Remarkable steps taken by Shantanu Prakash

EDUCOMP FOUNDATION HOSTS FIRST EVER 'EDUCATION LEADERS SUMMIT 2015’

Educomp Foundation, the CSR division of Bengaluru based Educomp Solutions Ltd, India’s largest education company, is organising a two-day education summit for education thought leaders at New Delhi beginning December 10, 2015.

The summit aims to discuss and consolidate the best ideas in education delivery, content and pedagogy practices over two days of workshops, lectures and interactive sessions that is expected to draw over 300 educations leaders from across the country.

The summit has been designed around a series of moderated sessions that will explore issues such as future trends in education; regulatory regimes and their impact; managing schools successfully; new pedagogical approaches to learning; the potential and the threat of the internet and other such topics that are pertinent in the industry today.

The ‘Education Leaders Summit 2015’ is a first of its kind event that was developed around the frequently articulated need for a common interface between all stakeholders in the education industry. Principals, school management, government and bureaucracy, private enterprise, content developers and managers will grace this two day event which will showcase top line thinking in the industry.

Speaking on the eve of the event, Shantanu Prakash, CEO Educomp Solutions Ltd and trustee, Educomp Foundation said, “The Education Leaders Summit 2015 is a recognition of the need for a meeting of the best minds in the education field in India. Education needs greater accent and emphasis on not only availability but also quality and outcomes. This event will be a step towards discussing some of the key issues that challenge us in education and the promise that the sector holds for our country for the future”.

The event will feature eight panel discussions on specific subjects between various domain experts. General V.K. Singh, minister of state for external affairs & OIA will be the chief guest on the occasion.

Panelists for the various sessions include Jitin Prasada - ex MoS MHRD, Neeraj Shekhar - MP Rajya Sabha, Anurag Thakur - MP LokSabha, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo - MP LokSabha and Dushyant Chautala - MP LokSabha; Dr. Subhash Chandra Khuntia - secretary education, MHRD., Dr. Dinesh Singh - exvice chancellor Delhi University, Professor Rajaram S. Sharma –joint director - CIET, NCRT, Joseph Emmanuel – secretary CBSE and Dr Shayama Chona – Padma Bhushan & Padma Shri awardee apart from well known principals and deans of major institutions.

1) PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS:
PANEL DISCUSSION 1 - ‘TRENDS IN EDUCATION 2020 - THE INDIA IMPERATIVE’
Panelists: Mm Jitin Prasada- Ex MoS MHRD, Neeraj Shekharv - MP Rajya Sabha, Anurag Thakur - MP LokSabha, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo - MP LokSabha & Dushyant Chautala - MP LokSabha.

Key note address by Syed Asif Ibrahim on Special Envoy to the PM on Internal Security & Counter Terrorism on Grey in Digital Age - perspective on bringing up children in New India.

2) PANEL DISCUSSION 2 - ‘ARE OUR CHILDREN SAFE - ONLINE & OFFLINE - NEW PERSPECTIVES’
Panelists: Navdeep Singh Virk - IPS Commissioner of Police Gurgaon, Dr Shayama Chona – Padma Bhushan & Padma Shri, Mansoor Khan - Board of Director DPS Bangalore.

Key note address on the topic by Dr Subhash Chandra Khuntia- Secretary Education, MHRD.

3) PANEL DISCUSSION 3 - ‘NAVIGATING THE REGULATORY PARADIGM, POLICIES AND PROCESSES’
Panelists: Dinesh Singh - Ex Vice Chancelor Delhi University, Prof Rajaram S. Sharma- Jt Director - CIET, NCRT, New Delhi, Sushil Salwan - chairman Salwan Education Trust Delhi, L V Sehgal - principal Bal Bharti Public School Delhi, Dr. Satbir Bedi - IAS, Jt Secretary - School Education & Literacy, MHRD, Oramod Sharma - director Genesis Global School Noida & Dr Immanuel -chairman ICSE.

