Improving global access to education is a critical goal. In today’s digital age, software solutions are reshaping education, making it more accessible, engaging, and efficient. There is an untapped potential in the education sector and an appetite for solutions that will make the education process seamless, secure, integrated and most importantly, fun! This requires a certain kind of mindset that understands the students, the educational journey, the educational setup, the managerial side of education and finally the factors that go into making a solution that satisfies all stakeholders with minimum compromise. This understanding of the potential in education sector led Anas Najaa to establish Najaa Technologies.

Simplifying Education with Technology

Najaa Technologies started with the aim of providing innovative software solutions for the education sector. Many Open-source solutions are now available for the education sector to adapt and implement. Najaa Technologiess customize these solutions and sometimes build integrations and plugins on top of them. In addition, they are trying to find a good fit for AI in education. It is not as easy as it seems as AI is a double edge sword.

Technology can help improve education through personalized learning by tailoring content to each student’s pace and learning style. Software enables seamless global virtual classrooms. Real-time collaboration tools enhance the learning experience. Gamified apps make education fun and motivate students. Interactive simulations deepen understanding in various subjects. Cloud platforms securely store educational resources and student data. LMS accessibility streamlines administrative tasks.

Najaa Technologies delivers all these technology solutions to multiple institutes in Kuwait. They are in the process of collaborating with other innovative training centers and startups in order to bring cutting-edge solutions and training to Kuwait. Mainly, the services Najaa Technologies provides include but are not limited to:

• SIS development

• LMS integration and hosting

• Attendance system

• Customized Software Solutions

• Training

The Long Road to Success

Anas Najaa’s professional journey started with him working as an IT support engineer in DUC (Diyar United Company). Later Anas transitioned to Software Development. During his time in

DUC, he worked on multiple outsourcing projects such as PAAET, KPC and KOC. During his work at PAAET, he felt comfortable in the education sector.

“There is so much untapped potential in term of creative software solutions that can revolutionize education and aid the students in their learning journey. It is then I decided to focus on software development within the education sector,” he reflects.

Later, Anas decided to switch to RBS (Alruya Bilingual School) where he worked on LMS, SIS and ERP systems that were developed in-house. In addition, he worked on App development for the same school. During this time he learned how to work within a team and how to communicate with clients and collect requirements. His profile helped him grow an understanding of the educational process and increased his love for the industry. During this time as well, Anas acquired his Master’s in Business Administration.

During Covid, it was tough for all schools around the world and RBS was no exception. Anas decided to move to the startup world as there was growing attention to online services and the push for digital transformation. He joined Sakan which is a startup specializing in proptech. It is where he got to grow his knowledge and expertise in growing startups, managing operations, attending investor meetings, giving demos about products and services, and not to mention, leading a team of 4 developers. His time in Sakan was an essential step towards building a real understanding of what goes into building a startup. In addition, he worked on giving private lessons to college students as he was looking to establish his own company.

In 2021, Anas started Najaa Technologies with the vision of providing software solutions for the education sector. Managing the company in addition to working at a startup was getting a little bit difficult as startups don’t really sleep. “You need to be pushing yourself all the time and wear multiple hats to fill roles that are yet to be established. It is then in 2022 I decided to look for opportunities to go back to the education sector,” shares Anas.

He joined ktech as an instructor in 2022. With ktech’s help, Anas was able to crystalize his ideas and solutions targeted towards the education sector. This helped him build great solutions such as:

“I’m really thankful that ktech provided me with the opportunity to implement and develop these solutions. Today, Najaa Technologies is working with multiple clients from the education sector such as training centers in Canada, Startups in UAE and local clients in Kuwait. In addition, we are trying to expand to providing training in robotics, IoTs, Cyber Security and software development,” says Anas.

Dealing with Challenges

The main challenge, feels Anas, is how to be self-disciplined and not to lose sight of the vision which is the source of one’s motivation. It is not easy to be self-motivated and to set goals for yourself and others alongside the correct priorities. It requires a deeper understanding of people and how we are all both identical and different at the same time. We all have insecurities, weaknesses, fears and negativity in our lives. But at the same time, we all hate to let ourselves down and at a deeper level care about ourselves and others. Concepts such as purity of thought, virtue and the innate drive to help others go hand in hand with the educational industry and match the values that Najaa Technologies is striving to achieve.

