The Indian Education Sector Seems To Be Experiencing A Revolution Courtesy Edtech Startups
Did you know, in the past two years, our economy has experienced the emergence and development of close to 900 start ups, all of which are entirely focused on the education sector. The Indian Education Sector values up to $100 billion and has been experiencing quite a lot action in terms of Edtech start ups. With the evolving age of internet and technology, more and more students are able to access the virtual world of learning. This includes interactive videos and textbooks, on line classroom discussions, exclusively customized learning modules and content from some of the best universities. With the addition of the online learning courses, the doors to education at a more accessible level have been thrown open. From foreign universities offering online courses, to professional training institutes like Imarticus Learning offering online certification courses in Finance and Analytics. Conventional educational systems seem to be undergoing certain cataclysmic shifts, as the students and teachers both, try and embrace all the comfort, convenience and efficiency that is offered by these Edutech companies. The online courses trend is becoming more and more relevant by the day and being known as MOOC’s or Massively Open Online Courses, is witnessing increasing popularity and acceptance among the student population. While on one hand, time honored institutes like Harvard and Oxford are taking notice of this trend, the government of India is also accepting its importance. The HRD Ministry in India, in similar vein has launched the Swayam initiative, which is a program that is set to offer about 200 e-courses and another 10,000 e-courses under the AICTE, which will all be planned over the next couple of years. Statistics state that the number of students, registering for online courses has been steadily
increasing at the rate of 70% per year. Nikhil Barshikar, who is the CEO of Imarticus Learning states, “Online courses offer fantastic flexibility, convenience and customization; while delivering impactful learning outcomes for students”. He went ahead to add that, “Our online course have been popular among students because they are upgrading their skills with industry relevant subject matter, that is not available in their university curriculum.” As HR Managers come to recognize the importance of updated curriculum, broader talent pools and thorough online assessments, these online certification courses are clearly gearing up to change the way training and learning takes place. This revolution has been driven by many key factors, one of which includes the emergence of Big Data and Analytics. This has not only revolutionized the way education is looked at, but it has also paved way for more efficient student-teacher relationships. For instance, insititutes have been able to leverage data analytics in order to assess the teachers’ abilities and help them provide better guidance to the students. While big data and analytics have paved a greatly important way in the education sector, they have received important implications in other fields related to the education sector. For instance, lets take the example of student loans. Student loans were earlier the domain of just the banking sector in general. This is no longer the case as there happen to be start ups, which are ready to venture into this field. All these companies have to do, is leverage analytics and provide the loans, with the completion of all the formalities in as less as 8 hours and more importantly, online. This huge change can usher in great benefits for those looking to get skilled by depending on loans. There are great chances of India becoming more and more tech-scary and paving way for technology being able to mold itself to the various different boards of Indian Education.