New trends in the edtech ecosystem

The past few years have seen the emergence of many startups in the Indian edtech industry. We can attribute some key reasons for this. Technological innovations are helping forge new pathways for growth, and the edtech ecosystem is continuously evolving to provide new and innovative services.

Investors have sensed potential profitability, resulting in the sector attracting large investments. And finally, the onset of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns have dramatically changed the way education was imparted, shifting the focus to online education.

This has resulted in an ever-increasing consumer base and a remarkable upsurge in the growth and profit of the edtech sector.

Scope for change

Content consumption patterns for online education in India have seen a rise in demand for gamified content, live classes, online assessments, high quality resources, better accessibility and innovative methods of learning.

The technological advancements have augmented this demand, and a large number of entrepreneurs have come up with successful business models for online education.

Technology-enabled learning also has the potential to successfully plug gaps prevailing in our existing education system viz. lack of proper school infrastructure, teacher absenteeism or unavailability, lack of proper training of in-service teachers, lack of accessibility to learning, especially in remote areas and numerous other challenges.

Edtech can therefore alleviate a number of these issues by leveraging technology and making learning accessible, affordable and flexible. This is garnering multiple opportunities for the entrepreneurs.

India’s edtech journey commenced in 2004 with the emergence of satellite-based education, smart classrooms and the adoption of school management software by schools. The year 2008 saw the start of e-learning with edtech companies providing online education.

Over the years, internet availability and access to smartphones at affordable rates paved the way for deeper penetration into the markets. India’s current edtech landscape mainly comprises of Pre-K-12/college learning, test preparation, upskilling and technology providers.

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The trends

• In the online test preparation segment, India has prominently shown growth and due to the increased competition, edtech players in the segment are offering services at a lower cost.
• Technology itself has an ever-growing demand for skills up-gradation. There has been significant growth for roles requiring skilled professionals, such as data scientists, machine learning experts, software analysts etc. The edtech sector is ensuring short-term courses with online certifications enabling people to train at ease
• Video driven content (including simulations and other visual content) is garnering a lot of demand and has attracted many players who are creating top notch learning and training content.
• Convenience, flexibility, and affordability gives the sector a cutting-edge advantage. People are interested in high quality but affordable content, and where learning is flexible and accessible anytime/anywhere. This has helped cut across many economic demographics and made knowledge and skills available to a larger population.

Conclusion

While the pandemic has thrown life out of gear, the edtech sector is certainly poised to strengthen its gains.

The growing prominence of digital education and edtech firms will help enormously to fulfil the government’s agenda of ‘Education for All’ and in improving the quality and scope of elementary as well as higher education in the country as outlined in the NEP 2020. This will help in giving an impetus for further growth to the sector.