“In short, most of the time the only thing getting into our way is us. Controlling our actions and listening carefully to others and reading between the lines as they say all help in getting the full picture or at least close to it. From there, these factors can help us make the correct decision at the right time, in the right context,” he sums up.

Making an Impact

Anas observes that Most businesses misdiagnose the problem when it comes to adopting technology solutions. They think that software is a silver bullet that will solve everything but that is not actually the case. Software is nothing but a tool, therefore finding the right tool is not the only requirement. Understanding what you are trying to fix first can save you time and money. This is where Najaa Technologies is different. It understands the educational process and what goes into this journey. The company is working on multiple projects such as:

– Multiple factor attendance system

– Automation plugins for SIS and LMS

– Syllabus Management System

– Competitive Programming Platform

– IoTs and Microcontrollers for security and monitoring

Recently, Anas and team have been focusing on his new startup, Lably. Lably is the premier provider of cutting-edge ICT Virtual Lab education in Kuwait. Founded with the vision of empowering individuals and educational institutions with a way to deliver ICT based Lab education in a practical and efficient way.

The world has become a small village thanks to the internet. Getting quality education and training is no longer confined to a certain geographical area. It is available online for everyone. All it takes is the motivation to learn and improve. This is how Najaa Technologies tries to stay ahead of the curve. It believes in Kaizen (continuous improvement) and Ikigai, two concepts that it tries to apply to all its employees. All of Najaa Technologies’ employees are encouraged to keep learning, acquire certifications and improve themselves and their ability to self-educate themselves. They are also always encouraged to find their strengths and what makes them more productive. As a startup, they all work as peers which encourage idea-sharing and decentralized management- two essential components for growing startups.

“Our industry is continuously evolving at a rapid speed. Tools, infrastructure, languages, techniques change all the time. The only constant as they say is change. We learned how to be nimble and to pivot whenever there is a need to do so. We are always on the lookout for opportunities to meet and work with others as it provides us with experience and help us adapt.

In addition, our collaborations with other companies widens our perspective in regards to the possibilities and the approaches that we can take to build great solutions,” says Anas.

The Juggling Act

Being a part of several initiatives and handling them all is quite a task for Anas. He says, “How do you fly 100’s of planes from the same airport? Certainly not together at the same time. The trick is to keep at it. It will be extremely difficult in the beginning but as time progresses, it will become a habit and you’ll be able to adapt to it in a way that you don’t have to think about it. It becomes muscle memory. Yet I have to admit that I had to make some sacrifices in terms of personal life.”

This isolation, Anas believes, is necessary in the beginning to establish a successful business and fund it at the same time until a stable flow of income is available. Priorities shift all the time because simply everything is changing around us. So it is our duty to track these changes and shift priorities based on them. When Najaa Technologies was still struggling in the beginning, Anas had to make the active choice of foregoing many opportunities at his main job in order to make the company stand on its feet as they say. Afterward, he shifted his focus towards projects and events related to his main work. During downtime, he would stop exploiting what he has and start exploring opportunities. “Rinse and repeat. It will look like I’m multitasking but in reality, I’m just doing one task perfectly at the right time when it is required the most,” he explains.

Exploring Opportunities Ahead

Anas believes that higher education is going to be disrupted very soon by emerging trends such as AI and self-education platforms. Institutes that do not adapt to this change will not be able to provide enough value to justify the cost of education. In short, the quality of education and how the educational experience is being delivered to students will become the main focus. He sees curriculum development as a hot topic. In addition, he sees gamification of education as a rising trend.

For now, it is a balancing act for Anas and his team. Slow but steady improvement of the already established solutions will be sufficient. But at some point, he is looking forward to AI as a major disruptor in the way we learn and teach. Lecturers will have to adapt it into their own workflow and to make it part of how they teach.

“We cannot fight AI integration in education anymore, the genie is out of the bottle as they say. It is just about how we implement it and make it an added value for students. Students will be using these tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, CoPilot, etc.. If we try to patronize them for using these tools, then we’ve already lost the huge opportunity these tools bring to the table.

In teaching students how to use these tools and encouraging them to learn how to evaluate the output of these LLMs (Large Language Models), we are helping them help themselves. In addition, we don’t have to see these tools as competitors to us educators, but as simply new methods of teaching that are now in the open,” concludes Anas.

No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. like gold or emerald or purple repeating to itself, “no matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations