EdTech companies

EdTech companies in India are facing many challenges despite the huge growth opportunity

A decade ago who thought laptops and smartphones can turn into classrooms or textbooks and become a prime source of information and knowledge? Technology did transform human life. As per the report of Pew Research Center, 92% of teachers said that the internet has a major impact on their ability to access content, resources and materials. In the last 5 years, the education sector has witnessed massive technological growth and the KPMG report proves the point that explains how the entire growth prospects of EdTech and the e-learning market in India is expected to grow by at least eight folds soon and become a US$1.96 billion market. But still, many EdTech companies are having a hard time despite the huge growth opportunity and market potential.

Here 5 Major challenges faced by EdTech companies in India:

Poor Accessibility and Inadequate Infrastructure

Poor internet connection keeps on being a major challenge especially, in rural areas. Access to high-speed internet is essential for innovation-driven learning. Online education stays an unrealistic fantasy for the majority of people. This is a miserable reality, where people staying in big cities only have access to great learning resources that were supposed to be available for everyone in the country. The long this problem lasts, the more EdTech companies will suffer.

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Absence of Uniform Principles

Principles are absent in the contributions of most online training players. Many programs are named in a way that attracts more customers but turns out to be false and misleading. Just like some self-guided projects, live-online projects, and hybrid programs that are a blend of both self-guided and live-online projects. Many projects are hazy about the specific learning approach and the students feel robbed as their experience completely differs from their expectations. This results in people losing faith in education technology and the EdTech sector.

Absence of Training for Online Preparing

The majority of the online teachers have little or zero proper training on the best way to convey online training successfully. Online training completely differs from the training given in person. It needs an alternate arrangement of abilities and unquestionably some conventional preparation for the coaches. It is important to foster a comprehensive program to prepare the new-age teachers.

Online Learning and Acceptance Issues

Before the pandemic, education was going to school/college, sitting before an educator and learning with your classmates. But the scenario is changed now, online classes are new normal and for more than one reason students find it difficult to be active in these classes as they were in traditional classrooms and still prefer in-person training. Whereas, the older generation (working experts more than 30 years old) are accepting this change better than most of the students and young professionals. Therefore, online learning needs a huge mindset change for the students.

The Different Mentalities of Online Students

There are always two sides to a coin, where with the help of online classes some students are making remarkable progress, they are focused, career orientated, mature, dedicated and smart than ever before. Many students come in with a different mentality. Their attention is on adding a certificate to their resume as opposed to acquiring another ability. They feel that the online space will give them obscurity and adaptability to acquire a certificate without investing the necessary exertion. In some cases, EdTech companies chasing growth numbers will misdirect students about the assurance of the results they are promising. Both these activities lead to assumption confusion and distress for the two players.

Globally, tech start-ups have changed the face of many sectors through disruption. They have not only captured a piece of the traditional business pie but also increased the market size of the entire sector. Ed-tech start-ups also need to get support from the government as well as investors so that they can create an ecosystem for online learning that does not compete with but complements the traditional education system.

In conclusion, over 760 million smartphone users in India and more than 30% of them are less than 25 years old and could potentially use it for education through online classes. This makes it even more important for EdTech companies to tackle these challenges and shape the future of education.