4) PANEL DISCUSSION 4 - ‘BUILDING VALUE SYSTEM IN OUR CONFLICTED WORLD - ROLE THAT SCHOOLS PLAY’
Panelists: Mr YSK Seshu Kumar - chairman CBSE, Rudra -chairman Greenland Schools Ludhiana, Anjalee Agarwal - principal St. Marks School Delhi, Ms Bajaj -principal Green lawn School Mumbai, Anjali Razdan - principal Obul Reddy Public School Hyderabad and AbhaMeghe - academic director Meghe Group of Schools.

5) PANEL DISCUSSION 5 - ‘RUNNING AND MANAGING SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS- BEST PRACTICES’
Panelists: Dr. Saini - principal DPS KK Puram, Dr Immanuel - chairman ICSE, Fr Amalraj - regional secretary, North East Education Commission & Amol Damdhere - vice president Indian Education Society, Mumbai.

6) PANEL DISCUSSION 6 - ‘COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION USING ONLINE PLATFORMS’
Panelists: Dr Rajesh Hassija - director principal Indraprashtha Schools, Delhi & Dr Meera Balachandran - Education Quality Foundation of India Delhi.

7) PANEL DISCUSSION 7 - ‘NEW PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES TO LEARNING SYSTEM FOR 21ST CENTURY’
Panelists: Joseph Emmanuel -secretary CBSE and Dr Bindu Rana - director Millennium Education Management Delhi.

8) PANEL DISCUSSION 8 - ‘NEW APPROACHES IN TRAINING TEACHERS’ - HOW TO ADDRESS THE TEACHER QUALITY GAP’
Panelists: Dr Anjlee Prakash - CEO Learning Links Foundation Delhi, Sheela Rajendra - deputy dean & director Padma Seshadri Group of Schools Chennai.

Set up in 2010 to support quality education for the children of rural and semi urban areas and also with an aim to improve quality of the community life in the vicinity, Educomp Foundation is an initiative of India's largest education service provider, Educomp Solutions Ltd.

Shantanu Prakash : How Ed-tech Trends are Changing Kids Learn Things

In this tech-driven era, there is no denying the fact that innovations in technology have touched our lives in every possible way. Be it communication through WhatsApp and Skype, navigation through Google Maps, grocery shopping through Big Basket or booking cabs through Uber – technology is ruling our lives today, quite literally.

The education sector, too, has been touched by technology in many ways. A few months ago, QED, a Chennai-based tech startup, performed an experiment with about 100 to 150 students to see how students responded to learning from bots as compared to learning from human teachers. The results of the experiment only consolidated the claim that ed-tech is a plausible thing for a country like India, since about 60 per cent students performed better when their doubts were cleared by bots instead of human teachers.

KPMG and Google had released a joint report in mid-2017, stating that online education in India is likely to grow from its current $247 million mark to $1.96 billion by 2021. The report is no big surprise, given the fact that about 2,400 ed-tech startups were set up in 2012 alone, and the number increases by 200 new ones coming up every subsequent year since then.

The advancements in technology are surely transforming the Indian education sector. With an unprecedented move in the 90s, the first ed-tech venture Educomp Solutions brought on a whole new take on education. That first jolt on the education arena has now expanded into a full-fledged industry – where the first venture by Shantanu Prakash created a scope for change in the regular classroom through Smart Classes.

While Educomp Smartclass initiated the transformation from ‘old-school’ to ‘tech-savvy’, the introduction of latest innovative concepts like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the notion of education as we have known it.

The beauty of VR and AR lies in the fact that within a short span of 10 minutes, they can explain core concepts to students in the way textbooks and blackboards cannot. Veative, a Delhi-based ed-tech company designs VR modules aimed at making students proficient in math and science.

According to Vipin Goyal, chief of strategy and operations at Veative, education system should facilitate a disruption-free learning, and ed-tech does just that. “VR and AR can enhance course material to a point where learning abilities grow multi-fold and students retain much more than they would with just textbooks. In short blasts of 10 or 12 minutes, VR changes the way a student experiences a subject,” he said.

