A REPORT ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE
EDUCATION PLATFORM IN BANGLADESH
A Report On
INSITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (IBA),
UNIVERSITY OF DHAKA
A REPORT ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE EDUCATION PLATFORM IN
BANGLADESH: A STUDY ON ROBI 10 MINUTE SCHOOL
Submitted To
Mr. Md. Ridhwanul Haq, PhD
Professor
Institute of Business Administration (IBA)
University of Dhaka
Submitted By
Saqib Mahtab Khan [Roll: 202-61-025, Batch: 61E]
Saurav Paul [Roll: 202-61-033, Batch: 61E]
Nafish Intasher Nafi [Roll: 202-61-034, Batch: 61E]
Syed Mashad Mahmud [Roll: 202-61-045, Batch: 61E]
Institute of Business Administration (IBA)
University of Dhaka
Date of Submission
30 November 2021 (Tuesday)
Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of
Dhaka
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
30 November 2021
Mr. Md. Ridhwanul Haq, PhD
Professor
Institute of Business Administration (IBA)
University of Dhaka
Subject: Submission of Term Paper on “A REPORT ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE
EDUCATION PLATFORM IN BANGLADESH: A Report on Robi 10 Minute School”
Dear Sir,
This is our great pleasure to have the opportunity to submit the term paper “A REPORT ABOUT
A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE EDUCATION PLATFORM IN BANGLADESH: A Report on Robi 10
Minute School.”
The report is mainly focused on the online education platform sector of Bangladesh and the top
player of the sector, “Robi 10 Minute School.” In this report, we have tried to give a detailed
scenario of 10 Minute School’s company profile, the industry overview, 10 Minute School’s
vision, unique features. We have mostly focused on their current operational activities,
marketing activities (mostly IMC & branding activities) and the challenges they are facing &
steps they are taking to overcome these challenges. As primary data, we directly contacted with
10 Minute School and obtained information & NOC from them. We also used several other
sources in internet as secondary sources along with proper references.
This paper has been prepared under your direct guidance and authorization. Without your
permission, no part of this report can or will be revealed. This report has never been, and will
never be reproduced for any other IBA Course.
We hope that the report, along with all the specifications you guided us with, meet your
approval.
Sincerely yours,
Members of IMC Group-09
Saqib Mahtab Khan [Roll: 202-61-025, Batch: 61E]
Saurav Paul [Roll: 202-61-033, Batch: 61E]
Nafish Intasher Nafi [Roll: 202-61-034, Batch: 61E]
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Syed Mashad Mahmud [Roll: 202-61-045, Batch: 61E]
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to express our gratitude to our course instructor, Mr. Md. Ridhwanul Haq, PhD.,
Professor, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka for giving us
interesting insights on the report. We have learnt a lot about the online education platform
industry of Bangladesh while preparing this report. These experiences have helped us a lot in
making this report. We also thank him for giving us time from his busy schedule to give us his
precious input. Without his help and precious input, it would not be possible for us to prepare
this report.
We would specially like to thank and express our gratitude to Robi 10 Minute School
Management who have helped us a lot in the whole process by providing various information
and issuing NOC.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Page
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 03
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 04
TABLE OF CONTENT 05
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 06
INTRODUCTION 07
OBJECTIVES 07
COMPANY PROFILE 07-09
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW & COMPETITORS 09-12
VISION OF 10 MINUTE SCHOOL 12
CHALLENGES FACED BY 10 MINUTE SCHOOL 13
HOW DID 10 MINUTE SCHOOL COPE UP WITH THE CHALLENGES FACED 14
UNIQUE FEATURES OF 10 MINUTE SCHOOL PLATFORM 15
CURRENT COURSES OFFERED BY ROBI 10 MINUTE SCHOOL 15-20
MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF 10 MINUTE SCHOOL 20-25
IMC Overview 20
Ayman Sadiq – Personal Branding Helps 10 Minute School 20-21
Partnership with Robi and ICT Division 21-22
Facebook Advertising – Using the Internet as an IMC Tool 23
Interactive Marketing with Likee 24
Sales Promotion with bKash 24-25
SMS Marketing 25
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CONCLUSION 26
REFERENCES 26-27
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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INTRODUCTION
The advancement of technology and its widespread availability to the people have ensured
online learning as a reality for many people in Bangladesh. Due to this, many quality online
education platforms are ensuring specific and special education to students and professionals
who unable or choose not to attain classrooms physically. The Covid 19 outbreak brought the
entire country to a grinding halt as everything came to a standstill. As learners could not
physically attend in classes, these e-learning platforms became very trusted learning sources
since they ensured quality online learning and enhancing skill programs virtually. The online
education platform industry was already seeing steady growth before covid. This industry has
been growing exponentially since the beginning of covid outbreak and is expected to grow
more.
