Ed-Tech in India: A Service for All?

Digital media is a growing global language used and known to almost 60% of the world’s population. Whether it’s an office meeting or connecting with kins, it is integral to every sphere. India’s digital growth has been exponential with it being the second-largest mobile market in the world and also accounts for the world’s largest young population. With that India has a Market size value in 2020 of USD 89.07 billion with, Growth Rate of CAGR of 18.1% from 2020 to 2027, but with only 38% of students having access to the internet.

However, the question is, is Ed-tech replicable to school learning in India? By the government’s initiative, is India prepared to let its students get homeschooling? Whether this is profiting our learners or just the owners of the startups? India’s preparation for replacing its school blackboard with tech devices is questioning the technical gap in India. Were all questions tried to examine here?

Why do we need ed-tech in the curriculum?

With locked schools and classrooms due to the pandemic, online education became a viable alternative for the education system across the world. In India, it has become a source of reaching out to the 37.4 million students in both urban and rural parts of the country. The infrastructural need for online learning in India is recalling its illiteracy rate i.e. still more than 30%. Rather than having more than 4000 Ed-tech startups the nation still has 1.67% of digital literacy with less than 10% of citizens having access to the internet. As per the Global Competitiveness Index released by the World Economic Forum in 2019, India ranked 10 places down from 2018 i.e. 68th, as it prospered poorly, in the parameters such as infrastructure, skills, and innovation capability, mainly due to the adoption of information, communications, and technology (ICT).

Therefore, the inclusion of ed-tech in the curriculum is necessary to develop the concepts of technology from basic level to increasingly complex skills. With the integration of technology to the curriculum, we may revolutionize the technical learning process of India.

What is the Government doing?

Indian government’s recent initiatives include Ed-tech in New Education Policy 2020 under which, coding is included in the school curriculum from 6th standard onward. National Educational Technology Forum (“NETF”) for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment planning, and administration for school and higher education. The Ministry of Finance initiated 12 TV channels in 2020, for each standard with digital learning materials with 24X7 access, by the idea of not limiting e-learning to the internet only and for the student with special needs on-air education was started under the programs like Radio Vahini, Shiksha Vaani. The PRAGYATA guidelines enforce the eight steps of online education that is, Plan, Review, Arrange, Guide, Yak(talk), Assign, Track, and Appreciate.

However, due to the pandemic challenges are not limited to access resources but also brings in social notions and financial limitations. During the pandemic, an increase of 20% school dropout rate has been witnessed among female students. As the schools shifted to online mode, the need for electronic devices grew, of which female students have not been given a priority. As per the Global Girlhood Report 2020, 5 lakh girls in the world are at risk of being forced into child marriage in this year only, as India accounts for one-third of total child marriage in the world, therefore, the special need of female students needs the centre of attention.

India: A hype market of ed-tech

India is the second fastest-growing industry in Ed-tech, predicted a 120 per cent growth in FY2020 (Omidyar Network India by RedSeer Consulting EdTech). The momentum given by the Coivid19 to this market brought its future from $2.8 Bn (2020) to $10.4 Bn (2025). In the context of funding of the ed-tech market, Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, Toppr and Eruditus are the startups that contribute a whole of 80% ($1.38 Bn) to the total value of funding of ed-tech startups. The coincidence or plan but the NEP and the growth of the ed-tech market came hand-in-hand to the young population of India.

With all the concerns related to access and social divide, it is vital to look at the debates and marketing strategies being adopted by these booming ed-tech enterprises. White Hat Jr. has been in limelight due to many reasons but also due to its exponential growth in the past year. It is a startup which offers parents to kick start their kid’s journey to create the next billion-dollar idea of the tech world, the advertisement might be impressive (with the imaginary child “Woolf Gupta”), but their curriculum is not(the same is available on code.org). Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), proved its advertisement to be cand its unsubstantiated claims.

Is India prepared for this?

As per The Hindu news article Even before the pandemic 32 million children were already out of school, just because they were from a socially disadvantaged class of the country, here it might be asked what makes technology an asset? This is explicable by the 2018 report of the ministry of rural development that shows only 47% of households in India receive electricity for more than 12 hrs & more than 36 & of Indian schools operate without electricity. Herewith the real-time scenario, the effectiveness of government policies and programs like NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning), DIKSHA(Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), E VIDYA, etc. are questioning the policy needs of the basic infrastructure.

Technology having capabilities to change the human is now outspoken, but with a tremendous gap in its accessibility needs the forefront focus, there is a need to build a new sustainable, accessible, way of delivering education effectively.

About The Author

Anuradha Karna is a graduate in Political Science from University of Delhi. She is interested in the areas of Education, Technology and Human Rights.