In today's times maintaining physical/ social distancing is the new way of living. While most of our activities will have to be done from home re-adjustments will be required to a few to shift them over to the digital channels.
Education is one key human endeavor which will progressively be done online. An assessment of the current state of online education here in India shows that while some resources do exist there's a lot that needs to be done to make online education viable and effective for students, particularly for those from the marginalized sections of the society.
Various government bodies connected with education in India such as CBSE, NCERT, AICTE, UGC, NIOS, CIET, CEC, MHRD, etc. have over the years made attempts towards providing distance education, e-learning & MOOCs, digitization of books and materials, content delivery via various digital plaforms & tv , youtube, video conferencing and so on. These freely available resources can be good starting points for aggregating and rolling out well thought out standardized content/ tools for the students. Parallely, availability of content in regional languages and localization can be fast paced.
On the other side are the new world EduTech startup companies that are making lots of progress in the technology driven online education space. Companies such as Byjus, Vedantu, Khan Academy, TOI etc. are now household names thanks to their big advertising push. The target student pool though seems to be the well to do convent/ public school student with the means to pay for the services.
A good grasp over language and access to internet & good mobile and computing devices are pre-requisites for using these platforms well. While absence of such novelties in the lives of students from the poor and marginalized sections of society make the platforms out of reach of such students. Perhaps, it's time for socially conscious EduTech startups to come-forth to bridge the digital divide!
Education is one key human endeavor which will progressively be done online. An assessment of the current state of online education here in India shows that while some resources do exist there's a lot that needs to be done to make online education viable and effective for students, particularly for those from the marginalized sections of the society.
Various government bodies connected with education in India such as CBSE, NCERT, AICTE, UGC, NIOS, CIET, CEC, MHRD, etc. have over the years made attempts towards providing distance education, e-learning & MOOCs, digitization of books and materials, content delivery via various digital plaforms & tv , youtube, video conferencing and so on. These freely available resources can be good starting points for aggregating and rolling out well thought out standardized content/ tools for the students. Parallely, availability of content in regional languages and localization can be fast paced.
On the other side are the new world EduTech startup companies that are making lots of progress in the technology driven online education space. Companies such as Byjus, Vedantu, Khan Academy, TOI etc. are now household names thanks to their big advertising push. The target student pool though seems to be the well to do convent/ public school student with the means to pay for the services.
A good grasp over language and access to internet & good mobile and computing devices are pre-requisites for using these platforms well. While absence of such novelties in the lives of students from the poor and marginalized sections of society make the platforms out of reach of such students. Perhaps, it's time for socially conscious EduTech startups to come-forth to bridge the digital divide!
Update 1 (29-Mar-21):
- Check out the discussion on EduTech at India Economic Conclave 21 between
Vineet Nayar(Founder & Chairman, Sampark Foundation) & Ashish Jhalani (CMO (Global), Square Panda)
Vineet Nayar(Founder & Chairman, Sampark Foundation) & Ashish Jhalani (CMO (Global), Square Panda)
- Also the Fireside Chat with Tennis Legend Andre Agassi of The Andre Agassi Foundation for Education & Chairman of Board, Square Panda