The ways in which technology is making a positive influence on education is not limited to designing interactive learning software using VR and AR. Artificial Intelligence (AI), is another major contributor to this ongoing transformation. While most of us perceive AI as an adaptive software that can predict test performance, it is much more than that.

AI is proven to be a useful tool in providing solutions to long-term learning problems. For instance, it could be used to analyze a child’s drawings in order to detect early signs of developmental delays or problems. Imagine the ways in which such technology can ease the learning process for people suffering from dyslexia or any other condition that might otherwise hinder their education. Wonderful, isn’t it?

Know more about Shantanu Prakash

In a class of his own: Meet Educomp's Shantanu Prakash

Pertaining to reasons that remain engulfed in mystery, in September 2005 the Carlyle Group, a global private collateral firm, sold its sixteen percent stake in the education services company, Educomp, back to founder Shantanu Prakash. Incredibly, Carlyle made the sale at a loss of roughly 94 percent on the $2. 1 million (Rs. one particular, 087 lakh) completely paid to acquire the stocks and shares in June 2000. To create up for the deficiency Carlyle took all of the 9 percent shareholding that Educomp's had in one of its subordinate company companies, LearningMate, a business by which Carlyle was already the majority shareholder. Carlyle did so, says Prakash, because it saw better potential in LearningMate which was focussed on overseas content delivery, rather than the domestically focused Educomp. While 94 percent is a really bad "haircut"--an investing term describing the lowering of the value of a security--it paled in contrast to what Carlyle had given up in the future. Less than half a year after Carlyle's leave, Prakash took Educomp through an IPO. The stocks Carlyle sold back to him in 2005 for Rs. 60 lakh are today worth roughly Rs. 300 crore. Prakash's total shareholding in Educomp is valued at over Rs. 700 crore.

Educomp's services (multimedia content, computer labs, teacher training) reach 23, 000 schools and 12 million students and teachers. The company has grown at a calculated and compounded rate of over 90 pct during the previous five years, making 20 paisa of every rupee earned as pure revenue. Which has a market capitalisation of over Rs. 7, 500 crore, Educomp is easily the most beneficial company in the Indian education sector. (Network 18, the mother or father of Forbes India, is a partner with Educomp in Graycells18 Media, a company offering interactive educational services on television. ) Yet, in many ways Educomp is simply starting out. Since the overall market for private education in India is estimated at $40 billion by brokerage company CLSA. And Educomp has yearly revenues of just Rs. 637 crore (about $140 million). When Prakash established Educomp in year 1994, his goal was to set up and run computer labs for colleges. Prakash knew there were potential in the education sector but wasn't clear what type of business model would work. The most important obstacle was the fact that Kindergarten-to-class 12 (K12) school education (valued at $20 billion dollars, half the size of the complete education market) was deemed "non-profit" by government bodies and governments. That's why most private schools are governed by non-profit "trusts". As a result, shareholders were wary of placing money into any K12-focussed entrepreneur, at the same time a the greater part of schools were troubled to provide world-class education. "Indian classrooms were highly dysfunctional with large amount of students per class room, underpaid teachers, growing programs and competitor peer pressure. Would 80 per cent of students take private individual tutoring if classrooms were working? " states Prakash. "We had to intervene to get results from classes. " Prakash hit after both the root of the issue with Indian education, as well as the most lucrative segment. This individual focussed on enhancing the standard of education using existing system: School classrooms. That was more efficient than setting up up his own, which is what his more mature competition (NIIT, Aptech) were doing. His solution, Good Class, introduced in the year 2003, was a canny blend of computer and audio-visual hardware and multimedia content. Smart Class' interactive content was "enthusiastically adopted by underpaid and unrecognised professors who desperately needed help, " claims Prakash.

