Empowering Literacy Through Education Technology
Gaps in infrastructure have resulted in marginalized groups losing out. With phones and data becoming more accessible, can education technology fill in those gaps?
The Right to Education is a fundamental right that is denied to many due to systemic shortcomings, resulting in marginalized communities falling through the gaps of shoddy infrastructure. Could technology be a viable solution for reaching those who suffer from a lack of resources?
The answer might be yes. As traditional institutions closed their doors to ensure reducing the spread of COVID-19, education has had to lean on technology to continue teaching students. While even the proponents of education technology maintain that there is no real substitute for in-person teaching, education technology is capable of filling in the gaps of traditional education that have failed to update itself until forced to do so.
This article captures insights and thoughts from a recent conversation that Deeksha Ahuja, Founder of Encubay and Partner at Encubay Angel Network, and Eashita Maheshwary, Co-founder of Encubay and Partner at Encubay Angel Network, had with different stakeholders in the start-up ecosystem. While talking about the impact of COVID-19 on the education sector, Rema Subramanian, investor, and Co-founder of Ankur Capital said, “You were pushed into a corner (by COVID-19), you did not have regular schools and that meant no matter what your means, you were studying in front of a computer. Schools that had previously not spent on technology were pushed to adapt rapidly. Covid induced a pull factor into this whole segment.”
“You were pushed into a corner (by COVID-19), you did not have regular schools and that meant no matter what your means, you were studying in front of a computer. Schools that had previously not spent on technology were pushed to adapt rapidly. Covid induced a pull factor into this whole segment.”
The same line of thought was brought in by serial entrepreneur, investor, and a teacher herself, Rachel Fisher, Co-founder of HelloPLATO — a learning platform built for WhatsApp that enables bots to deliver personalized online learning to students in low bandwidth areas. She shared, “I think that COVID is a huge factor, parents have decided that they need to supplement their child’s learning, that they need to be more involved, that they might want choices.”
With the rapid proliferation of smartphones and cheap, accessible data plans, even students who would previously have not had access to online education now do. According to the Economic Survey 2020–21, the percentage of school students owning a smartphone in rural India has increased from over 36% in 2018 to 61.8% in 2020. Data usage per subscriber in India has jumped by around 43 times in just six years while data cost decreased by 96% (by 24 times) compared to 2014, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Having caught up to these developing trends and facing a situation where there was no other option but to shift to online mediums, even the Indian Government has recognized the importance of digitization in education. The new National Education Policy (NEP) emphasizes on the use of edtech for furthering education, particularly in the rural areas, and also focuses on digitization besides the use of technology in education. While digital penetration has remained less in rural areas due to a lack of infrastructural support, the rising numbers of adopters and increasing government support present an optimistic scenario. Cheaper plans, reduced cost of travel and boarding, and opportunities for skill development offer enticing incentives for both consumers and investors.
Another important aspect and often a challenge to enable literacy is reaching the right audience in the right way. Disha Deep, analytics professional and former Associate Director -Insights at Unacademy, believes that edtech can reach those in rural areas with the right kind of marketing strategy. She also emphasizes the importance of moving beyond English and Hindi as the language mediums. “Users in tier 1 cities can be reached easily through social media, but to reach rural areas traditional mediums like newspaper ads, billboards, celebrity endorsements, etc. are all necessary. Developing content in different languages can help us reach different geographies, which can really help in scaling up.”
“Users in tier 1 cities can be reached easily through social media, but to reach rural areas traditional mediums like newspaper ads, billboards, celebrity endorsements, etc. are all necessary. Developing content in different languages can help us reach different geographies, which can really help in scaling up.”
Startups have already started innovating with these technologies, specifically with tier 3 to 4 cities in mind. While Hello PLATO enables bots, Daxta Tech is India’s only tech company that has developed a highly customizable SAAS, SmartWebinar platform for business and education. Co-founder Roshan Daruwala, who also runs a school in Pune, shares their vision — “We started with the concept of having a parallel online school which would be beneficial for parents who have high regards for a particular school or college or university, and they would want their kids to be educated from there. In rural areas, we know students face connection problems so we have worked a lot on the bandwidth, on how to get connected to the rural areas and make sure that everybody has access to online education.”
To emphasize that the focus isn’t only on children, KinderPass, a parenting, edtech startup launched on JioPhones in mid-August 2021 with the aim of taking education and literacy to the parents of rural India. It has seen 2,00,000+ downloads since its debut on JioPhones. The app aims to make screen time active and productive for children, to set up the necessary foundation for future education and skill development.
We have noticed that innovation in EdTech and enabling literacy is booming across the world but it is equally important to gauge how receptive people are to this transition and transformation. Beas and Joyati, co-founders of Wise Owl Learning, an AI-powered personalized learning platform, believe that their experience of partnering with government-aided schools in Sikkim and Meghalaya has helped them realize how invested students and teachers are in getting access to quality education. “There has been a shift in mindset from just cramming the data to a deeper understanding. To understand deeper, you need a lot of material. That four or five pages in a textbook are not going to do. With edtech, you can access a library of materials and get as much insight as possible.” Joyati observes. “We have had teachers and students who have talked to us about it, they have told us what they need. They want something to come forward to them, they want to use a quality product that will work for them,” adds Beas.
“There has been a shift in mindset from just cramming the data to a deeper understanding. To understand deeper, you need a lot of material. That four or five pages in a textbook are not going to do. With edtech you can access a library of materials and get as much insight as possible.”
Rimjhim Ray, co-founder of Spotle.ai, an AI-powered millennial career network that matches individuals to the most relevant career paths shares that while HelloPlato and WiseOwl are actively driving literacy in both urban and rural India, it is extremely important is to ensure that literacy is then routed to employment and empowerment.
Continuing on the same lines, Ready Set Jet, a beauty company founded by Shalini Vadhera also recognizes the importance of education and skilling in breaking the circle of poverty and conducted an impactful session on Teacher’s Day with 25 girls to skill them in entrepreneurship through beauty. This session is a precursor to the launch of Ready Set Jet Academy, which aims to use beauty and travel as a vehicle for global change by skilling underprivileged girls in beauty.
At Encubay we believe that literacy, knowledge, and empowerment go hand in hand. We’re delighted to be the enablers of some of these innovations while we constantly support the impactful change that our portfolio companies and network is thriving to make.
All the companies and individuals in this article are a part of the Encubay network as portfolio companies and mentors. If you would like to join the network or know of start-ups or enablers of literacy and EdTech for the Next Billion in the start-up ecosystem reach out to us at hello@encubay.com
