. Many of these institutions offer their classes online, partly due to the high demand. However, it is still difficult for students and their families to trust online classes enough to be considered a substitute for physical classes.

The weak infrastructure is another problem in the Iraqi educational system. In 2019, around 58% of primary schools needed either rehabilitation or rebuilding. This could be a great opportunity for rebuilding with a strong IT infrastructure in mind, one that adopts school Learning Management Systems (LMS) as well as cloud computing, network, and IT resources. 

Adopting learning management systems in public schools is very challenging due to the complexity of proposing such an idea to the MoE and applying it. However, for private schools, their application is more likely. In order to install such a system, principal investors like school management and student families need to understand that LMS is not a luxury but a necessity. It is noteworthy to mention that the only way for EdTech to infiltrate education in Iraq is when EdTech companies start cutting costs and generating profits for private schools. 

The switch to online teaching and a hybrid mode in late 2021 was sudden for Iraqi educational institutions. Most teachers and educators were not trained properly for such a drastic change. Proper tools for conducting online classes and assessments were not available. Educational material, sometimes proved challenging for many teachers for online delivery. 

The shortage of teachers and overcrowded classes have driven enrollment down, which has been partially remedied by the MoE’s decision to shorten the duration of the academic day and combine the attendance of multiple schools in one building, setting a specific time slot for each school. EdTech fixed some of the issues that are related to teachers by allowing them to upload their lectures online for students to catch up on.

The view of students was mixed between liking and detesting online and hybrid teaching methods. The reluctance towards EdTech led to the perception of Iraqi student’s unwillingness to learn. However, in reality, it is a reflection of the weak abilities when it comes to handling technology, let alone the fact that many students do not have internet access or the capacity to obtain a proper digital device to follow up on their online classes and assignments.

The most used platform for student follow-up was Google Classroom. Overall, it offered good services for teachers to upload their material and for students to review. However, it had many flaws, as it was not equipped well enough to thwart attempts of cheating on online examinations. The platform was not built to accommodate the large number of students per class. However, the accessibility of online classes was very beneficial to many, as they could go back to attend the classes at their own convenience. This has consequently influenced the MoE’s decision to adopt a mixed method of online and traditional learning in the following academic years. EdTech is not restricted to a certain format. Private tutoring on an online conferencing platform and online courses for those wishing to sharpen their skills or learn new skills are both forms of EdTech. The precautionary closures due to COVID-19 forced a nationwide adoption of EdTech by all institutions and departments. 

The technology platforms that students, teachers, and administrators use are an integral part of EdTech. Such platforms are considered business-to-business (B2B) enterprises, and they include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Learning Management Systems (LMS).

Eduba is an Iraqi EdTech company that provides LMS that is fit for Iraqi schools. Eduba ensures its system is appropriate for all educational institutions, from preschools to 12th-grade students. They have added features such as providing interactive educational content and a communication system, in addition to fintech and ride-hailing options. 

“Sadeem” application was initiated in 2017 by the telecommunication company Zain Iraq, as a tool for parents to monitor their children’s academic path and to enable communication between children, parents, and the academic institution.

By the end of 2020, Newton Platform was launched by the Educational Television Directorate at the Ministry of Education (MoE). Newton is the official e-learning platform approved by the MoE with content that follows the official Iraqi curriculum provided as e-books and video content, as well as a question bank for a variety of subjects and for many student levels.

In 2022, Ta3leem platform, a collaborative initiative between the MoE and Al-Nahrain University with support from Earthlink, was established. The platform offers many features that are tailored for Iraqi students and educational staff, from biometrics authentication for exams to modernizing the pedagogy, training for teachers, and providing online educational content for students.

The international player in Iraq is Abwaab, a Jordanian educational platform that provides online courses to individuals and companies. Abwaab delivers educational content for middle and secondary school students based on the Iraqi national curriculum.

Initiatives were released like the E-Madrasa platform from Earthlink, the national internet provider, which was supported by the Ministry of Education to serve primary and secondary schools. Many educational institutions opted for Google Classroom services and Moodle, as well as utilizing Zoom for live lectures.

Advanced models in EdTech were individually adopted by some universities or educators in higher education in Iraq, like the University of Kufa’s massive open online courses under the name of Kufa Open Online Courses (KOOC) in 2012. International initiatives in support of online education were present, such as the development of the Avicenna Center that was projected to extend throughout Iraq, building a link between 6 international universities and 300 faculties, and the Online Platform for Academics Teaching and Learning (OPATEL), which was designed by UNESCO.