More than 448 million of India’s digital population consumes internet on their mobile phones. Rural penetration remains considerably low compared to urban communities. However, the gap seems to be only decreasing as socio-economic conditions of such communities improve.
Online education is navigating previously uncharted territory with aplomb, which was scarcely imaginable even in the immediate past.
Imagine buying a Grade 10, full year’s school curriculum on Flipkart, and accessing it through an app, on which a student can watch pre-recorded classes at his or her comfort, and at the end of the year get not one, but two certificates – one from the school board, and another from American global multinational major, Microsoft.
That is what the London-based AdiGroup plans to do through its digital education platform, Ed4All.
Targeted at 9-12 grade students of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Bleap – the product’s name – aims to bring together online and physical classes at a fraction of the present cost.
“At present, students of National Institute of Open Schooling, pay up to Rs 1 lakh a year on tuition as they don’t have access to school infrastructure. Bleap will cost them Rs 4, 999,” Sanjay Viswanathan, Chairman AdiGroup and Co-founder Ed4All, told Moneycontrol.
AdiGroup has partnered with Microsoft for the initiative. Each year’s curriculum will include classes on emerging technology trends, including artificial intelligence (AI) and block chain, with students getting a certificate from the Washington-based multinational. “This will immensely improve their work skills and chances of getting a job,” said Viswanathan.
The NIOS has about 13 lakh students. On the ground, it has a network of study centres where students can access lab facilities, and also write their examinations.
Ed4All has signed up with 25 of these study centres in its first phase. These are situated in eight cities – Faridabad, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Jaipur, Kota, Lucknow and Chandigarh. “These study centres can scale up their operations through us and get many more students enrolled,” pointed out Viswanathan. Ed4All, which eventually wants to tap about 350 study centres in these cities, will share revenue with them.
Ed4All has 350 videos on the Bleap platform and plans to add 1,000 more in the next couple of months.
“At present, its video on demand. Students can watch a video as many times as possible. Later on, we will also have live classes. Students will get five hours of one-on-one mentoring from their teachers every week,” Viswanathan explained.
The entrepreneur, who was earlier in the news for his interest in Jet Airways, plans to invest $ 30 million in Ed4All in the next three years. AdiGroup had launched Ed4All earlier this year in partnership with the Chennai-based SV Group of educational institutes.
Bleap, Viswanathan added, will also give scholarships to 50 girl students in eight districts. Clearly, the firm is in an expansion mode.
