MASi's broader impacts include:
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Addressing the needs of 200 million children and young adults with no access to any schooling.
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Reaching an additional 600 million who struggle with basic literacy and numeracy skills, despite being enrolled.
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Responding to projections that 84 million more children will be out of school by 2030 (aligned with SDG 4: Quality Education).
01-A Global Problem In Need of Local Solutions
When hundreds of millions of young people are denied education, the consequences—poverty, instability, and lost potential—ripple across societies and economies worldwide. This crisis belongs to all of us and demands a global response. Yet meaningful solutions must be locally grounded, and respectful of the cultural, linguistic, and systemic realities of each community. MASi bridges this dual need by providing a universal platform that adapts to local contexts, ensuring every child receives relevant, high-quality education. By combining global action with locally tailored solutions, we create lasting change where it matters most.
03-The Scale of the Challenge
Example of a typical curriculum standard in reading:
“Students will develop the ability to read and comprehend literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.”
The idea of manually producing lessons for thousands of curriculum standards in every target language seemed impossible—potentially requiring decades of effort.
05-The Lingering Challenge: Low-Resourced Languages
However, we encountered a critical limitation in existing AI models:
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Here’s the catch: existing AI models are built for “rich-resourced” languages—like English, Spanish, and French—languages with abundant digital data.
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Low-resourced languages—the languages MASi aims to support have:
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Little to no digital or written data.
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Unique grammar structures, including tonal variations crucial for meaning.
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No existing NLP models to properly handle these languages.
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02-The Challenge of Culturally Relevant Curriculum
As a cultural anthropologist and long-time educator, Dr. Washington recognized early on:
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A one-size-fits-all global curriculum would fail to address diverse cultural contexts.
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Local national standards would need to be honored, which means:
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Converting each nation's curriculum standards into personalized, student-specific lessons.
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Avoiding political struggles over which global standard to use for crucial skills like reading, math, science, and critical thinking.
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04-The Breakthrough: AI and NLP Technologies
Recent breakthroughs in machine learning and NLP models (like BERT and GPT) changed the game, making it possible to:
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Automate lesson creation.
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Tailor lessons individually to curriculum standards.
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Deliver contextually appropriate education efficiently.
06-Linking NLP and Educational Access
Thus, natural language processing (NLP) is inextricably linked to educational access in marginalized communities. Without AI models tailored for low-resourced languages, millions of children remain excluded from education.
WHY MASi MATTERS
While access to educational apps and websites has grown, millions of children who speak low-resourced languages are still excluded. MASi is designed to change that.
Join MASi in providing linguistically accurate, culturally rooted education—delivered through basic smartphones— so every child, no matter where they live or what language they speak, can access high-quality education.