Among all the players in the online education platform sector, 10 Minute School is undoubtedly
the major player. They have secured the top place in the industry through their top quality
contents and proper IMC & branding activities.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this report are:
Learning about the online education platform sector and players in this sector;
Describing marketing (IMC, branding etc.) & operational activities of 10 Minute School
and
Explaining the challenges that 10 Minute School are facing and what kinds of decisions
they are taking to overcome those challenges.
COMPANY PROFILE
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10 Minute School platform that is so far the largest in providing online education in Bangladesh.
Their website, app, and social media are accessed by more than 2 million students for quality
education every day for accelerated learning. 10 Minute School provides education on full
academic syllabus from Class 1 through Class 12, university admission subjects including
different exams from public and private university examinations, and many other software and
skills training. However, the journey for the platform began creating video tutorials for
Mathematics and English and eventually moved on by taking live classes on Facebook. Their
content is so updated that in September 2020, the website has produced 19440+ video lessons,
1114+ Smart Books, 49530+ quizzes, and 1300+ blogs. Moreover, they offer many interesting
courses like K12 tutorials, PATR, BCS, HSC, SSC, and SDC (Skill Development Courses).
However, they focus on providing quality education and they have aimed to reduce geographic,
economic, and financial barriers for providing quality education that is easily accessible to
everyone. Some of the achievements of 10 Minutes School till now:
GIST-Technology Award 2016
BRAC Manthan Award 2016
Swiss Embassy Award for Social Impact
YSSE Award
Robi-10 Minute School won the GSMA Glomo award for Best Mobile Innovation for
Education and Learning in the "Connected Life Awards" category in 2017
Their YouTube Pages are:
10 Minute School: http://bit.ly/10MinuteSchool
10 Minute School Live: http://bit.ly/10MinuteSchoolLive
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Figure: Robi 10 Minute School – Total Overview
Mr. Ayman Sadiq started 10 Minute School in the middle of 2014 as a YouTube channel. It had
no sponsor in the starting point, it also did not make a website in the beginning and reached
students only through educational info graphics. It started by making video tutorials for
Mathematics and English and gradually moved on to take live classes on Facebook. The
organization found it very challenging back then to find a suitable sponsor to fund its operational
activities, later on it was sponsored by telecom operator Robi Axiata Limited and the Ministry of
Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology.
10 minutes school was basically created to comprehensively meet the needs of Bangladeshi
students so that this website would not only be a helping hand in national exams and courses,
but also support the students for all local and international tests as well.
The founder Ayman Sadiq used to go through You Tube tutorials during his student life as part
of his studies to get in depth knowledge about his courses. It was during this time he found out
that this idea of learning from digital platforms was fantastic. Since then he started planning to
create such a platform that would provide a lively and quality education experience to the
Bangladeshi students that would be funny, exciting and informative at the same time.
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Back when 10 Minutes School started, Bangladesh was the 8th largest country in the world and
faced the eighth largest education problem in the world. The main idea for this platform was to
reach massive number of people for accessible education that can actually reduce the
education problem in our country.
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW & COMPETITORS
The online education platform industry was already seeing steady growth before covid. This
industry has been growing exponentially since the beginning of covid outbreak and is expected
to grow more.
Since the beginning, 10 Minute School has been the market leader and pioneer of online
education platforms in Bangladesh. It has brought more than 1.5 million young aspirants in its
platform. 10 Minute School is sponsored by telco giant Robi and is being endorsed by numerous
public figures. 10 Minute School has worked with Bangladeshi Ministry of Posts,
Telecommunication and Information Technology to enhance e-learning in Bangladesh.
Besides 10 Minute School, there are many other players in the online education platform
industry in Bangladesh. To name a few: Shikkhok Batayon, Studypress.org, Repto Education
Centre, Amar Pathshala, Shikkhok.com, Lekha Pora BD, edpdbd.org etc.
Shikkhok Batayon is a project of the government of Bangladesh. It is a government-run e-
learning site for Bangladeshi academicians that aims to bring the digitalization of education of
our country into a reality. It is mainly for the teachers of primary, secondary and higher
secondary level. The site allows teachers to upload and download educational contents. Thus, a
vast library of videos, presentations, pictures and other educational contents has been created.
