If reformation is another term for transformation and transformation a sign of development, then the education system in India has experienced it all in a slow and steady manner in the past few years. The sector has witnessed everything – a dramatic increase in the number of students, an increase in the number of schools, colleges, and institutes, an emergence of blended learning, a shift from offline to online mode of teaching, experiential learning – thus changing students' perspective of educational content.

The last decade has witnessed new paradigms in the education sector - students are now embracing the concept of blended learning. This need of the students paved the way for the evolution of the EdTech platforms. Since a large number of e-learning options are now available, India will soon become the second-largest market after the US.

EdTech players have always performed well and recorded healthy turnovers even before the pandemic. It was only during 2020 when the pandemic became a prism, and humankind began evaluating all other risks through it. It crippled world economies. Education got affected by the closure of schools, colleges, universities, and educational institutes. As a result, the crisis-struck students had to resort to online education, which then became the need of the hour. The massive inflow of investments and acquisitions took place. The EdTech market is booming in India, and its testimony lies in the fact that over 400 new ed-tech startups came up in India in the last two years.

Changes in the education sector

The advent of smart classrooms: Chalkboards got replaced by smart screens, and teachers nowadays are not required to write notes. The year 2013 saw the advent of smart classrooms where technology-driven smart boards delivered lectures and explained formulae and concepts.

Shaping young minds to become job creators: The conventional education system is restricted to passive learning, which fails to push innovation and infuse entrepreneurial skills into the mind-set of young learners. However, in the last few years, education has spurred enthusiasm as the focus has shifted to providing entrepreneurship education by integrating it into the curriculum, thus shaping young minds to become job creators while the earlier emphasis would be on making them job-ready.

Online education: Ed-Tech players effectively employed diverse technologies and made quality education available for the masses.

Apps for all age groups: Students need not necessarily imply those going to schools, colleges, or other educational institutes. Professionals taking up courses to enhance their knowledge in order to excel in their careers are also students. Ed-tech platforms offer a host of apps that suit all age groups ensuring knowledge reaches the end-user at their convenience.

Changes shaping the New Education Policy: The changes that have taken place in the last decade have been incorporated in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which has replaced the National Policy on Education 1986. By reforming the education landscape of the country, it will make India a global leader in education.

Features of NEP 2020-

To provide thrust on emerging changes to achieve the country’s long-term goal of quality education for all and 100% literacy in India

To harness EdTech through app-based learning

Emphasis on flexible and experiential learning

Focus on the blended mode of learning in classes

To promote online classes in an aggressive manner to improve access to education

To allocate funds with an emphasis on K12 and STEM education

The last decade witnessed a host of EdTech startups that mushroomed, disrupting the education space in India.

EdTech start-ups that have scaled faster in India:

BYJU’S

Unacademy

upGrad

Toppr

WhiteHat Jr.

Vedantu

Coursera

Cuemath

Adda247

OMOTEC

Interestingly, the EdTech space has witnessed significant consolidation in the last few years.

After acquiring Toppr, virtual simulation startup LabInnApp, and coding startup WhiteHat Jr., BYJU’S, this year acquired Aakash Educational Services

Vedantu acquired Instasolv

upGrad, which had earlier acquired Rekrut India, now takes over The Gate Academy

Unacademy acquired TapChief

S2M acquired MultiStory Learning

EdTech: the new-age learning

EdTech emerged as a long-term and growing business prospect.

The Ed-Tech market in India is projected to touch around US$ 3.2 billion by 2022 and US$ 10.4 billion by 2025.

Approximately five times growth in funding has been observed as several new startups have carved their niche.

India has the largest population globally with 580 million in the age group of 5-24 years, thus highlighting immense opportunity in the education sector.

Also, the investments received by ed-tech startups has gone up to US$ 2.22 billion in 2020 from US$ 553 million in 2019.

Students are now exploring learning outcomes and hence are not enrolling in programmes that will not yield anything conclusive. Education is a bulwark against all discrimination. Therefore when education flourishes, humankind flourishes.

This is a partnered post.

First Published:Jul 21, 2021 4:46 PM IST