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Education News

proved the prospects of the TMC and tal classrooms and online learning
Banerjee in the assembly election has come as manna from heaven for
scheduled for next summer. edtech companies. Thus far they have
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) been struggling to cope with teacher
resistance to online learning. But such
KARNATAKA resistance is melting away during the
Crisis opportunity prolonged period of schools closure
which began in mid-March. Several
Bangalore-based market leader com-
he upside of the global rampage panies including Byju’s, Vendantu,
of the Coronavirus, aka Co- TCS iON, Catalyst Group and DPS’
Tvid-19 pandemic, which at the Entrar have moved swiftly to cater to
time of writing (April 2) has infected 1 the demand for digital classrooms and
million people worldwide and caused online learning packages.
53,238 deaths — and 2,567 and 72 re- For instance the Bangalore-based
spectively in India — is that it has vast- Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd, aka Byju’s,
ly improved the business prospects was quick to publish expensive (re-
Mamta Banerjee: brighter horizon of India’s hitherto struggling edtech portedly Rs.50 lakh each) full front
companies. Although an estimated page ads in the top-selling Times of
most of them still sympathetic to the 380 ed tech companies have sprung India offering “free live classrooms
CPM (Communist Party-Marxist) up around the country to service the taught by India’s best teachers” on
which ruled Bengal uninterruptedly world’s largest child and youth popu- specified days and specific times for
for 34 years (1977-2011) and wrecked lation of over 500 million, and a large children in classes IV-X, as also for
the state’s economy by provoking a number of them have raised venture class XI-XII students aspiring to write
massive flight of capital and human capital, edtech entrepreneurs have JEE and NEET. These virtual classes
resources from the state, and whom been having a hard time persuading could be accessed on all digital devices
Banerjee routed in the 2011 assembly school managements in particular including mobile phones for free-of-
elections and again in 2016 — con- to integrate digital ICT (information charge trial.
cede that the TMC government has communication technologies) into Curiously, despite liberally expend-
moved with commendable speed their classrooms. ing vast amounts by way of ephemeral
to contain the spread of Covid-19 Despite this, several new edtech advertising on television and short-
in the state. The national lockdown companies have sprung up with an shelf life dailies, Byju Raveendran,
and social distancing prescribed by eye on the country’s 375,000 private the eponymous founder-CEO and
the Central government is strictly independent and 400,000 private other directors of this e-learning com-
enforced, schools and all education budget (affordable) schools which pany which has attained unicorn ($8
institutions have been shut down host almost half of the country’s 250 billion or Rs.59,200 crore) valuation
even as the flow of essential supplies million in-school children. Especially through repeated rounds of funds
has been maintained. in Bangalore (pop. 10 million), com- raising despite barely breaking even,
“During the past few years, Ba- monly known as the ICT capital and believe they are not answerable to me-
nerjee had acquired a reputation as a Silicon Valley of India. Currently an dia. Repeated calls to the company to
mercurial and often short-tempered estimated 300 edtech companies have ascertain cost-benefit details of its ex-
leader. However, her response to the their head offices in Bangalore. Fol- pensive advertising campaigns (which
Covid-19 crisis has been calm and lowing the outbreak of the Covid-19 also feature movie star Shah Rukh
calibrated. From a firebrand politi- epidemic and nationwide shutdown of Khan) proved infructuous. There-
cian, she has metamorphosed into schools and work from home orders fore whether this heavily advertised
an able administrator with a human of the Central and state governments, company, which has an estimated 3
face,” says Aniruddha Lahiri, a all of them are receiving a flood of million K-12 student subscribers who
former teacher at the CBSE-affiliated enquiries and reporting a significant pay Rs.15,000-34,000 per subject per
South Point School, Kolkata and uptick in business. Suddenly school year for supplementary and refresher
respected academic. managements and households across education, has benefited from the Co-
The Coronavirus pandemic has the country are signing up for online vid-19 crisis, remains a mystery.
caused unparalleled damage and classes to ensure that their children’s Akhand Swaroop Pandit,
disrupted the lives and livelihoods education is not disrupted by the na- promoter-CEO of the Delhi-based
of millions of citizens across the tionwide Covid-19 lockdown. Catalyst Group Pvt. Ltd (estb. 2018),
country. But it has considerably im- This upsurge of interest in digi- is more forthcoming. This company

18 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2020