Figure: Shikkhok Batayon Logo
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Content: 2,69,854+ | Model content: 953+ | Members: 4,21,895+
StudyPress is one of the popular e-learning platforms of Bangladesh that specializes solely on
job recruitment tests. More than 1,19,000 job aspirants are getting help from StudyPress. This
site not only lets the students sit for preliminary job tests but also allows the learners to check
their own mistakes and errors from previous exams. This feature may help them to correct
mistakes and check progress over time.
Figure: StudyPress Logo
Students: 1,19,000+ | Questions: 1,14,852+ | Job Tests: 223+ | Online viewer: 3071+
Repto Education center is considered as a desi version of Udemy in the sense that is one of
few platforms which offers online courses on freelancing and online content creation skills for
aspirants. This platform offers courses on android app development, video editing, illustration,
website designing etc. conducted by specialists. All the lectures and classes are taken in
Bangla.
Figure: Repto Education Logo
Students: 132734+ | Course: 132+ | Teachers: 545+
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Amar Pathshala offers various educational courses on a variety of subjects. It also provides
necessary contents for job aspirants. The lessons are designed in such a way that those are
helpful for both English and Bangla medium school students. Amar Pathshala provides
Japanese language training as well. It also provides news on relevant job circulars and other
employment opportunities in the website.
Figure: Amar Pathshala Logo
Video Tutorials: 12,000+ | Quiz: 1500+
Shikkhok.com, founded in 2012, provides high-quality courses in the Bengali language to rural
and disadvantaged students in Bangladesh and India. It mostly focuses in contents for Science
and Engineering Students and researchers.
Video tutorial: 50+ | Blog: 11,000+
Lekha Pora BD’s purpose is to create a community of students from all levels. It is trying to
provide education and information services smoothly by providing information regarding
admission test information, result information, syllabus, suggestion, routine, textbook, job
circular etc.
Follower: 88,480+ | Contents: 6800+
Educationpedia of Bangladesh (edpdbd.org), a big educational portal created in 2011,
provides a lot of content for any students to get prepared for university admission tests, BCS,
IBA, BUET, Medical, and all kinds of job preparation. It is in 5,66,746 th place in global traffic
rank.
Video tutorial: 1000+ | Quiz: 32,000+
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VISION OF 10 MINUTE SCHOOL
The main objective of 10 Minutes School is to provide quality education that can be accessed
for free by students all over Bangladesh. Its vision is to reach around 40 lakhs students
throughout the country overcoming the geographic and economics barriers. The platform will
use automation where each and every user can get teaching materials as per their individual
requirements. 10 Minute School’s aims to provide free education for everyone in the long run.
They are planning to collaborate with all schools and colleges and is gradually planning to
provide access of their teaching materials to students who cannot afford or do not have the
internet facilities.
10 Minute School also has other work plans besides facilitating traditional education. Currently,
more than 5 lakhs people move abroad for technical work every year, many of them being
considered as ‘unskilled’ labor. These workers can be made 5 to 10 times more efficient if they
are provided appropriate training and this will also help them increase their earning. The
platform aims to do so in the future.
CHALLENGES FACED BY 10 MINUTE SCHOOL
Development of website: To reach out to so many target students within the shortest
possible time, a very informative and fascinating website was required for the platform
that will be rich with info graphics. The platform initially faced a lot of difficulties in
developing
a quality website. The founder was constantly in touch with many web developers but
somehow the progress was not up to the expectation as per the founder. Later on, the
CTO of the platform, Abyad Raied learnt website development and developed a primary
version of the website by himself.
Finding a suitable sponsor or raising finance: the founder Ayman Sadiq had to face
a really struggling time to turn idea of turning an online based education platform to an
organization in to reality. He had difficulties in raising finance and obtaining capital for his
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business as banks and other financial institutions were not convinced with his idea and
they were not ready to provide him finance as the organization was a startup and has
very little or minimal financial outcomes at the beginning. But Ayman had a big dream in
his mind and he was not ready to give up. He put all his ideas in pen and paper and
started formulating strategies to place and get financed by potential investors or donors.
He had to consider multiple options and reach out different possible opportunities for
raising his capital.
Ensuring the reach of contents to maximum possible students in shortest
possible time: Bangladesh is a densely populated country and the technological
facilities of the country has not yet been so much advanced that an online platform can
reach all throughout the country in the shortest possible time. Moreover, this concept of
online education was a fairly new concept in Bangladesh. A lot of technical, logistical,
monetary and infrastructural facilities were required for extension of the platform
throughout the country. 10 Minutes School surely needed to come up with strategies to
ensure expansion of their operations throughout the country within a short time frame.
