Edtech Startup – Dutch Uncles

One Class One Channel to Erase the Lines of Digital Divide

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 08:30:15 +0000

The pandemic has been a fillip to the edtech industry. Edtech platforms getting on in an acquisition conquest, fund flows, and increase in enrollment of online programmes are major indicators of the industry reaping profits and have made education more accessible and quality-oriented. But, has the edtech wave reached the lower socio-economic strata? The glaring statistics can precisely answer the above question. A national sample survey by ICRIER and LIRNEasia, a think tank focusing on digital policy finds that only 20 percent of school children in India had access to remote education during the pandemic, of whom only half participated in live online lessons.
Lack of internet access, gadgets, and unfamiliarity with virtual tools has created the divide of digital education in India. According to a study by Azim Premji Foundation, approximately 60 percent of the school children’s education in India is affected due to no access to online learning. Lack of access to online learning has further led to an increase in dropout of children from school. A report by Unified District Information System for Education finds that around 15 crore children are currently out of the education system. The numbers for school girls dropping out are even more distressing as 10 million girls are on the verge of dropping out as found by the National Right to Education Forum.

‘‘

According to a study by Azim Premji Foundation, approximately 60 percent of the school children’s education in India is affected due to no access to online learning.

One Class One Channel: Making education accessible to all

Factors such as poor connectivity, unavailability of gadgets, and lack of digital learning in vernacular have kept students away from formal learning in times of pandemic. In the union budget 2022, the government has taken some concrete measures to provide quality education to students through multiple platforms. The measures include fibre-based internet connection to every village by 2022 and expand the One Class, One Channel’ programme to cover 200 DTH channels and grades 1-12. In addition to this, the government wants to open digital university to provide quality education to students from weaker socio-economic backgrounds to pursue higher studies without incurring huge costs or hardship.

What edtech platforms should relook?

Providing educational content in vernacular languages is a highly untapped market for edtech. The medium of teaching on edtech platforms being English has prevented the edtech players from serving the students of rural India. With the government now taking steps for a robust internet network edtech platforms should develop and provide educational content in vernacular language. Further, with the development of the digital university and channel programmes the edtech players with their vernacular education content can partner with several state governments and India’s largest socially responsible corporations.

The post One Class One Channel to Erase the Lines of Digital Divide appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Extramarks and Arsenal: The Edtech Platform’s Plan of Expanding Globally

Shalmoli Sarkar — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 12:35:11 +0000

The edtech progression in India has disrupted the traditional tuition businesses in India with its lectures with alluring images and videos and is now eyeing a new domain of edtech in sports.
To expand user base the edtech companies have taken the conventional route of becoming sponsors for cricket tournaments, printing their logos on the front side of the jersey and prize sponsorers for various school quiz competitions, but Extramarks – by striking a strategic partnership with one of world’s leading football club Arsenal is exploring new ways to expand its offerings and user base globally.
Recently, Extramarks has announced its partnership with Arsenal Football Club to become its exclusive official learning partner in India, South Africa, Indonesia, and the Middle East markets. This new agreement will enable Extramarks to combine football and education to drive awareness of its offerings and attract new-age learners by introducing grassroots-level learning programmes, football workshops, meet and greets with the players, and other exclusive competitions and experiences in partnership with Arsenal to bolster engagement with its flagship schools and learners. This edtech company will also have access to Arsenal’s wide array of digital, social, and logistical assets, including Arsenal imagery, club-certified coaches, and access to the club’s London Colney Training Centre to support learning opportunities at all levels. With this association, Extramarks aims to provide a wholesome learning experience both on-field and in the classrooms. In addition to this, the edtech platform will revamp its brand identity to be a provider of 360-degree learning solutions for in-school and at-home learning.

‘‘

Extramarks has announced its partnership with Arsenal Football Club to become its exclusive official learning partner in India, South Africa, Indonesia, and the Middle East markets.

Extramarks and Arsenal: A healthy combination

Restricted to homes for over a year and a half, and studying through gadgets and digital devices is making kids glued to the screens which in turn is making them devoid of co-curricular activities and the joys of playing outside. Sports intervention in academics is necessary for enhancing the overall personality of a child. By introducing grassroots-level learning programmes, football workshops and expert sessions Extramarks will be encouraging students to understand the importance of exercise, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle from professionals and find some good, healthy role models to emulate, and who knows Arsenal’s next budding football talent might be from India.
As the students saw school doors shut for 1.5 yrs the physical education period or sports period has vanished from the syllabus. This is where Extramarks’s sports offerings will differ from other edtech platforms that currently provide digital learning solutions for academics. It will also help the platform scale its business globally as with this association it will be serving in markets where football is a popular sport.

What lies ahead for edtech startups associating with sports clubs?

