Is Edtech Finally Poised To Break Into Mainstream Education?

COVID-19 crisis caused a watershed moment for EdTech solution providers in India, who have been focusing predominantly on supplementary education and upskilling only. A series of unprecedented and hastened digital experiments on public education systems have widened the scope of EdTech further to break into mainstream education

- Soma Tah

COVID-19 emerged as a dominant force in the digitalization across all the sectors, but the speed of the shift was quite unprecedented and all-encompassing in the public education system. Although India was not entirely uninitiated to the concept of technology-aided education or learning, the spotlight on the EdTech platforms just grew brighter when educational institutions were forced to switch to online modes of education amidst the pandemic crisis.

India: A prominent EdTech hub

EdTech platforms in India have played a significant role in bridging the learning gaps and workforce skills gaps by making supplementary education (K12) and technical education (post-K12) more accessible. Over the past couple of years, the growing popularity of online education has offset the growth in the offline coaching space.

India has also emerged as a prominent EdTech hub in the world. If we look at the global EdTech phenomenon in respect of some key parameters like VC Funding, the number of startups, unicorns, M&A, etc., it is dominated by only a few countries such as United States (Highest number of EdTech enterprises), Sweden (The highest proportion of EdTech companies securing funding), China (Highest venture capital investment from 2014-18). India has also been riding the EdTech wave, as it has the second-highest number of EdTech startups and the Indian EdTech platform Byju’s with a valuation of over $10bn also comes out on top when compared with other EdTech unicorns list.

The COVID-19 crisis has fast-tracked things further and created a tipping point for the global EdTech phenomenon including India especially, as India is also home to one of the world’s largest base of school-going students.