Shantanu Prakash, 44, decided to become a business person at a time when his father, a manager with SAIL, could hardly even afford to purchase a flat in Delhi. This individual got his first flavor of business by getting music concerts while learning at Delhi's Sriram School of Commerce, which this individual later expanded into much wider event management. He extended with this business quietly even as he was studying at IIM Ahmedabad (batch of 1988). Prakash is an Art of Living follower. He is a frugal man; no executive travels business category in Educomp. PAGE_BREAK Business people before Prakash who got tried to sell digital content to schools experienced run into a chicken-and-egg wall. Most schools failed to have the hardware (computer servers, networks, flat display televisions) to play content, nor did they want to spend money on setting it up first without having content at hand. Prakash smartly chose to sell the chicken and the as fast as possible together.

Educomp would offer hardware along with bundled content to schools, which were charged a per child, per month fee of Rs. 75 to Rs. 150. Educomp in most cases recovered the value of its investments in just the second year, leaving pure profits ahead. Today Educomp’s pre-tax profit margins on Smart Class revenues are 59 percent. “Bundling software and hardware together felt radical to many others, but we felt it could become like the Bloomberg of education. We saw a billion dollar product in Smart Class,” says Gopal Jain, a partner with private equity firm Gaja Capital Partners which invested in Educomp just after Carlyle’s exit. Jain is also on the board of Educomp. Bloomberg gives users customised hardware to access the financial information it provides. But as his competitors try to replicate his Bloomberg model, Prakash is now upping the ante. Not content with merely helping schools, he now wants to create them too. Prakash realised that there were still many untapped revenue opportunities in schools. There are more than 15,000 schools that charge more than Rs. 1,250 per month from a student as fees, according to CLSA. And Prakash was getting a measly Rs. 75-150 of that. Therefore, for many analysts, Educomp’s 2008 announcement about starting its own K12 schools across India was a logical next step. Today it has 23 schools, and a similar number are in varying stages of construction. “It is undoubtedly the future of Educomp and has a potential to be its Number One business,” says Jain. All these schools share a common operating model – the governance is in the hands of a non-profit trust, which in turn enters into an exclusive relationship with a consolidated supplier, Educomp Infrastructure & School Management Services (EISMS). In return for a fee, EISMS provides almost everything that makes up the school--land, buildings, teachers and other staff, and IT infrastructure. CLSA estimated that each such school trust could generate a “surplus” of 60 paisa for every rupee earned. This is then paid out as fees to suppliers. Some of these schools are governed by the Learning Leadership Foundation, a trust which Prakash helped set up and where he continues to serve as its managing trustee. The rest of the schools are managed by independent trusts, which aren’t related in any way to Educomp, claims Prakash. Lucrative as this new model may be, it is also capital intensive with payback periods nearing a decade. Each school is expected to cost Educomp Rs. 14 crore to set up--and it wants to set up 150 over the next three years. So, as his new child grows hungrier for capital, Prakash is now trying to wean off his grown up ones.

To free up capital from his flagship Smart Class business, which contributes close to half of Educomp’s revenues, Prakash now wants to transfer ownership and management of all new Smart Class contracts to a new company, Edu Smart. Under the new model, when a new Smart Class deal is signed with a school, usually for a period of five years, Edu Smart will offer the five years’ fee receivables as collateral to a bank in return for a discounted loan with interest. It will then pay Educomp roughly 75 percent of the five-year value of the contract up front. For the next five years Edu Smart will collect the monthly fees from the school, using the bulk of it to pay off its bank loan, and the rest for its operational needs. According to CLSA, Edu Smart will operate at zero profit, though it will be responsible for both service delivery to the school and loan repayment to the bank. It’s a radical albeit inexplicable model.

Why should Edu Smart, an independent company not owned by Educomp, take on this dual burden for zero profit? How will schools react to Educomp palming them off to a new company? How will Educomp monitor or guarantee service levels? 

While most analysts were positive about this new model, CLSA strongly questioned if more complexity was being added to Educomp’s business model, and if this was just about transferring financing liabilities off its balance sheet (Educomp offers guarantee to the banks for Edu Smart’s loans.) It is probably to assuage such concerns that Educomp is now planning a major pan-India advertising initiative, its first ever, to position the company favourably to Indian teachers, students, parents, investors and regulators. “We are like the HDFC of education,” says Prakash, justifying Educomp's attempts to not just provide educational solutions but also the funding that would allow them to be bought by thousands of schools. Its financing model aside Educomp is probably already there, especially if one looks at its brand recall or breadth of operations in Indian education vis-a-vis HDFC's in the financial sector. But whether or not Educomp can also offer HDFC-like stability and risk-averseness, is another matter altogether.

