Offline Maths Game for Primary Schools in Urdu and Regional Languages

The problem: maths apps that assume English and good internet

Many children in Pakistan and similar countries learn early maths in a language other than English, share one family phone, and have little or no mobile data. Most maths apps assume the opposite: English instructions, a steady connection, and a child with their own tablet. Teachers in low-fee private schools and community schools want something children can practise with, but they cannot spend class time translating instructions or chasing logins.

Early number sense matters a great deal: children who do not grasp place value in the early grades struggle with everything built on it later. Short, repeated practice in the child's own language is exactly what games are good at.

What already exists and the gap

• onebillion's onecourse delivers offline, adaptive literacy and numeracy on low-cost tablets in several African languages and has been evaluated in randomised trials.
• Khan Academy Kids is free and well designed but primarily English and Spanish.
• Prodigy Math is a popular game-based maths platform aimed at curricula in North America, online only.
• Taleemabad offers Urdu animated lessons and learning content for Pakistani schools.

The gap is a small, open, offline maths game whose language is a data pack, that runs on the cheapest shared Android phone, and that gives a teacher a quick view without an internet account. onecourse proves the model works; nobody has made a light version that a local developer can extend to Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto or Punjabi.

What you build

The child picks their profile picture on a shared device and plays one of four mini-games: a counting game with objects, a place value game that bundles sticks into tens, an addition and subtraction game on a number line, and a times table race. Each question is spoken aloud as well as written. The teacher opens a PIN-protected screen and sees each child's level per topic and the questions they get wrong most.

Everything lives on the device in SQLite. Language packs are folders of text files and audio clips.

The technically interesting part

For a beginner project the interesting parts are practical ones that most tutorials skip. Right-to-left text and Urdu fonts in a game engine need care: shaping, line breaks and mixing Urdu words with numerals. Adaptive practice needs a simple, explainable model, for example a skill level per topic that moves up after three correct answers in a row and down after two mistakes, with question generators per level. And the whole thing must stay small and fast on a 2 GB RAM phone, which means compressing audio, reusing sprites and measuring load times.

Show evaluators the same question in two languages, the adaptive level changing live, and the APK size and frame rate on a cheap device.

How to evaluate it

• Learning signal: a short test designed with the teacher before and after two weeks of use by at least 15 children; report the change honestly, with the caveat that there is no control group.
• Engagement: sessions per child and average session length from the local logs.
• Performance: APK size, cold start time and frame rate on a low-end device.
• Usability: watch 5 children play without help and note where they get stuck; interview the teacher.

Suggested plan

1. Weeks 1 to 2: visit a school, agree topics with a teacher, get consent from the school and parents.
2. Weeks 3 to 5: Godot project, Urdu text rendering, language pack loader, first mini-game.
3. Weeks 6 to 9: remaining mini-games, profiles and adaptive levels.
4. Weeks 10 to 11: teacher screen, audio recording, size and performance tuning.
5. Weeks 12 to 14: classroom pilot, analysis and report.

Path to a product

The first customer is a low-fee private school network or an education NGO running learning centres. Offer the app free to families and charge institutions a small annual licence for the teacher dashboard and new language packs, or run it as an NGO-funded open source project where you are paid to add content and languages. Scaling means more topics and grades, not more features.

Scope warning

Do not build accounts, cloud sync, multiplayer or a curriculum for every grade. Do not collect children's names or photos beyond a first name or avatar on the device. Four mini-games in two languages that work offline and a real classroom pilot are enough.

Learn what you need on Sefism

• Godot Docs: Your First 2D Game : the fastest route to a working game loop in Godot.
• Kenney Game Assets : free art so your time goes into learning design, not drawing.
• Programming roadmap : fundamentals for question generators and state.
• Learn Accessibility : principles for readable text, audio support and large touch targets.
• Game Maker's Toolkit : how good games teach without long instructions.

Get help with this idea

Children and schools make great testers but need careful planning, consent and a simple study design. Bring your proposal and we can agree the scope, pick a stack your team can finish with, and design an evaluation your panel will respect. You build it; we help you make the calls.

• Discuss this idea with a mentor
• Send a query to Tauseef
• Book a 1:1 session

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