AMMAN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Queen Rania Foundation and Google.org announced Wednesday that they have joined forces to create an online learning platform for Arabic open educational resources.
The online platform will target students from kindergarten to 12th grade and their teachers across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, said the foundation in a statement a copy of which was obtained by Xinhua.
The initiative comes at a crucial time to ensure millions of children across the region have access to better education.
Presently, an estimated 13 million children in the MENA region, or 40 percent of school aged children, are missing out on an education due to conflict and displacement.
Additionally, the refugee crisis has strained existing educational systems in host countries similar to Jordan and Lebanon which are currently hosting vast numbers of refugee students, thereby compromising the quality of education offered to both local and refugee children.
Speaking of the goals of the platform, Queen Rania said, "I am confident that, with the support of Google.org, we can bring about more equitable access to high-quality education, wherever students live, and break down the learning barriers facing so many children in the Arab world."
Vice President of Google.org, Jacquelline Fuller, said "We're proud to support the ambitious work of the Queen Rania Foundation as part of our ongoing commitment to education programs that harness the power of technology in a way that helps all children have the opportunity to learn and grow."
The first phase of implementation will focus on the mathematics curriculum for all grades, starting with older age groups, and will later expand to include other subjects.
In order to ensure equitable access to its services, the platform will eventually include offline access and support, building upon the work that the Queen Rania Foundation and Google.org have already accomplished.