Shantanu Prakash highlights about Return on Investment, Return on Capital Employed & more

Browsing, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic won't be able to flourish if you ignore the other 'R's.

Above 2 million children in 2, 200 private universities around the world use his 'Smartclass' every day; 4 lakh kids so far are registered with online short training site WiZiQ; 4 lakh teachers have been trained just this coming year in skills they would have mastered if they had done a fundamental BEd; 14, 500 computer labs have recently been constructed in government schools... If perhaps you're looking for proof that Hr} manager Creation Minister Kapil Sibal is on the right keep track of while saying the legislation will be converted to allow for-profit businesses to the education business, Shantanu Prakash's Educomp Solutions Limited's success provides enough of this, writes Sunil Jain.

Much is known about 15-year old Educomp and its success -- Income are up from Rs 112 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 517 crore in 2008-09; Return on Investment (RoI) from doze. 92 to 16. apr per cent in the same period; Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) from 28. 5 to twenty seven. 8 per cent; Come back on Net Worth (RoNW) from 24. 1 to 35. 6 per dollar. So I actually want to meet Prakash for his take on whether Sibal's bitten off more than they can munch while making Class 15 exams optional; on whether we even must have government bodies like the All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE) for education [think of the American indian School of Business (ISB)which is doing well with no accreditation]; on can be wrong with the not-for-profit model if it allows people like him to expand how they have; and yes, does Prakash's move to bricks-and-mortar colleges suggest the current model of computer-aided teaching tools (that's the Smartclass for which parents during these 2, 200 schools pay Educomp Rs 150 every month) is flagging?

Jooxie is lunching at Olive Seashore, the still-trendy Mediterranean food joint at Chanakya Puri. We're sitting outside, partially since the weather is actually just started getting nice and partly because, like most other restaurants, in which gaggle of kitty-party women inside -- for a long while, only women stream in, prompting Prakash to say that we are going to the only men in the area, apart from the stewards of course.

When we're cutting the freshly-baked bread that's served on the side and deciding on orders, we speak of what appears like a very well-planned march from Smartclass to pre-schools (400-plus Eurokids and 170 Roots-to-Wings), online tutoring, bricks-and-mortar institutions (23 with 16, 500 students), high-end vocational education with Raffles University, a distance education tie-up with the Pearson Group of the united kingdom (it owns Penguin and the Financial Times). We joke about the title of the reserve, Stay Hungry Stay Unreasonable, by Rashmi Bansal on 25 IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) graduates like Prakash and Naukri's Sanjeev Bikhchandani who decided to go out on their own -- a friend's wife, Prakash explains to me, believed it to be a new diets book! (Disclosure: I almost bought Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul so I could make soups for my son. ) Prakash refuses to get drawn by my review that IIMs are simply a fancy recruitment process and don't really add much value -- the reality that IIM-A is, after all these years, partying just 25 graduates stepping into their own ventures, Perhaps, does tell a certain kind of story.

Prakash, to get his CV out of the way, commenced life as a businessman, much to the dismay of his daddy, a SAIL officer who, like so numerous others, wished his son to analyze for the IAS. Began, in the sense, he trained at the Delhi Community School in Mathura Street, traveled to Shri Ram University of Commerce (SRCC) and then to IIM-A and, right after, joined an SRCC colleague in the education-aids business -- if you schooled in Delhi, chances are the skeleton you examined in the biology lab was sold by Prakash.

