It’s easy to learn when the teacher speaks your language. Perhaps that’s why StudyMate, a Dubai-based online peer-to-peer platform that connects students and tutors, is so popular. That, and it’s free.
Avyan Arya, a 14-year-old student from Dubai College, was nervous about an upcoming test when he came across a social media post about StudyMate. “I wanted a relatable experience, and this was a great way to do that. I could talk with my tutor, Tang Li, about a personal level, and he could provide me with some tips for the exam. I looked forward to the sessions, because it wasn’t like a tuition, it was like studying with a friend.
“Tang was able to provide me with resources, and it was a fun and interactive experience. I learned a lot of topics over the four weeks I had with Tang, from the reflex arc to the enzymes the eye to the brain, etc,” the Indian expat recalls in an interview with City Times.
The platform is the brainchild of Advay Gupta, a Dubai College student, who discovered teaching during the COVID-19 years, when his mum got wind of a young student looking for a tutor. Because he was adept at teaching his sister maths, she recommended that he try it. He turned out to be an effective communicator and as news of his skills spread, more peers came forward – some to ask if they could learn from him; others to ask how they could get into the act.
Soon, he had more students than he expected. “At one point, I was getting a lot more requests than I could handle. Because I had a lot of my own commitments. I had my GCSEs in year 11 and I was having to turn down a lot of people,” he says.
It was around this time that he came across a platform called Schoolhouse, a US-based free tutoring platform – the only thing was, it was geared towards the American curriculum. Seeing the gap in the market, he began to formulate a plan for his own peer-to-peer learning programme. “I felt that this could be expanded to our region, where I knew so many people first-hand who could directly benefit. And I believed that there would be students willing to have me teach them. So that’s why I started StudyMate. I also knew first-hand how expensive tutoring gets in the UAE; people can charge anything from Dh200 to Dh500 an hour for private lessons.”
The way it works
Instead of having a rolling programme, he adds, teaching ‘camps’ are run in batches. “How it starts is we draft a message, which basically says that we’re looking for high school student volunteers who are academically strong in their subject students struggling in any subject,” he says.
Both groups can fill in a form on the website. For the teachers-to-be, they organise information on the basis of age, stage, credentials and communication skills. For students, “we don’t do much because they want to learn,” says Gupta. “We do have a word with their parents and have a word with them to see what they’re exactly looking for. But when it comes to the tutor selection, we’re very particular and meticulous.”
After reviewing applications, they (Gupta and his colleagues – Prerit Bucha, Rami Alfahad, and Ayaan Cassim) host an interview with the tutors. “This interview is held by the subject heads (or the subjects that these four are most confident in).”
In the course of the interview, they are asked about three questions related to the subject they want to teach, to gauge their knowledge and their communication skills. If they pass this stage, they are listed on the website and if there is a compatible student who wants to learn the subject they want to teach, they are connected.
It’s a work-intensive project, and Gupta wonders about its future. “I’m hoping to find a junior or others who are willing to keep this going once I graduate from school. I’m looking for people to teach the intricacies of StudyMate to,” he adds.
One of the best parts about this platform, he explains, is that it doesn’t cater to one syllabus or subject. In the UAE, where a child can study the IB, British, American, CBSE, GCSE, etc. curricula, StudyMate offers everyone a chance to connect with someone who will teach them at their level – for free.
So far, around 70 students have signed up to be tutored and 50 people have signed up to teach.
South African expat Mohammed Anas Sallie, who is doing Cambridge online, says academics has always been his strong suit, so when he heard about StudyMate, he was intrigued. “I thought I could help some children out and get some experience with it as well, because I’ve been into tutoring quite a bit for a while now.”
A springboard for teachers
He also recommends StudyMate to those considering a career in education. “If someone wants to go into teaching, this is a really good like gateway to go into it, because it’s not too much workload at once. You know it’s starting with one student three times a week. You get the curriculum beforehand, so it’s a really good gateway into it. I’ve had one or two friends, who wanted to go into teaching professionally, and I recommended the programme to them.”
Once plans have been made to begin a batch, it’s time for marketing. And that means It’s time to deploy the mum brigade.
“My mum is in these massive WhatsApp and Facebook groups with a lot of other mums in them – so I ask her to post the news. And a lot of people share it. I get all of my friends’ mums to share it.”
Gupta mulls his expansion plans. “I’m looking to expand tutoring to genuinely underserved communities. So right now, what StudyMate does is we’re primarily tutoring students in Dubai,” he explains. His trip to orphanages in India and Nepal, where his other venture, Deserving Earth – which gathers donated clothes in the UAE and gets them to those in need abroad – took him revealed the lack of resources of learning for children. “I’m already in talks with many orphanages to arrange lessons, which I can do during my free time and holidays,” he says.
Gupta is really, really good at maths. He puts two and two together and comes up with four, or, in the case of his Dubai teaching platform, an A+.
