“We help you get better grades.” - Pandai App

I had the opportunity to connect with the founders of Pandai, the online learning app that emerged as the winner of The Most Innovative Startup in the recent Top In-Tech Innovation Awards. For me, the Pandai app is definitely well positioned to be the best education app in this region.

The three founders of Pandai have a long relationship as high school friends and American university graduates; Khairul Anwar Mohamad Zaki from Purdue University, Mohd Akmal Akhpah from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Mohd Suhaimi Ramly from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Upon leaving their roles at top companies namely Motorola, Intel and Khazanah Nasional in 2007, they started multiple businesses in technology and education including consultancy on STEM education policies and running academic competitions plus five national olympiad programmes.

With their experiences, venturing into edtech as their next step in entrepreneurship comes as no surprise. Since Pandai began in 2020, it has won numerous recognitions from organisations and accelerators both locally and abroad including the prestigious Silicon Valley startup programme, Y Combinator. The company is now backed by prominent global investors, including an Ivy League university.

“One of the feedback that we got was, Pandai is like the Swiss Army Knife of education. Our features include resources that students need to learn-by-practice: Quizzes and Timed Exams, as well as revision materials such as Flashcards, Quick Notes and Experiment Simulations, which cover all major subjects from Year 1 to Form 5 of the Malaysian National curriculum,” says Khairul, Pandai CEO. 

“We believe that every child learns differently, and is motivated in different ways. That is why we structure our gamification elements to encourage students to not only compete with each other on the Leaderboard, but also with one’s self by collecting badges and coins which can be exchanged for rewards such as vouchers for TeaLive, Shopee and even Roblox. We are looking into expanding our rewards to physical items such as mobile phones and tablets. Indirectly, we are educating the students on the concept of ‘learn to earn’.”

“We want to create an app that truly gives value, rather than simply being a trend in education. To ensure the quality of our pedagogical approach, Pandai has been assessed by Education Alliance Finland (EAF), an independent international edtech evaluating body. EAF uses a scientific approach developed by education experts to measure the effectiveness of educational tools against its intended curriculum, in our case the KSSR and KSSM. The certification process was arduous, but earning that recognition means that we are well on our way to make a real impact in the Malaysian education industry.” added Suhaimi, Pandai COO.

Akmal, Pandai CTO, has this to add, “What we are doing is not to take away the role of teachers and schools, but to work alongside them. We engage closely with various departments in the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) to support an efficient and meaningful teaching and learning experience. We recently launched Pandai Teacher to help educators in their productivity and professional development.” 

The company, Pandai Education, is also a registered Social Enterprise and actively participates to create social impact through numerous programmes, which includes those supported by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Furthermore, the app involves the most important stakeholder in a child’s education - the parents. Through the Pandai Parent features, parents are able to monitor their child’s learning activities and progress in Pandai. They can also take a more active role in their child’s learning journey by setting study targets and personal rewards. 

Now, the big question from a lot of parents would be - is the app free or paid?

Although registration and basic learning features in Pandai are free, students can unlock the full application when they choose between two subscription packages: Premium Lite for unlimited practice materials and rewards, or full Premium that comes with live homework assistance and nightly live tuition classes. With Premium subscriptions, parents will also receive a more detailed reporting of their child’s performance which specifies the areas of each subject that their child is good at or is struggling with.

Finally, when asked about their grand plan for Pandai, Suhaimi told me, “In the long run, we would like to extend this learning platform into a learning community; where students can connect, learn from one another and lead their own learning path, with support from parents and teachers." 

The company now plans to expand internationally and I am rooting for them to achieve the dream of eliminating the education gap that exists within our society due to physical inaccessibility. Edtech is here to stay, and clearly Pandai is leading the way.

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Source: Pandai