The orders finally arrive (a Bruschetta followed by a Contadina pizza for him and a Caesar's greens accompanied by a sea striper for me) and after a bite, Prakash smothers his pizza with Tabasco -- it's unlikely really that bad, so possibly he just ordered mistakenly. I don't the genuine same with my seafood, the flavouring's delicate, refined. Sipping his Diet Cola (after all the mozzarella cheese, keeping a watch on calories is most likely par for the course), Prakash says this is about the time CBSE introduced computers as a curriculum -- so he left his good friend, borrowed money at high rates and started buying computers to install in schools, the growth was slow but steady and, most crucial, profitable. This is where, Prakash says, this individual learnt the best idea in business -- sell to consumers who can get others to pay! The colleges got the computers free (the same applies to the Smartclass), and this made them look hi-tech and attracting parents who paid Prakash separately. The rest then followed and, today, with 400 people just growing education content, in five Indian languages, Prakash says, he has the major team doing such work in the world.

Regarding whether the distance education model is flagging, Prakash take into account how its share in the revenues (65 per dollar at the moment) is rising -- just 2, 200 of the seventy five, 000 private schools have his Smartclasses and just 14, 000 of the 925, 000 government universities are included in his computer labs, an indication displaying how much more range there is. So just why the 23 bricks-and-mortar schools (apart from the pre-schools) and plans to go to 150 by 2012? Matching to a CLSA brokerage firm report, Prakash says, Indians spend $25 billion (Rs 112, 500 crore) a year on education until Class 12 and another $5. 5 billion on tutoring -- needless to say, he wants to be part of this great business where, to quote him, demand outstrips supply by a huge margin and the business is cash-flow negative.

To understand why for-profit is so important, you must understand Educomp's model for bricks and mortar. The school should be run by a not-for-profit trust, that's the legislation. So even though the trust operates the school, Educomp is a vendor to the trust. Educomp buys the land and creates the building (in a new school), provides the course material and so on and then charges the trust for its service. The trust gets to retain its profit, but Educomp has created an enterprise model through which it is able to gain as an education seller -- it then uses this profit to catch the attention of investors and keep their model going. Obviously, a for-profit model where shareholders can invest directly is an improved one, but precisely wrong with the not-for-profit one, I ask. Prior to answering, Prakash points away that although the trust model doesn't pay any taxation, his model converts this into a for-tax model since Educomp pays taxation on the income it earns as an education service agency to the trust. That important clarification away of the way, Prakash says there's no problem with the existing not-for-profit model, provided you avoid want to expand fast. The bucks lies with the trust, and that's it. If, one the other side of the or maybe hand, you want to expand, you need fairness funding... only for-profit can deliver that. We have a discussion on endeavor capitalists (VCs) that basically fit to print here, none of which, Prakash insists, applies to his VC who brings a lot of ideas to the table and also understands business.

Which in turn brings us to Sibal. Isn't it foolish to abolish the Class 15, and eventually class doze, boards since the panels provide a neutral way in which to understand a student's ability; if the tension over the Class 12 board is to be replaced with the strain over a school entry exam, what's the difference? Since I'm knowing for sure I'm right, Prakash states that in case you accept the argument that Sibal is getting a few things wrong, the important thing is that he could be moving in an area where policy has been fixed for many years. You mean it's like adding a spec of dirt and grime in an oyster, the shake-up it causes produces a pearl? Exactly, Prakash seizes after that. Nevertheless why have regulators, why not let parents and students decide which school/college is the best, We persist. I mock Sibal's latest decide to set up 2, 500 schools on a public-private-partnership (PPP) most basic which are to be regulated by the federal government -- another layer of bureaucracy!

Yes, and no. Obviously choice is important, states Prakash, but schools/colleges, like ISB, are free to make the decision if they want to align to some standard. Aligning to a CBSE, or even an AICTE, allows parents/students to learn they can expect a certain standard, that's all -- yes, if the government said CBSE/AICTE was the only standard and everyone had to keep to it, that would have been problems. Nevertheless surely, prescribing 100 rectangular feet of balcony space outside each classroom, or any such number, as the Delhi government will, I ask, is ridiculous? However, Sheraton prescribes criteria, Prakash counters. The specifications can be changed if they're out of hit, but absolutely nothing wrong with standards or regulations, this individual insists, what's wrong is the licensing that most state governments perform -- you require an "essentiality" certificate before you start and that means the usual palm-greasing.

