Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The coronavirus pandemic has affected the lives of many. However, it has been a boon to the educational industries are taking advantage of this period and drives on a full swing to impart education online. The online education usage from the year 2019-2020 has been mapped in a report by RedSeer and Omidyar Network.

The report showed that the edtech users in K12 and post K12 have witnessed an increase from 45 million to 90 million. In addition to that, there has been 50% hike in the time spent in its usage. The report also said that it saw a 40% increase in the willingness to pay and an 80% jump in the paid user base.

If this trend follows, then the online education offerings for classes 1 to 12 are seen to increase 6.3 times by 2022 which creates a $1.7 billion market. The post K12 market is seen to grow 3.7 times which is projected to touch $1.8 billion.

The director of the Investments Omidyar Network India, Namita Dalmia, said that “The lockdown has provided massive tailwinds to the growing edtech space. Edtech offerings have helped millions of students across the country to continue their learning from home. These solutions are better, more convenient, and affordable alternatives for students and parents.”

She said that this lockdown has spurred the growth in the B2B space and all the educational institutes are moving fast towards the tech-based solutions.

Skills and quality of education

The report also talks about the quality market in the quantity market. The quality of education will seriously impact the primary, secondary and the higher education. More qualified people can work on the measures to improve the quality of the education and make it accessible to all. This will facilitate the upskill of the working professional.

As per the data from the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR), published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), India ranked 68th in the 141 countries list in 2019. It came down by 10 places from 2018.

The country scored well in terms of market size, innovation and macroeconomic stability. However, it lags in workforce skills which includes vocational training, digital skills and in ease of finding trained employees. The country is ranked 120th in the information and communication technology (ICT).

The internet can improve the quality of the skills provided. It makes the workforce and the platform more competitive.

A RedSeer spokesperson mentioned that “In the past few months, edtech has seen massive uptick in user adoption. Furthermore, inertia with respect to edtech is slowly fading away among both institutes and parents. Education is a complex space with differentiation possible on multiple levels – we are likely to see multiple winners emerge.”

Competition in the market

As there are lot of competition in the market, the syllabus, language, pricing, teacher trainings, etc. will play a major role in the board. The edtech currently set to address around 150 million students from various backgrounds. The innovators will be competing across pricing, mode of delivery, offline support, teaching methodology and the training services.

In this varying phenomenon, the key role to build up the network is by making the eventual partnerships with the potential innovators. This will enable them to reach larger amount of people as edtech players and helps them in expanding their user base. Though there are 70% of the student community engages in the network, only 10% of the population is active in its usage.

The partnership need not only depend on the education means, but also should consider the device partnerships in order to reach the students even in the lower economic group. The investments in the original content is the key part here.

Role of Startups

Namita notified that “The massive adoption of edtech has also showcased infrastructure constraints due to poor connectivity and low-end devices. It has also demonstrated the need for affordable offerings to drive wider adoption. Entrepreneurs should look to build solutions that address these challenges, keeping in mind the end goal of improved learning outcomes. This will help serve students across income segments.”

The RedSeer spokesperson said that, “Startups must focus on better onboarding, student engagement, and delivering on outcomes through their products. This will ensure that the uptick is retained (or churn is minimal) after restrictions are lifted. Along with investment in content production (particularly for users from younger grades and vernacular segments), edtech players will also need to innovate on sales and pricing to cater to a wider student base.”

The startups need to focus on the sales innovation, pricing innovation and the content in the Indian languages. This will enable them to grow high as well as this will make sure that all the students will get exposure to the education.

 

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