HOW DID 10 MINUTE SCHOOL COPE UP WITH THE CHALLENGES FACED
10 Minutes School approached telecom operator company Robi Axiata Ltd with their idea and
successfully received sponsorship from the company. The operations cost of 10 Minutes School
was initially covered under the Corporate Social Responsibility program of Robi. Now the idea is
to use their contents and creations to earn revenue and generate more sponsorships. Can 10
Minutes School turn their plan into reality? What new strategies can they come up with to turn
their expectations into reality?
The business model of 10 Minutes School includes:
Partners: The ICT Ministry of Bangladesh and the Telecom Operator Company Robi
Axiata Ltd.
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Main Activities: Ensure that quality education can be easily accessed by students all
throughout Bangladesh
Major Resources: 10 Minute school app, programs arranged online etc.
Value Proposition: Online Program Earnings etc.
Channels: Social medias like Facebook, 10 Minute school app etc.
Customer Segmentation: Students, teachers and parents from all over Bangladesh
Customer Relationship: Easy and free of cost access to all kinds of services though
different platforms like social media, email or direct customer care hotline number.
Cost Structure: It mainly includes the salary of employees, cost of maintenance and the
various utility costs.
Revenue: The revenue mainly comes from YouTube earnings, grants and sponsorships
from different private and public organizations including the government of Bangladesh.
UNIQUE FEATURES OF 10 MINUTE SCHOOL PLATFORM
Smart Books: Such books include all academic subjects from English to GK and other
related subjects where students can gather in detail knowledge about different topics by
knowing in-depth meaning of the contents by interactions such as assisting students with
quizzes and practices and also suggesting students about how they can improve their
skills.
Blogs: Such blogs cover academic and inspirational articles, stories of success and
failure, life hacks, business hacks and corporate grooming including skill development.
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Learner Community on Facebook: It has the largest community of online learners
involved in 4 different Facebook groups where different knowledge sharing ideas are
exchanged and introduced.
CURRENT COURSES OFFERED BY ROBI 10 MINUTE SCHOOL
Robi 10 Minutes school currently offers both paid and free courses. Lectures are provided by
experts in the concerned sector. More than 1 lakh students have already enrolled for the paid
courses as per information available from Robi 10MS School website. The classification of the
courses is given below:
Class 1-12: All subjects are offered for free:
Humanities: 14 subjects
General: 5 subjects
Science: 8 subjects
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Business Studies: 8 subjects
Admission Tests Preparation:
7 different courses are offered at different course fees and the fees for each course is 5000
taka.
Skill Development:
There are around 40 courses in this sector. Some courses are offered for free but some courses are paid.
Language Learning: 5 courses
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Kids courses: 5 courses
Skill Development: 19 courses
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Professional Courses: 8 courses:
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Job Recruitment: 3 courses:
Competitive Exams: 1 course:
Crash Courses: 3 courses:
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MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF 10 MINUTE SCHOOL
IMC Overview
10 Minutes School is an online learning platform. Like most online platforms, a large part of their
marketing campaigns are focused on online platforms and online users, using interactive
marketing. Digital advertisement on social media, partnering with other online services to offer
special value to users are the main ways any online platform like 10 Minute School would
market themselves. But 10 Minute School has another big option for their marketing
communications: their CEO, Ayman Sadiq.
Ayman Sadiq – Personal Branding Helps 10 Minute School
Ayman Sadiq is not only the founder and CEO of 10 Minute School, he is a popular figure on the
internet by himself. With over 5.2 million Facebook followers and 1.2 million Instagram followers,
he has a larger following than the organization itself, with 2.6 million followers and 259 thousand
followers on Facebook and Instagram respectively. However, they are more equally followed on
YouTube (Ayman Sadiq’s 1.38 million vs 10 Minute School’s 1.93 million subscribers).
Figure: Ayman Sadiq – Founder and CEO of 10 Minute School
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Ayman Sadiq uses this popularity for the publicity of 10 Minute School, as a publicity vehicle.
Since the inception of the organization, Ayman has attended numerous events, workshops,
award ceremonies, activations, interviews and motivational sessions and publicized the brand of
10 Minute School alongside his own brand. Ayman has conducted 17 school activations, 13
college activations and 23 university activations, including workshops at Dhaka University,
Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, North South University, East West University and
Jahangirnagar University.
Ayman Sadiq has also recently appeared in television advertisements, promoting the 4.5G
services of Robi, which would certainly help reach the 10 Minute School services to more areas
of the country.
