When will the Indian EdTech, valued at $ 30 billion, truly benefit my students?
Let’s take a look at the industry’s market size and future projections.
$ 30 billion Indian EdTech Industry in 10 years:
I am so impressed as an educator that I see a huge boom in EdTech investment worldwide, with $11 billion invested in 2020, four times in 2019. According to a report by PGA Labs and the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association, Indian EdTech startups received $2.2 billion in investments in 2020, up from $553 million in 2019. Among the 90 Edtech players, 61 had seed funding.
According to transaction advisory firm RBSA Advisors, the Indian education technology industry will reach a market size of $ 30 billion in ten years. From a base of 2019, online education offerings for classes 1 to 12 are expected to grow 6.3 times by 2022, while the post-k-12 market is expected to grow 3.7 times to $ 1.8 billion.
The great challenge to Edtech companies:
Because of the large amount of capital being poured into EdTech, it is becoming increasingly expensive to acquire a user, as most companies are purchasing the same ad inventories across multiple channels. Given the market size, it is easier to build a proof of sustainable unit economics with a few thousand users, but scaling up becomes unsustainable. Since students will not stay long unless they see progress in their learning, hoping they will stick around is not realistic. Moreover due to the low barrier to entry, students and parents have the option to drop at any time.
As an optimistic educator, I hope that the billion-dollar EdTech industry will respond to these questions with their work very soon.
· When does artificial intelligence provide solutions to my students’ really-learning problems?
· Is it enough to create visually appealing and thought-provoking presentations to engage the learners?
· Students’ attention spans are extremely short in this distracted era, particularly when it comes to academic activities. Who is ultimately responsible for this? Parents, teachers, educational management, the environment, or a combination of these factors. Can’t we take serious measures to address this?
· Is it possible for a learner to advance to the next level without deliberate self-practice?
(EdTech could employ a more realistic approach with the help of classroom instruction.)
· How is it possible to significantly improve or enhance a learner’s self-practice in this complex and distracted era?
· Who is accountable for improving desired learning, comprehension, analysis, application, logical reasoning, and problem-solving abilities?
Similarly, there are numerous questions to be answered.
Technological advancement is present in many aspects of our society, including banking, government activities, all types of business services, medical services, and more. When will education receive its due? We’re not just looking for presentation videos, are we?
As an educator, I am so confident that we will be able to answer these questions through the efforts of loving, affectionate, and passionate teachers, educational administrators, and the incorporation of technological advancement into the classroom. Content alone could not make any impact particularly in K-12. We require technology that increases learner self-engagement, provides true personalised learning, generates detailed analysis of the learner’s performance, guides learning improvement, and culminates in an amazing learning experience.
However, technology inclusion is not as straightforward as it has been in other sectors.
For example, while augmented reality and virtual reality-based content are now ready for use in the classroom to a certain extent, they have not yet reached a more advanced level of readiness in all areas of primary and secondary education. Obviously there are a variety of reasons for this, but the reality is it has not yet had a significant impact in the real world of education.
Technology inclusion could be completely different from it because instilling proper learning habits, providing each learner with a helping hand at the appropriate time, reviving motivation, persistence, and perseverance at times is an entirely different and time-consuming task. It is possible through the collaboration of physical classrooms equipped by passionate teachers and content created with the assistance of truly exceptional teachers who understand the learning psychology of diverse students.
The most fundamental statement in the classroom is “What the teacher delivers is not important, but what the student receives is,” which means that the teacher must work extremely hard to ensure that each and every point he or she presents is understood by the student.
In general, every school claims to provide personalised and meaningful education as well as a holistic educational experience, but it is only on the majority of schools’ signboards and advertisements. In the case of Edtech companies, I wish it would not be. Each penny they spend should contribute to and enhance our students’ educational experience.