EdTech Is Essential To The Aspirations Of People In Tier I To III Cities

  Mar 8, 2022

Sarita Digumarti is the Chief Learning Officer at UNext Learning. She is responsible for academics, content, and delivery for online degrees, certifications, and enterprise (B2B) programmes at UNext. Prior to assuming her current role in UNext Learning, she was the COO and Co-founder of Jigsaw Academy. She holds an M.B.A. in Finance from T.A. Pai Management Institute and a Master in Arts, Quantitative Economics from Tufts University.

Historically, learners migrate to big cities to pursue higher education degrees due to the possible unavailability of quality education in their regions. To some extent, distance/correspondence education tried to take education to individual households but could not achieve its goal altogether. The advent of digital technologies enabled digital learning, which proved to be very useful during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, learning from home or remote learning has become an integral part of education – from kindergarten to research studies.

Globally, education technology flourished as an independent sector during the last two years, thanks to pandemic-induced online education. Incorporating various technologies and tapping new segments, the sector registered a massive growth in these tiring years. With EdTech solutions, institutions could continue their academics by providing quality education to their students, who were distributed across regions during the lockdown.

The increasing internet userbase, expansion of high-speed connectivity, and changing consumer behaviour support the growth of the EdTech industry. As per an estimate by a global market research firm, the EdTech market was valued at USD 254.80 billion in 2021 and forecasted to be USD 605.40 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 15.52%. The Indian market also witnessed exponential growth. According to Statista, the Indian EdTech industry is valued at USD 2.8 billion and will reach USD 10.4 billion by 2025.

More and more people from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural areas are using digital technologies such as smartphones, e-wallets, digital payment systems etc, and have started exploring the possibilities of learning from top institutions. The smaller towns and villages contain a large youth population, who are eager to acquire degrees or similar qualifications or skills to secure lucrative jobs. The focus of EdTech companies has now turned to providing quality education to these people. They’re unleashing a host of innovations and features to adopt these segments.

EdTech to fulfill aspirations

Let’s find how EdTech is fulfilling the aspirations of people from lower-tier cities and towns:

Conclusion

The boom of online education and the EdTech industry is inevitable amid the advancement of digital technology. Countries like ours realised its potential at the initial stage and facilitated EdTech growth with supportive policies. Acknowledging online education as a vital mode of education, the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasised its significance in improving the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in education, specifically in higher education. By expanding its operations to new geographies, EdTech companies can help the nation achieve a higher GER in the coming years.

In sum, the prospects of EdTech industries to meet the educational aspiration of learners in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier cities and villages are very high. We will witness its full potential in the coming years.

Published Article

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