Tech-driven education on growth path

According to a report by India Ratings and Research Pvt. Ltd, the Indian education market is estimated to be worth a whopping Rs 5.9 trillion in 2014-15 against Rs 3.33 trillion in 2011-12. However, there is still a huge market still left unexplored.

In addition, the Lewis, DE report released on January 4, 2015 forecasted the smart class room market in India to grow at a CAGR of 15.89 per cent over a period of six years.

The coaching industry which is an emerging sector, is making making strides in the smart class room sector and the recently announced Digital India initiative is likely to be beneficial. “There are about 10 lakh students taking the GATE exam every year, out of which only 10 per cent can afford coming to coaching centres and out of the remaining only 20 per cent can take other kind of help. The rest 70 per cent of the students are away geographically, so bringing education to those displaced students should be the goal.”

“Technology, either via pre-recorded videos, e-learning tutorials can play a vital role to tap this market,” said Ritesh Raushan, founder of The GATE Academy, which provides technology driven coaching for GATE aspirants.

Aakash Educational Services Pvt. Ltd which has been in the education sector for more than 20 decades had launched its digital program in 2010-11 to help bridge the gap, wherein not all students cannot access the direct classroom model.

The institution launched their tablet programme in collaboration with Samsung and has grown from 600 students in the first year to 4,000 students this year.

However, Aakash Chaudhry, director, AES says that there are three major hurdles to the digital education ambition — availability of internet, hardware and high cost associated with providing such services. So while the digital India initiative is an ambitious project, yet there are loopholes which need attention, mainly in the education space.