By launching sports learning programmes in association with sports clubs for students the tech companies are benefited from a huge potential of expansion, become a product differentiator offering co-curricular lessons other than academic, inculcate the importance of healthy lifestyle and making school children understand that sport can be a career option and not just a hobby.

The post Extramarks and Arsenal: The Edtech Platform’s Plan of Expanding Globally appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Tinkerly: Now Learn Coding the Hybrid Way

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 06:48:40 +0000

The word ‘coding’ when it strikes our ears, we associate it with the computer engineering students who remain glued to their blue screens for several hours until the compiler returns with a satisfying ‘no error’ comment. In pandemic, several edtech companies in the pandemic have grabbed immense attention as they have launched online coding programmes for the kids.

However, school kids learning to code in the formative years of their education have received mixed reactions from parents and education scholars since they are invariable believers of the screen or online learning hampering a child’s concentration.

Learning to code at an early age also makes parents think that the child will ignore the basics of maths and science for weak fundamentals.

But, with the emergence of advanced technologies like AI and ML and their inclusion in business processes, the nature of jobs in the future will demand coding as a must acquired skill. According to the LinkedIn’s emerging jobs report of the last decade for the role of coding experts the demand of data scientists will rise by 650 percent and demand for coding is said to increase by 37 percent y-o-y.

The online coding learning brought in by the edtech companies in India has been a bit monotonous as kids glare at the screens to understand and follow their trainers. In short, there is a lack of practicality along with lectures and tutorials. To this, a Jaipur-based edtech startup Tinkerly is disrupting online coding courses for the kids by introducing a blend of fun and hands-on learning experience that allows them to explore their love towards building robots and smart gadgets.

Tinkerly’s humble beginnings

What dreams would usually a fresh graduate from IIT have? A high-paying job in an MNC? or climbing the corporate ladder to become the next CEO? Surprisingly, these aspirations were not a part of Sharad Bansal’s dreams.

What made his entrepreneurial ship sail in the edtech space was the absence of practical sessions in the school pedagogy. The academics in IIT followed an LPT structure i.e. Lecture, Practical, and Tutorial, which is a balanced combination of theory, practical, and practice of the lessons learnt.

Putting the LPT structure in Indian schools we can witness that there is lecture happening in the schools and tutorials happening from external classes but the practical part is lacking. Also, due to limited infrastructure, it is not feasible and possible for a school student to go to the laboratory now and then and come back to their classes.

This led Sharad to think of effective pedagogy to add a twist to the mundane online coding programmes with a ‘learning by doing approach by incorporating STEM educational kits.

These STEM portable labs or educational kits cover the basic science concepts based on the 5-D methodology comprising of see, touch, feel, understand, and perform with a focus on covering the essential 21st-century skills such as IoT, rapid prototype,3-D printing, computational and design thinking.

As we near towards a technologically advanced era, the majority of the jobs be it engineering, fashion designing, or humanities would be demanding STEM skills i.e. science technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Standing true to its name Tinkerly- build-out of English words‘ tinkering’ and the suffix ‘ly’ meaning the habit of improvisation has indeed brought a revolutionary change in the field of STEM education that has benefitted over 150 thousand students across India, the Middle East and North America.

‘‘

According to the LinkedIn’s emerging jobs report of the last decade for the role of coding experts the demand of data scientists will rise by 650 percent and demand for coding is said to increase by 37 percent y-o-y.

Let’s tinker with the kid’s learning

Tinkerly’s innovative online coding learning solutions are not just to code but to build things with coding that enables students to design, build and deploy their code to make real-life tech projects. Tinkerly’s products are divided into three-

Online Coding courses
STEM kits
Lets Tinker App

The online coding courses blended with STEM toys are designed for the students for grades 1-12. The kids here get to build next-generation solutions and projects that solve real-world problems. Inculcating these into the early stages of education might seem a bit overwhelming for the child already managing the school curriculum but it is a future-ready skill set that enhances cognitive skills and improves analytical and problem-solving skills.

The online coding courses with STEM toys are segregated into three stages for every grade i.e. explorer, learner, and achiever. The classes can either take place in the 1:1 or 1: 5 teaching model.

Tinkerly’s STEM kits consist of DIY kits appropriate for the 8-12+ age group. The specialised DIY STEM kits consist of equipment belonging to electronics,3-D printing automobile, Agritech, Biotech, Biomedical, Robotics that comes along with a concise instruction manual.

Over the years, India’s education system has demanded students to score well in the examinations forcing students to blindly memorise concepts rather than questioning them and somewhere curbing a child’s curiosity in the process. Tinkerly’s lets tinker app fosters curiosity among the students by allowing them to learn about the latest education trends from subject matter experts and top teachers. The learnings include real-life scenario activities grooming sessions and enhancing the problem-solving skills with its organised tests on class-wise content.

The online coding classes in Tinkerly are affordable that begin with as low as Rs 500 a month and is the first edtech company worldwide to offer coding courses in Hindi.

