India’s Ed-Tech: Growth and Gaps

The Indian education system is often the subject of debate over outdated curriculum, rote learning, rising cost, poor quality of teachers and lack of infrastructure. On the positive side, our country boasts of world-class institutes such as the Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institutes of Technology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Jawaharlal Nehru University. We are also one of the largest and oldest education systems in the world.

Formal education in India is still based on a traditional model or brick-and-mortar classes. Students have to attend schools and colleges to complete their education. While this is the commonly accepted mode of formal education across the world, the education fraternity is opening up to online education or e-learning.

Everything is going online. And, so is education.

Scope of e-learning

Online education goes beyond the realms of secondary, post-secondary and tertiary education. It also includes courses and modules for competitive exam preparation, professional skill enhancement, and other non-academic subjects.

According to a report by KPMG, the size of India’s e-learning market was $247 million, comprising 1.6 million users in 2016. The market size is likely to grow eight-fold to $1.96 billion and the user base will grow six times to…