Khan Academy Burmese Translation (KABT) and Ooredoo Myanmar hosted the country’s first ever Translate-a-thon event in Yangon on August 10, followed a week later by a second event in Mandalay on August 16.
Hosted at Ooredoo’s offices in Yangon and the Jefferson Centre in Mandalay, the purpose of the Translate-a-thon was to gather volunteers to translate as many of the Khan Academy’s educational videos as possible into the Myanmar language, making these materials more accessible to the people of Myanmar.
Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organisation founded by Sal Khan with the goal of changing education by providing free, world-class education for anyone through educational videos. Khan Academy has over 6,000 videos, which covers K-12 math, biology, chemistry, physics, finance and history, among others. Over 10 million people around the world view the videos each month.
Yangon’s 65 translate-a-thon volunteers translated 140 Khan Academy videos, Ooredoo said. With the 36 videos translated at Mandalay’s event, attended by 47 volunteers, the overall number of videos translated reaches 355, more than double the 160 videos that existed in the Myanmar language prior to this.
Thiri Kyar Nyo, Ooredoo Myanmar’s Community Engagement spokesperson, said: “We are delighted by the success of these two events. This is only the start of our work to make education more accessible to the people of Myanmar, helping support the country’s huge appetite for learning.
“Soon these educational materials will be readily available to our customers, in their pockets at all times, on their mobile phones. We look forward to hosting more of these events along with Khan Academy Burmese Translation.”
Ashley Takami from KABT said: “Until recently only 179 Khan Academy videos were available in the Myanmar language. Following both these events we now have 355 videos on subjects including math, science, computer programming, health, and finance translated into the Myanmar language.
“Our work doesn’t stop here, following the incredible success of these events we plan to host future Translate-a-thons to continue these translation efforts, and help make free, world class education available to everyone in Myanmar.”
Both events marked the start of a partnership between Ooredoo Myanmar and KABT. The firms said together they will help ensure the Khan Academy’s educational materials become freely available in the Myanmar language. The companies said their overall objective is to bring the opportunity for a world-class education to the nation at no cost.
The partnership will also support the roll-out of these videos as a resource for education providers across Myanmar with Ooredoo’s network providing online access to these materials in both rural and urban areas.ax