‘‘

Tinkerly has raised Rs 6.5 crore from Navneet Tech Ventures which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publication and content provider, Navneet Education Limited(NEL).

Tinkerly’s funding, revenues, and the road ahead

Recently in September 2021, Tinkerly has raised Rs 6.5 crore from Navneet Tech Ventures which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publication and content provider, Navneet Education Limited(NEL). With this recent funding round, this edtech company has raised Rs 10 crore.

With the newly raised fresh capital, Tinkerly plans to utilise the same in product development, increase consumer awareness and expand into new geographies developing vernacular content. The company has ambitious plans to become a strong global brand.

The launch of Tinkerly’s learning platform Let’s Tinker in April has been beneficial just after 3 months of its launch. It witnessed its revenues surging up to 8 times with more than 50,000 online learners who have undergone more than 300K hours of learning.

Future Jobs will require STEM skills

According to a report by McKinsey & Company Global around 800 million jobs will be replaced by robotic automation in the future. Taking early steps to build analytical and cognitive skills among students the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has introduced coding from Class 6.

Besides coding, gamification with hands-on experience will be the most effective tool for the kids of today since they have a lesser attention span. Also, it has been observed that kids while engaged in games and learning use all of their senses, therefore Tinkerly’s hybrid learning solutions will offer hands-on experience to the mundane theory learning and will make studies interesting thus giving kids a controlled and active learning screen time.

The post Tinkerly: Now Learn Coding the Hybrid Way appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Here’s Why Extracurricular Learning Is The Fastest Growing Edtech Segment

Aakash Sharma — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 03:35:08 +0000

With the advent of edtech and the rapid digitisation of education in recent years, every element of education and training has changed through technology. Classes have shifted online, doubt clearing sessions are scheduled on student portals, exam registrations are done on websites, and so on.

Among the changes, one that is emerging as the fastest and most enticing for students is the digitisation of extracurricular learning and activities.

What is ‘Extracurricular Learning’ in edtech?

Due to the growing importance of holistic development, extracurricular learning is becoming one of the fastest-growing areas of educational technology (edtech). Extracurricular learning mainly includes activities such as yoga, general culture, arts, crafts, dance, and reasoning.

‘‘

Given the vibrant and profitable potential in the field of extracurricular learning, many start-ups have emerged with innovative ways to seize the new opportunities.

Yellow Class – a key extracurricular learning player

Yellow Class, the ‘Online Free Hobby Classes for Kids’ platform, is an edtech company that focuses on extracurricular activities as teaching pedagogy. The edtech start-up offers children a wide range of extracurricular learning activities through its live instruction platform using artificial intelligence to ease up interaction and participation.

Yellow Class was founded in June 2020 by Anshul Gupta and Arpit Mittal to provide free extracurricular and leisure activities for children under the age of 12. More than 1 million children have participated in over 150 million minutes of activities on the platform. The start-up also plans to add new categories such as musical instruments and sports under its ambit of extracurricular learning.

Yellow Class has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Elevation Capital. It will use the funds to improve products, develop richer content and increase recruitment and expansion to more than 500 cities in India and other regions.

Market insights

The extracurricular learning sector in India has witnessed steady growth in recent years. The segment is expected to reach $5.8 billion in valuation by 2021. In its current form, which is a fragmented market dominated by local and small businesses, the market has a lot of potential for companies to become industry leaders.

Since most school programmes and education infrastructure are purely academic in nature and usually do not focus on the holistic development of children, extracurricular options of learning available easily online are coming to the mainstream. Today’s parents highly favour alternative ways to promote children’s hobbies and other activities.

How can new edtechs enter this segment?

As mentioned above, the extracurricular learning market is witnessing an upward trend due to the transforming face of education and increasing competitiveness. Students and parents alike want to engage in multiple productive activities that can form their base for holistic development.

Start-ups and emerging businesses must heed these tectonic changes and start building solutions to fill the gap between traditional education and edtech. Just like Yellow Class has jumped in this industry, gaining a much-needed beginners’ advantage, other businesses can also follow suit and develop unique one-stop-shop learning solutions.

Businesses and entrepreneurs operating in the edtech space can adopt digital extracurricular learning solutions and training modules. They can focus on a wide range of topics and mentors like influencers and professionals who can enlighten the young minds about alternative careers and productive extracurricular activities.

While using children-friendly edtech solutions, entrepreneurs can also use e-gaming, AI gamification tools and features like interactive chatbots to keep students engaged. Edtechs can also deploy digital activities such as polls and quizzes in the user interface for more engagement.

Essentially, by creating a new category in the ed-tech space and giving kids easy access, fun, and interactive classes, edtech businesses can grow their ventures in the edtech boom while helping students learn actively and passionately.

The post Here’s Why Extracurricular Learning Is The Fastest Growing Edtech Segment appeared first on Dutch Uncles.