Digital learning has been widely popular amongst millions of people worldwide- whether for learning new languages or as more efficient ways of teaching students in schools. But in spite of this enthusiasm, adoption of educational technology (EdTech) has mostly been piecemeal. This situation has been drastically changed by the Covid pandemic. Almost overnight, educational establishments around the world were forced to adopt digital learning and quickly came to rely on Edtech platforms whether they wanted to or not.
Educational Technology implies the use of all educational resources – Men, Materials, Methods and Techniques, Means and Media in an integrated and systematic manner for optimized learning.
Why is EdTech getting so popular?
There are many reasons for this rapid rise of EdTech in the last few years. EdTech acts as direct learning apps. It can also facilitate the easy sharing of resources.
With adoption of Artificial Intelligence, it is now providing personalized coaching to students and also solutions to their individual learning problems. This personalized learning, not available in traditional learning setups, is becoming increasingly popular.
EdTech apps also provide free and demonstrative lessons which helps students decide whether the course is best suited for their needs before enrolling into that course.
The technology is also being adopted by governments to provide education to students in remote areas and thus building the social divide in the area of education.
EdTech in India
According to a 2016 KPMG report, the EdTech industry in India was worth about $247million and could reach $1.96 billion by 2021.
A decade ago, the EdTech Industry did not even exist. The educational landscape of India has been transformed by a series of developments in new-age pedagogies. Now, the Industry is engaging the latest technologies such as experiential learning tools and artificial learning which are revolutionizing the preparation strategies of students currently and will continue to do so.
The increased mobile penetration in the country, especially in rural areas, was a major breakthrough for the development of this industry. Edtech is now reaching to the areas in the country where offline education was taking time to reach because of the penetration of internet in India.
The global investors have also staked a lot of money in Edtech companies due to increase in demand.
Some of the ever rising and highly competitive EdTech businesses in India are Toppr, BYJU’s, Vedantu, Unacademy, upGrad and Meritnation.
Impact of Covid
The pandemic has given a boost to educational technology, it has highlighted just how important it is as a toolkit for teachers to learn to use.
As per a recent report, the Edtech market in India is projected to reach $3.5 bn by 2022 which was earlier projected to be in the range of $2.8- $3.2 bn. Edtech market size in 2019 stands at $735 mn
Scores of Edtech providers have grasped the COVID opportunity by offering services for free.
Funding, a key factor contributing to Edtech growth, also saw a substantial shift during COVID. ” Nearly 5X growth in funding was observed in H12020 compared to H12019″, according to NASSCOM Insights. “With $847mn funding till August 2020, it is already 2 times the total funding in 2019. Major portion of this funding is accounted by Byju’s and Unacademy which collectively raised over $300mn”
Future of EdTech
It seems unlikely that wide scale EdTech adoption in 2020 would fizzle out post-Covid. In fact, Edtech solutions are now so wide-ranging that it becomes hard to imagine post-pandemic learning environments without them.
In India, the government itself has also been encouraging adoption of digital modes of learning. In NEP 2020, there are separate provisions outlining ways to do so. In a note put out by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) on March 21, 2020, the Union HRD Minister shared various free digital e-Learning platforms by the Ministry of HRD like DIKSHA portal, e-Pathshala, Swayam Prabha, etc.
With the reach of the internet getting wider, it is only going to help EdTech businesses mushroom. They can also tie up with the government to provide education to students living in remote areas.
Post-Covid, Edtech startups can expect significant growth as more people turn to digital education and solutions.
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Komal is an English literature student with a keen interest in economic developments and politics amongst others. She is a part of Research & Content team at HrNxt.com