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China Daily Global / 2021-06 / 10 / Page016

Distance education getting closer by the day

By Ullattil Manranjith | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-06-10 00:00

Watching an Indian television series the other day about the struggles of students wanting to succeed in competitive exams and other specialized fields, I could not but wonder about the huge influence that EdTech or education technology has on students and modern lives.

From a personal perspective as a father of two, I have seen how distance learning in the 1980s has made way to what is now being called as EdTech, or a combination of information technology tools and educational practices aimed at facilitating and enhancing learning. In other words, it is a method of customizing a curriculum for a student's ability level by introducing and reinforcing new content at a pace that the learner can handle. Nowhere is it more evident than in countries like China and India, which together account for a lion's share of the global student population.

I have also watched with fascination the amazing resurgence of Byjus, an Indian startup that is setting new records in terms of funding and growth, all through its EdTech activities. China too has several success stories under its belt.

China's EdTech market had 423 million users and notched up a 12.3 percent growth on a yearly basis last year, according to a report from iiMedia Research, a market consultancy. In 2018, 97 unicorn companies were established in China in the EdTech sector. The total online education market size reached 400.38 billion yuan ($62.7 billion) in 2020, and the market is expected to reach 800 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.4 percent from 2020 to 2025.

Online education investment in China increased to $4.8 billion last year, most of it being in EdTech firms, say experts. Some of these companies have also attracted investment from global investors with the likes of Yuanfudao raising $1 billion and Zuoyebang $750 million in March and June respectively. Other major EdTech players in China include VIPKid, 17zuoye and DadaABC.

Belunn Se, an independent industry analyst based in Shenzhen, believes that EdTech is an intertemporal way of living, working and learning that relies on cloud computing, big data mining, multimedia and other information technologies, and uses the internet as a carrier for learning and teaching.

David Bicknell, principal analyst of the thematic team at GlobalData, a UK-based data and analytics company, says that 2021 will be a challenging year for China's online education industry. China's plans to tighten regulatory oversight on these companies may prompt companies like VIPKid, Zuoyebang and Yuanfudao to defer their fundraising plans or even reconsider whether they need future funding rounds, he says.

"EdTech is critical to China's future. China wants EdTech firms to flourish but it also wants to have greater oversight on private online tutoring, both in terms of content and consumer rights," he says.

Se believes that companies must look for ways to ensure that the EdTech industry can add true value to help students get back on track in the current and post-pandemic worlds.

Like China, in India the EdTech sector has made significant strides and is offering a new way to learn for millions of people. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown across the country has forced students to move their entire learning online, says T. B. Nair, an independent analyst in the Southern Indian city of Bengaluru.

India's Ministry of Human Resource development estimates that EdTech expenditure in the country would reach $10 trillion by 2030 and $3.5 billion to $4 billion by 2022.

With the lockdown coming into effect, there was a seismic shift in learning, with everyone having to move online practically overnight, says Nair.

Arjun Mohan, India-CEO of upGrad, a leading Indian EdTech firm, says in a recent interview: "While machine learning and artificial intelligence are buzzwords, what companies are trying to do is tell every student that they are unique, and hence, what they will like and how they will learn will be unique, and that they will give them the content and experience they will like."

Technology is ultimately the key to building personalized journeys, says Se. "Compared with traditional education, online education has changed the way of knowledge acquisition fundamentally across the world. Teaching and learning can be free from the constraints of time, space and place, and the channels of knowledge acquisition become more flexible and diversified," he says.

 

Ullattil Manranjith

 

 

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