The digital learning space in India is seeing a lot of activity; this coupled with higher Internet penetration and government initiatives which creates an interesting moment in the history of Ed tech in India. There are over 400 Ed tech/E-learning startups in India; it feels like the next big thing after the e-commerce success story. A lot of students are accepting and appreciating technology’s advent into education. We believe the focus will shift from consumption-oriented metrics to quality questions very soon.

In countries like India with super low teacher-student ratios, the whole system relies on a series of scores to make an assessment of a person’s career potential. Access to better schools and colleges is solely contingent on achieving high scores at previous academic milestones. Better schools and colleges automatically ensure better employability options. In some cases like the public sector, these scores also determine access to jobs directly. As such testing outcomes become proxies for learning outcomes where the whole system works to maximize test scores. The excitement of learning gets lost along the way. Both the gaps i.e. access to quality education & delivering learning outcomes have to be addressed together. We feel technology/ data sciences & a scalable content strategy can bridge the personalisation gap in education and make a big difference to learning outcomes. Access to quality learning is still limited to what students have available around them. But, in a country as vast as India, the best solution to your problem may not always be in your geographical vicinity. Ed-tech products have proved to be a game-changer in this regard. Today, a single high quality ed-tech product is improving learning outcomes for lakhs of students in the country, irrespective of their level of ability or access.

Using technology- analytics and data create more transparency by providing ‘valuable insights’ around key performance metrics that will help students improve their scores whereas for teachers it will give a clear indication on what the weak links are and they can help students have providing relevant and accurate information at the correct time.

Startups can ensure quality learning. Students pay $1200 per year on average to crack entrance exams in India like the JEE. Despite this investment of time and money, only 5% of the 1.4 million applicants scored greater than 30% in the exam. These are worrisome numbers. The whole premise of the private tutoring industry is rooted in the famous “Bloom’s 2 sigma problem” according to which “the average tutored student was above 98% of the students in the control class.” The Right to Education Act mandates a student-teacher ratio of 33:1 for effective teaching. Despite that, this ratio can be as high as 1000:1! The result is a “one size fits all” training module. The top 5% students cope while the majority struggle and eventually lose hope.

There is virtually zero access to personalised feedback or guidance for the average student. Teachers especially engineer the lectures in classrooms like these to be one-way interactions to ensure most classes end on time, and more ‘batches’ can be squeezed into the schedule in a day. There is also social censure against asking questions. Ed-tech startups can ensure quality learning at a massive scale. Ed-teach platforms have gone a step further and made parents and teachers a crucial part of a student’s preparation process. Learning has become adaptive to a student’s needs as well as gamified to engage students, making learning enjoyable. Online learning is definitely more advanced and effective than traditional classroom education.

The global market has already adapted to the use of education technology primarily through the use of MOOC’s (Massively Open Online Courses), the focus in India and a lot of similar emerging markets is still very much on learning outcomes or improving marks. Because the need is focused and the stakes much higher, Indian portals focusing on these Massively Competitive Complex Exams (MCCE’s), like JEE and AIPMT amongst others, have a very high chance of gaining massive scale very early if they can truly showcase desirable outcomes. Reviews are helpful in both MOOC’s and MCCE’s. Word of mouth usually results in the best referrals since people trust the opinions of their peers.

Online Learning is very different from the traditional classroom set up students have been exposed to. The benefits for students are immense hence so many are hooked to preparing and studying online. Students who want to start their online learning journey need to start spending time on platforms that suit their precise requirement. Students can start by practicing on the platform slowly increasing the amount of time they spend practicing. When comfortable with topics and chapters one can start taking
tests and analyzing the feedback provided.

One of the biggest challenges for Online Learning in India is the penetration of Internet. Poor Internet connectivity in many parts of the country and lack of access to good facilities is holding a lot of people back. With Digital India initiative through which we can hope to see a massive boost in online learning.

The Indian education services market can be broadly divided into test preparation, tutoring, and online courses. Education is the one true meritocracy in a country like India. While the government is keen on increasing Internet penetration in India the real growth of a country will only happen when every ‘Individual’ will have access to quality education. Ed-tech will drive the need for the Internet in every nook and corner of the country.

Our education system is structurally designed to keep losing and recreating student data and context—a fundamentally inefficient way of solving for skilling and also a massive wastage of resources. Emerging markets are still largely seeing ed-tech businesses focused on building content online. Education is at a stage of transformation and is changing like never before. Ed-tech start-ups are championing the cause of access, quality, and performance. We are super excited about the future and the role we can play in crafting a new, level playing field.