Partnership with Robi and ICT Division
In January 2017, 10 Minute School partnered with the mobile operator company Robi and the
ICT Division of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology as a way
to financially sustain the organization, to reach new audiences and spread their services all over
the country. Robi began supporting 10 Minute School, both financially and by creating and
distributing promotional materials. By February 2018, 10 Minute School rebranded itself to Robi-
10 Minute School. The 10 Minute School app was also launched for the Android platform.
As part of their attempts to reach out to different parts of the country, 10 Minute School held
master class events in districts outside of Dhaka, such as Chittagong and Mymensingh. Visiting
various schools, colleges and universities, CEO Ayman Sadiq delivered these master class
sessions directly to students. These sessions included a demonstration of the 10 Minute School
app.
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Fig.: Master Class Event of 10 Minute School
10 Minute School also runs support campaigns for various big examinations held in the country,
such as British Council exams and university admission exams. One such campaign was held in
2018 as an interactive marketing campaign, where users could take part in live classes on the
10 Minute School website and win various prizes, such as smartphones, smartwatches, signed
cricket bats, etc.
Fig.: Support Campaign of 10 Minute School
Facebook Advertising – Using the Internet as an IMC Tool
10 Minute School uses the platforms provided by Meta (Facebook, Instagram and Messenger)
to advertise to their desired demographic. Using social media to advertise like this is a through-
the-line method, and is favored by online platforms like 10 Minute School, since their main
customer base is expected to be already online. There are around 94 different advertisements
currently active through these platforms, and they are geographically targeted towards
Bangladeshi users of these platforms.
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Fig.: 10 Minute School – Facebook Advertising
Furthermore, 10 Minute School maintains 4 active Facebook groups, where users can interact
with each other and talk about the platform and the lessons.
Interactive Marketing with Likee
As a part of Knowledge Month, 10 Minute School collaborated with social media app Likee for
an interactive marketing campaign throughout the month of September 2021. Users of Likee
were encouraged to upload original videos with tips and tricks related to various educational
topics, such as mathematics, science or language. Users were also incentivized with various
prizes, including cash and free access to popular 10 Minute School lessons. Combined with this
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interactive marketing, some publicity was also generated by articles on web news portals such
as Dhaka Tribune.
Fig.: Interactive Marketing with Likee
Sales Promotion with bKash
For the month of November 2021, 10 Minutes School has started a sale promotion campaign
with the mobile financial service app bKash, where they have offered 20% cashback for
purchasing certain courses from their website or app using the payment method of bKash. This
promotion is visible on the bKash app under the “All Offers” section, as well as some publicity
from online web portals.
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Fig.: Sales Promotion with bKash
SMS Marketing
10 Minute School also participate in SMS marketing as part of their direct communications with
customers.
Fig.: SMS Marketing of 10 Minute School
CONCLUSION
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10 Minute School is the leading online learning platform in Bangladesh. With over 2 million
students, a strong presence in social media, a partnership with Robi and ICT Ministry, and the
activity and guidance of its CEO, Ayman Sadiq, 10 Minute School hopes to reach the whole
country with its services and expand further with new and innovative services. 10 Minute School
can reach their future goals through expert utilization of the other online resources available in
Bangladesh, and with the help of educational institutions and advancement of internet and
communication technology within the country.
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E-learning: 5 Bangladeshi platforms to look out for - Sharifuzzaman, published in The
Business Standard, 21 January 2021
https://www.apollo.io/companies/10-Minute-School/5a9e7008a6da98d98c6dc60d?
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best-online-education-platforms
Top 10 e-Learning and Educational Websites in Bangladesh | Online Education Sites,
published in businesshaunt
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active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=BD&view_all_page_id=340302609456794
Ayman Sadiq website: https://aymansadiq.com/me/
https://www.daily-sun.com/post/198758/ICT-Div-Robi-10-Minute-School-join-hands-to-
promote-digital-edu
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encourage-users-to-make-academic-content
https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/corporates/bkash-offers-20-cashback-payment-10-
minute-schools-specific-courses-324898
https://ibtbd.net/ayman-sadiq-founder-and-ceo-robi-10-minute-school/
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https://www.robi.com.bd/en/corporate/news-room/press-release/robi-10-minute-school-
holds-master-class-sessions-in-chattogram
https://www.robi.com.bd/en/corporate/news-room/press-release/robi-10-minute-school-
holds-master-classes-in-mymensingh
https://www.robi.com.bd/en/corporate/news-room/press-release/robi-10-minute-school-
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