BOTS One portal to rule ’em all
A mother of three with a strong desire to help the underprivileged has set up a one-stop portal for digital learning and mental health, writes Izwan Ismail
AJJRINA Annuar may not be in the education line but being a mother of three boys, she feels an urgent need to help students across the country with free online resources.
“With the pandemic, many parties have initiated various efforts to ease digital learning and support mental health but not everyone is aware of the available resources,” said Ajjrina, who works as a financier in the energy industry.
In February this year, she launched JomEducate (www.jomeducate.com), a one-stop directory of the many digital learning initiatives and mental health avenues that are available and free for Malaysians.
“JomEducate aims to ensure that there is an easy one-stop reference so that no one is left behind and that more people will benefit from existing programmes,” she said.
HOW IT STARTED
The idea to develop JomEducate started when Ajjrina was having a casual conversation with her teacher friends.
“They shared the difficulties that students faced in adopting online learning. That night, just thinking about this problem and how children are grappling with the new normal made me lose sleep,” she said.
Determined to do something about it, Ajjrina took a week’s leave from work and spoke to a few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to collect all the initiatives that are free and readily available to students.
She started with Teach for Malaysia and the list “just grew”, based on their recommendations and her research.
“I included mental health, as this aspect is more crucial than ever now that the pandemic has resulted in deaths, job lost and lockdowns — all of which are possible contributors to depression,” she said.
Within a week, the JomEducate website went live and garnered a lot of clicks as it became more well known through word of mouth and sharing on social platforms including Instagram.
JomEducate is a not-for-profit initiative and requires no funding.
“The website is hosted on Google Site which is free. All the listed initiatives are free for Malaysians. We don’t collect any fee from anyone for the listing,” emphasised Ajjrina.
Within a week, JomEducate garnered more than 25,000 page views and more
than 75,000 on-site activities.
OBJECTIVES
JomEducate lists down all the initiatives it can source — be they from policymakers, NGOs or social enterprises — as it believes all these parties should not be seen individually but collectively.
“We encourage the public’s participation by listing down NGOs that people can volunteer with or donate to. I hope to create more interactive avenues on JomEducate so that people can discuss and collaborate towards reducing the education gap together,” said Ajjrina.
On her Instagram account, she also organises IG Live weekly with change-makers in education to raise awareness and discussions on education.
RELEVANCE
One of the far-reaching consequences of the pandemic is the exacerbation of the education gap.
“Underprivileged students have been left behind due to factors relating to online learning, including poor Internet access.
“JomEducate aspires to reduce the education gap by sharing information on where to get data and where to learn online to catch up on studies.
“There is also information on mental health to support more robust learning. Students may be back in the classroom for now but the education divide is still there.
“Students need to be equipped with resources. They need a platform to learn and pick up where they have left off. I hope JomEducate can contribute to fulfil these expectations,” added Ajjrina.