EdTech had a huge uprise during the lockdown, with children and grownups alike veering towards acquiring new skills and broadening their minds. The Startups focusing on upskilling and educating India boomed at the time. Parents wanted their kids to take online classes then, as no one was actually studying at home. Grownups wanted to learn new computer skills to make work from home easier. But it seems now, the time has passed.
After all, when you were stuck at home you found online courses and learning as the best way to connect with people your own age and learn at the same time. Now in the post-Covid world EdTech with its online learning push, seem to have lost its magic. With students back to school and their extra-curricular activities and grown-ups back to work and their responsibilities, the urge to learn a new skill is replaced by the labours of everyday work.
During that time many startups arose, most of them offering a particular skill and the thing was no matter how small or big it was people were indulging in them. Now, most of these startups have either shut shop, merged or are barely making ends meet. Even the big runners like Byju's, Vedantu and Udemy have fired a large mass of employees. Even Byju's with amazing marketing and brand outreach programs - the latest being bringing Ace Football Champion Lionel Messi onboard as the Global Brand Ambassador - the plight with growth is similar or even worse considering larger overheads.
A number of reasons can be taken into account as to why EdTech is failing though:
- The first one is that there are too many competitors and few learners.
- The other could be the high fee being asked. At a time when schools were taking less fees people didn't mind paying the increased amount, but now after the jump in prices for everything, paying EdTech companies their asked amount doesn't make sense.
- Of course, regulatory bodies like UGC and AICTE coming up with announcements here and there about how some of these courses may not be certified and will not be considered valid when one starts to look for employment based on these degrees is not helping either.
- One of the reasons EdTech isn't doing so well could also be because during lockdown parents wanted their kids to learn something no matter what but now they will do anything to get them to leave the computer screens.
- But the biggest reason why EdTech isn't working is that there is nothing new, sure the course or subjects may have changed but the method is still the same. You have the same video-recorded lectures and the same online test methods, there isn't a new aspect which would attract new learners.
Because of these reasons most big EdTech companies are turning to in-person learning modules or hybrid modules, like in Vedantu’s case.
Although now online learning is going through a rough patch, it will pick up soon, as new technologies come the passion and interest to learn, will as well. The EdTech companies just need to play their cards right. The last man standing may just win the game.
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