With all this emphasis on learning, does Prakash still read, considering he fondly recalls his father's big snacks were books? Not much, he admits, struggling to recall the name of the last book this individual read. Perhaps if this individual starts adult education classes? Re-Kindle, so to speak. To be submitted to - yourstory

From rote-learning to meaningful way of gaining knowledge in Education

The present system of education has a number of loopholes. “It mainly focuses on incessant memorization with no meaningful learning at all,” says Shantanu Prakash, founder of the digital education firm Educomp Solutions. It makes millions of students the victims of a futile, unrealistic, and monotonous rat race. The plight is well-reflected in the words of Stephen Leacock, the well-known humorist and writer who summed up the education system.

“Parrots would pass the examination of our time better than men. It is the one who has a sharp memory that will make the highest score, though he may clear forget everything just the following morning,” he once said.

Shantanu Prakash deems creativity and innovation as the only panacea to liberate the education system from the tenets of mechanistic and obsolete learning. Fostering the concept of ‘smart learning’, his venture, Educomp Solutions garnered significant success in addressing the pain points in the current education system.

“A relook at the Indian education sector is inevitable, given that the current system was developed in the pre-Independence era for just 5 per cent of the population, and that too for clerical roles, with no room for creativity or promoting social reorganisation,” said Aditya Nataraj, Founder director Kaivalya Education Foundation, a social change organisation working in the field of education.


Mr. Nataraj focused on replacing the system of “monitoring, inspection, and suspension” with the one that “enables, empowers and inspires” students.

The Global Education and Skills Forum saw diverse opinions for propagating robust changes in the country’s education segment. Shaheen Mistri, CEO of a non-profit organization, Teach for India, suggested the inclusion of ‘love’ factor, deeming it central for revolutionizing the sector.

“This includes a five-step approach of creating safe spaces for voices, promoting the spirit of partnership between educators and kids, view children as change-makers, driving regional and national dialogue on equity in education, and encouraging experiments in reimagining education,” Mistri said.

Smartclass education In India introduced by Educomp

Smart Class venture, which since its conception in the 1990s changed the face of school education in India, the most prominent feature of education technology. Shantanu Prakash is Chairman and Managing Director of Educomp Solutions Limited. Educomp is the leader in education content, professional development, online learning and the first company to set up high quality schools across the country

Educomp Smartclass went on to become an integral part of the classrooms, owing to its interactive teaching. Students studying in the smart classes were found to be more in tune with the learning methodologies and were more adept at grasping concepts as compared to students who still followed the traditional way of classroom learning.
The spark ignited by Educomp Solutions soon transformed into India’s first ed-tech revolution with several other entrepreneurs following the footsteps of Shantanu Prakash. Currently, the ed-tech industry is growing at a fast pace, with several new startups emerging every year. Ventures like BYJU’s have even attracted investment from big shots like Tencent Holdings and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

This development comes at a time where education in India is facing a lot of heat due to incumbencies and mishaps in examinations, bad infrastructure or otherwise poor learning approach for students.

The Indian education sector has long been subjected to scrutiny over outdated curriculum and promotion of rote learning. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, during his visit to India, was quick to point out a major flaw in the Indian education system – the lack of creativity. The emphasis on scoring more robs school children of their innovative mindset, creating a bunch of people possessing bookish knowledge but unable to think beyond that.

However, the tide seems to be changing with the growing ed-tech sector in India. A joint report by Google and KPMG indicated the education industry in India to grow eight times by 2021, the value reaching $1.96 billion. The Digital India campaign started by PM Narendra Modi has acted like a catalyst to the development of the ed-tech sector.

At this time, stakeholders, school boards and startups would look to redefine the scope of education’s development in India – other than the details around capital investments.

Smart Classes hold immense possibilities. Most importantly, the concept addresses almost every element the current education system in India lacks. The endless list of merits of the setup vouches for its ability to fulfil the nation’s goals for the transformation of the country’s learning scenario.