Technology has helped revolutionize the education sector in India.
Online platforms are making use of the increase in smartphone ownership within India to engage millions of schoolchildren with interactive games and animated lessons on video which serve a purpose greater than entertainment.
Foreign investors have put a large amount of money into the fast growing “edtech” industry in Indian as they aim to capitalize on the largest school-age population in the world.
Akshat Mugad, a sixteen-year-old referred to a Facebook-backed app for educational purposes in India, stated: “I have been using Byju’s since last year and my performance has really improved. I understand mathematical concepts much better now.”
Byju, the education app which was founded in 2011, has become a major learning site and aims to expand beyond India.
Byju is among several start-ups which aims at improving the educational experience for children who are eager and willing to take on a new style of learning which deviates away from the memorization techniques used in most of Asia. The startup is currently preparing to launch their latest learning product for 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders this year which will comprise of learning programs that accommodate to the different regional languages within the country.
Analysts have said that technology has the power to revolutionize the quality of education in India,
India has around 270 million children between the ages of 5 and 17. According to a KPMG research report, the “edtech” sector in India will have an estimated net-worth of 2 billion USD by 2021.
Some other edtech startups include Simplilearn, Toppr and Brainly which have focused their efforts on offering new and innovative solutions in different Indian languages.
Many of these companies have been using artificial intelligence (AI) and bots to ehance the educational experience and delivery.
Amitabh Jhingan, partner and education sector leader at Earnest and Young stated, “India is one of the few countries where edtech has been adopted at a large scale at the consumer level. Most of these players are in the next phase of growth, which has pushed these players to tier-2 and tier-3 towns and cities. As a result, most of them are developing products in regional languages.”
Toppr is currently working on expanding its reach and extending its services to more cities in India. They focused a great deal on creating a team of consultants which would sit with the students and parents to formulate the most effective online educational course plan.
Toppr CEO, Zishaan HAyath said, “Two years ago, we had teams of our academic consultants in seven cities across the country. We have no grown to 25 cities.”
The company also uses AI-powered bots to resolve online queries.
“We introduced ‘Doubts on Chat’ back in 2015. Students could clarify any doubt at any time of the day over a chat app and our experts would resolve it immediately. To keep resolving all doubts in under a minute, we developed an AI-powered bot,” said Hayath.
When asked about Simplilearn’s business goals, its CEO, Krishna Kumar, said, “Some of the areas we are focusing on are automating sales solutions, financial processes, marketing systems, enterprise solutions and offering Ai-driven support to students.”
The startup has introduced several new courses, some of which include machine learning, AI, Robotic Process Automation and data science.
