Boost to edtech in India

Why India Needs Boost To Its Education Sector With The Incredible Growth Of Smartphones!

An outbreak of Covid-19 brought an unprecedented opportunity. The traditional face-to-face interaction between a teacher and students suffered a setback, but the paradigm shifts to the unconventional mode of online learning almost instantaneously. The EdTech startup has blossomed from the previous financial year (FY) to what it is today, thanks to encouragement by the government and financial institutions. Additionally, new firms and partnerships have resulted in faster growth.

Growth of EdTech- Turning COVID-19 crisis into opportunity

The nationwide lockdown from March 2020 led to schools and colleges' shutting down, and inspiring demand was created. We saw to look for technological solutions and upgrade their technical infrastructure to ensure continuity in education. As an immediate measure, these institutions started relying on third-party video conferencing applications like Zoom and Webex for a seamless transition from offline to online learning mode.

BARC India and Nielsen report increased screen time on Education apps by 30%. But, that is not all; active learners were everywhere during the shutdown. The survey by LinkedIn showed participation from India’s IT industry rising by 63%. Keeping pace with the evolving socio-economic scenario and the digital shift, UpGrad is a platform for upskilling and re-skilling that has grown at an explosive rate of 100% in the first nine months of FY 2020-2021.

The NEP is a significant development in the EdTech sector, a progressive drive towards a quality educational experience. The NEP recognizes the importance of technology and its ability to make education more effective. Therefore, the NEP proposes establishing a National Educational Technology Forum, which will advocate the benefits of educational technology. In addition, the proposal to invest in digital infrastructure, develop online teaching platforms and tools, and create virtual labs and digital repositories can potentially trigger massive public spending in India.

The NEP promotes technology platforms as a valuable tool for learning. It also encourages the development of online assessment tools for teachers to evaluate learners and form flexible and responsive learning environments.

NEP proposed that students be taught how to code in classrooms. As a result, children have begun to learn coding in fun, easy ways, such as through Tekie, WhiteHat Jr., Coding Ninja, and HackerKID, to name a few.

Landmark deals in EdTech since the start of the pandemic

The number of startups in the EdTech sector has increased gradually. As a result, the industry has also seen a significant increase in funding activities.

This sector received approximately USD 2.22 billion in funding in 2020 compared to 553 million USD in 2019. K-12 education received the highest allocation of USD 19.8 billion. Further, EdTech giants like Byju’s and Unacademy accounted for about 73% of the total funding by investing USD 1.35 billion and USD 264 million, respectively.

Bloomberg reports that Byju’s is currently in the process of raising money to expand its operation. Valued at USD 15 million, it is in the middle of raising money to raise USD 1 Billion. In January 2021, Unacademy concluded a secondary transaction funding round wherein Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadview Capital, and General Atlantic purchased shares worth USD 50 million from existing investors.

For consolidation, EdTech giants Byju’s and Unacademy took center stage to seal a total of four and seven deals, respectively.

In India alone, around 4,530 EdTech startups were operating in the country. Of these, 435 startups were founded between 2019 and 2020.

Conclusion

EdTech in India is growing fast. As the market expands rapidly, India is expected to become an EdTech hub for international investors. By 2025, India is estimated to account for 12.2% of the global EdTech market. Last year, we saw a massive rise in the EdTech industry across India, with many aspiring Indian startups using technology to create affordable and quality educational content for students. The growth efforts are carried out mainly through expansion (by way of product offerings to customers) or consolidation (by acquiring EdTech startups.)

However, the question remains whether the EdTech sector will survive the pandemic or fizzle out because of the return to the traditional education model once classrooms resume. Given the demographics of the country and widespread conventional educational culture, what are the key challenges and opportunities for the growth of the EdTech sector?