With schools and colleges shut due to lockdown, Edtech is not merely an alternative to offline education but progressively becoming primary model of education, says SHOBHIT BHATNAGAR
With schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions shut due to the lockdown, students preparing for any kind of exams are confined within the four walls of their home. If they need help or guidance, they can't go out to their coaching/ tuition centres, the services of those they've already paid for. Apart from cities, there are also students in rural areas who used to travel long distances to reach their respective coaching centres and now, can’t do the same. So, the question is how do we help these students whose life choices/future depends on the upcoming competitive exams?
The situation is not only a challenge but also an opportunity. By ensuring that students’ learning continues uninterrupted by providing free live classes, EdTech is delivering on the premise ‘education is a basic right’. The biggest benefit that the EdTech industry offers, especially in times like these is a safe, convenient, study-from-home option. This short term situation is increasing the trust of students and their parents on EdTech. The current situation will result in the increased acceptance of EdTech as an alternative to offline education and eventually progress to becoming the primary model of education.
There has been a lot of demand for educational videos, doubt solving and online classes. A research report in 2019 indicated that more than 70% students are willing to shift online if they can access online classes. The report also suggested that this percentage is much higher among tier II and III cities, with 80% of aspirants preferring online learning. Since 2016, we have seen an uptick in the Google search query for doubt solving and online classes. The fourth largest category on YouTube, education saw 19.12B views in 2019 (a growth of 53% from 2018).
Education sector was valued at $100B in 2016 and is expected to nearly double to $180B by the end of 2020. Investors, who are well versed with this sector, have hypothesised that some of the delivery of education will move online. According to a Google-KPMG study, the total annual market opportunity for Online Education could reach $1.96 billion by 2021.
The current scenario is somewhat similar to what demonetisation was for digital payments. Withdrawal from one mode magnified the opportunity for another. We are witnessing an increase in the digital consumption of educational services. Currently, the online education market is accelerating faster and can be bigger than $1.96B by 2021.
EdTech companies that provide quality service will be able to tap into this opportunity. Companies will have to raise the bar of education services by incorporating AI, ML on their platforms for an enhanced learning experience. Only those who will be sufficiently armed to serve a new wave of students with evolved curriculum needs every year while retaining their existing user-base, will steal the show.
The current pandemic may have shown us a glimpse of the change in “forced” user behaviour, but we strongly believe that the behaviour will be sticky and online teaching will be adopted by many students and educational institutes in the future. Online education market will reach $350B globally by 2025. India is likely to join the ranks of US and China in the near future.