The coronavirus pandemic threw the entire education system in disarray for the first time in over a century. With schools and colleges shutting down and lock-down becoming a part and parcel of everyone's lives, the future of millions of children around the globe was at risk. "The pandemic was a disaster no one saw coming, but it suddenly created a lot of opportunities especially in remote working and learning. Technologies and services which had existed before the pandemic but were on the fringe suddenly became centre stage and ed-tech companies became the talk of the town, commanding crazy valuations", adds Vineet Gupta, Jamboree Education Co-Founder.
Indian ed-tech firms such as Byju's, Toppr, Vedantu and Unacademy recorded significant uptick in users since the pandemic. As per a report, Byjus added 7.5 million paid users during the lockdown whilst Learning platform Toppr received a 100% uptick in users.
Not only were parents scrambling to find the best possible solution for their children, but also professionals who were laid off or feared for their job due to the economic meltdown, were looking for new courses and certifications to enhance their skills. This created a huge demand in edtech services and India's edtech sector emerged as a leading growth driver for the economy.
2 years on - What is the new normal?
Many institutions and individuals from the teaching fraternity, who had not invested in creating digital infrastructure or were digitally savvy, paid the price of the sudden shift ushered in by the pandemic. Some institutions made quick pivots and managed to integrate the digital infrastructure but upskilling teachers with technical skills proved a challenge. "At Jamboree, we have established over 35 physical centers, trained more than 1.5 lac students and have invested in technology whenever we felt it could aid our teachers or students.
We spend a significant amount of time training our teachers as we feel they are critical to the overall success of our institution. This investment helped when the pandemic hit. We were ready to pivot to a digital infrastructure. We also decided not to shut down our physical centres during the pandemic. This helped in transitioning to physical classes, when things started opening-up post pandemic. After about 5 months in a fully open world, we find that 65% of our students want physical classes and 35% want to learn online. Therefore, we now have to be good at both forms of learning", adds Vineet Gupta.
With education centers opening again, startups which were overly or completely relying on the digital medium are facing the brunt. Also with predatory practices, misrepresentation and rising consumer complaints, edtech platforms are now at the risk of regulatory oversight, which is further making things complicated for edtech majors. In 2022 alone, we have seen Udayy, SuperLearn and Crejo.Fun shutting shop.
Whilst industry leaders like Byju's and Unacademy, have started offline centers to handle the transition, smaller players simply do not have the resources to diversify. "The future of this business will go to the ones who can successfully find the right balance and establish solid hybrid models that improve accessibility for students.
Since Unacademy decided to set-up shop at Kota, Allen has announced the launch of Allen Digital which will aim to lock horns with the likes of Unacademy in the edtech space. The race for hybrid models in education has thus begun, and those with established brand names, a solid physical presence and great digital infrastructure are well positioned to make the most of this upcoming phase", concludes Vineet Gupta, Jamboree Education Co-Founder.