The solution to educating a billion lies online with the help of technology and not really by building more bricks-and-mortar schools and universities, says Arjun Mohan in his book Educating a Billion: How Edtech Start-ups, Apps, YouTube and AI Disrupted Education. That belief is the driving force, as also the crux, of his endeavour.
바카라Edtech was one of the sectors which became a darling to the investors and consumers during Covid-19. It emerged as the saviour to students and schools which were forced to a standstill by a virus,바카라 says Mohan. However, he goes on, the love started disappearing soon after the world opened up after the Covid-induced lockdowns, and children started returning to offline schools and coaching centres.
바카라With this change began the negative narrative against edtech, criticising the lack of outcomes and methods followed by multiple edtech companies for fast growth,바카라 Mohan points out. It was during this phase that the idea of writing a book on Indian edtech came to him. Through his own experiences in the edtech sector, he tries to make a dispassionate case for it.
바카라Whatever it has been made of this sector today, as someone who spent considerable time in close quarters with it, I can promise you that entrepreneurs, teachers and techies who drove the sector had genuinely tried to make education accessible, affordable and of top quality. Their effort was always in making learning enjoyable for learners so that learning and upskilling never feels like a burden,바카라 says Mohan.
Educating A Billion is his effort to tell the story of those efforts and innovation, he explains. 바카라I believe it is important for us to establish the positive narrative of edtech since that is the only way for our country with limited resources to uplift our skill levels,바카라 he avers.
Here is an excerpt:
With Vijay바카라s permission, in the second half, I asked the children if they wanted to learn math like the Bollywood songs they devoured. To puzzled looks, I opened my laptop and played a video on addition we had done at BYJU바카라S as part of our new project on online learning. The video was in English, and I was worried the kids wouldn바카라t find it interesting since their fluency in English was subpar. To my surprise, there was pin-drop silence for half an hour as the presenter in the video went about explaining how numbers are added with the help of sleek animation which flashed on the screen. The kids loved the video and asked for more, to which I promised I would keep coming back and introducing them to such new things.
바카라The section speaks about how technology can make a positive impact on education and learning even in the remotest part of the country, through an anecdote from my life. The entire premise of edtech is built around this idea and this is the ONLY way to educate our billion learners,바카라 he says.
Mohan was one of the earliest students of Byju Raveendran, whose edtech start-up Byju바카라s caught headlines for its stupendous rise and controversies. Mohan, now back as the CEO of the company, has been associated with Byju바카라s off and on, either part-time or full-time.
Interspersed within the lines are his takes on the working of edtech sector, including start-ups like Byju바카라s, WhiteHat Jr, upGrad, Khan Academy and others, in the country.
Making a Case for Edtech
Learning new things and teaching others are his passions, says Mohan. He insists he is on a continuous quest for knowledge to improve himself and people around him. He still gives classes to students. 바카라I do not miss out on any opportunity to interact and learn something new. Lately I have picked up mentoring of start-ups and young entrepreneurs. I find the experience exhilarating and an opportunity to create a bigger impact,바카라 he says.
Educating a Billion helped Mohan reflect on and think deeper about the problems the edtech industry has been trying to solve. 바카라Now my conviction on how edtech can solve all major education problems we know of has become stronger,바카라 he adds.
Currently he is focused on reviving the edtech sector which, he believes, 바카라is necessary for our nation바카라s growth바카라. This book is an important part of the overall strategy, he shares, pointing out that there are a couple of more ideas on stories of education which he may work on.
