Landmark agreement opens the path to seamless Digital Education across the Gulf States

As technology advances continue to make distance learning easier, a new landmark agreement was announced today between the UK-based learning and engagement platform Kortext and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS) – promising to help the development of world-class learning in the region.

Kortext, which is used by nearly 2 million students in more than 100 of the UK’s universities, will provide infrastructure, content and services to Ministries of Education and other Education Authorities across the Gulf States.

The new partnership enables ABEGS to efficiently and cost-effectively discover and acquire key digital learning resources for their school systems, and facilitate discovery-led, collaborative learning in the classroom.

This partnership is also expected to provide a seamless discovery, delivery and acquisition service for learning content to be provided by ABEGS, to enable access to important learning resources for school systems across the Gulf States. The service will also see the delivery of learning content to teachers and students in a way that facilitates collaborative, discovery led learning and the potential for equity of access for all in the region.

His Excellency the Director-General of ABEGS, Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Asmi said: “This partnership is a great opportunity for cooperation in resolving ongoing difficulties in supplying important digital learning resources to students and teachers as required by the respective Ministries of Education across the Gulf States, in a way that is cost effective, efficient and supports ever better teaching and learning.” 

James Gray, CEO of Kortext, added: “ABEGS have a clear vision around the role of digital learning resources for education across the GCC region and we are proud to have been selected as their partner to help deliver on that vision.

“With ABEGS we will be helping support the access to and distribution of these important learning resources, in both Arabic and English, to Ministries of Education right across the region for the benefit of students, helping them develop their critical minds in preparation for their transition into higher education or employment.”

The signing took place at the International Conference and Exhibition for Education 2022, held in Riyadh and opened by the Saudi Minister of Education, Dr. Hamad bin Mohammed Al Al-Sheikh, with the participation of ministers, education experts and more than 260 international and local universities and educational bodies from 23 countries around the world.

It is the latest international expansion for Kortext, which was recently voted to lead on the supply of eTextbooks to Scottish HE/FE institutions and their students.