How EdTech companies are recalibrating their business strategies to remain relevant

One key feature of the pandemic period was the transition of India’s entire education system online as schools and colleges remained closed for extended periods. This transition was rapid and spread pan-India as educational institutions scrambled to cause as less disruption to the studies as possible. Teachers had to learn to take online classes making ingenious use of technology, while parents had to provide the necessary tools to their children to attend their online classes – smartphones, laptops, internet connectivity, headphones, etc.

At the same time, India also saw the tremendous growth of EdTech companies during this period who sought to make learning fun and more indepth. Today, India has around 3,500 EdTech start-ups. However, even before the pandemic struck, players like BYJU’S, Unacademy, etc., had been making rapid inroads into the online learning space. In 2018, the industry had amassed an impressive $700 million in funding. According to KPMG’s Online education in India: 2021 report, by 2021, the industry was pegged to be worth $1.96 billion, which is quite a big jump. India has about 580 million people in the age group of 5 to 24 years of age, with about 250 million of them currently enrolled in schools and colleges. That clearly indicates that about 36% of India’s population is young and learning.

The market is huge and growing as education is very fundamental in today’s world. The digital transformation and the Internet penetration reaching the smaller towns followed by various initiatives by the government to give education to everyone are positive indicators for the industry. It is estimated that by 2026, the online education industry is set to grow by approximately 12 billion. These growth figures further indicate that this industry is here to stay permanently. A report by KPMG shows that India has the second-largest market for online education, right after the US. This means that the nation is going in the right direction as per the recent Nation Education Policy (NEP) passed in 2020.

The need for education is seeing only a rise. With an aim to democratise education and bring quality learning to every child across the country, BYJU’S had launched its social initiative – BYJU'S Education for All – in 2020. Started with an initial aim to reach 5 million children by 2025, the initiative has already impacted 3.4 million students. Aiming to reach 10 million children now, with 100+ NGO partners and programs launched in 26 states, this initiative has been bringing about a change at the grassroots level within a year of its launch.

Now that almost all Covid restrictions have been lifted across the country and educational institutions have shifted back to the offline mode, there will be certain changes in the EdTech sector. What parents have learnt over the last years is how these EdTech platforms can provide an additional impetus to their children’s regular classes. Hence, we can see the online classes and tutoring by EdTech companies continuing parallely alongside regular school education. Meanwhile, teachers and educators have also learnt how to set up their online education ventures, be it through the EdTech companies or platforms like YouTube.

With the advancement in tech and the ease of adaptive learning today, one of the biggest trends is going to be the move to Classrooms in the Cloud.  Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO, Simplilearn, observed, “Traditionally, companies used to rely on e-learning platforms for video learning and offline classrooms for training that needed to be interactive. With the advent of the pandemic, this classroom training has transitioned to a virtual environment to manage remote and hybrid working. One of the benefits of tech or e-learning is that the learning pedagogy is designed to help each learner to learn at his own pace and spend more time on areas that require extra attention. Hence, even with offline education coming back and institutions opening up, the demand for online education is here to stay.”

Adding further, Kumar said that the online higher education category is a heavily cluttered space with many players and most of them are making a similar promise of career growth. According to him, “The space is becoming slightly consolidated and it is not a market where small companies can survive unless they have a prominent differentiator. Companies should focus on providing real outcomes and take complete responsibility for the learners once they enrol for a particular program. The products should be strong enough to market themselves in order to sustain in this industry.” 

The pandemic has changed the way students learn. Things will now evolve to a more nuanced blended delivery model with a mix of online and offline. As stated by Phalgun Kompalli, Co-founder, upGrad, both small and large EdTech companies will need to focus on creating the right infrastructure equipped with the right tools to offer learners and institutions the flexibility to seamlessly move between online and offline modes of delivery. “Feasible learning is taking over traditional learning and hence, it would also be interesting to see learners having complete control over the fact that they’d be able to choose a ‘100% online’ or a ‘100% offline’ format as per their learning preferences,” Kompalli added.

India’s online education market is expected to grow multifold with increased digitalisation, hybrid learning models, and growing awareness. As more institutions turn to EdTech tools to help with the transition, funding from investors, and supportive government policies are contributing towards the growth of the EdTech ecosystem. Utility or outcome-driven learning is taking center stage to cater to the existing and the future market needs. 

Kompalli further said, “At upGrad, we have been enabling learners with world-class education opportunities while also delivering excellence through our unique services like 1:1 mentorship and coaching, masterclasses, Live sessions with industry experts, etc., for driving maximum career benefits. Lifelong learning is also gaining prominence with value adds like international university network, globally recognised pedagogy and accreditation, and most importantly the feasibility of learning at one's pace while pursuing a job in parallel, are witnessing strong demand from the workforce. Freshers who aspire to attain quality learning and get hands-on industry-driven skills without having to compromise on their pockets are also becoming popular.” 

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