Education sector in India has been in its exponential growth phase in the recent past. The demographic advantage associated with the higher percentage of youth, almost more than 50%, and low gross enrolment ratios works in favor of Education Industry. The reported higher growth of economy in the recent years, and the upward movement of income levels is boosting the overall spend on education. This along with other Government initiatives like higher fund allocation, efforts to improve quality of education has resulted in increased enrolment in higher education. Overall, all these factors will have cascading effect which is making education sectors as a lucrative market for the technology vendors within the educational segment.

Talking about the overview of the Educational sector in India, it is estimated that India has around 367 universities, 18,000 colleges, about half a million teachers, and 11 million students. There are about 1,500 Management Institutes, 3,500 Engineering Colleges, and 1,200 Medical Colleges in the country.

Looking at the current scenario and the trends, the present generation is inclined toward adopting latest technology in learning. There are more techno entrepreneurs focusing in this segment with the latest technology and at the same time there are more private players entering into the education segment to capitalize over the opportunity.

A few of the technological developments in the recent past are Video Based Tutorials and Mobile based learning. Companies within these technology spaces are coming up with more interactive features, which ultimately expected to convert the pedagogy more engaging and collaborative. Secondly, the flipped learning tech is gaining importance in colleges and universities. A flipped class is a form of blended learning where students watch video lectures outside of class and learn content online, or they can do their homework in the class with the guidance of their teachers. The advantaged with Flipped class is, it engages the students outside the class also.

Visualizing the trend in the Colleges and Universities, it can be seen that these institutes have started intensively using technology in all aspects of a student’s curriculum. There exist tools in the market to keep track on each and every student for his/her performance throughout the academic year. Looking into this opportunity, technology Vendors have started entering into this market through more innovative software and hardware products. There are a few global players in this vast market space such as Blackboard Inc., Smart Technologies, Gaggle and Ellucian which are strategizing in this blue ocean market space. These players are consistently making changes in their product offerings to keep pace with the market needs.

There is a growing trend among the colleges and universities in India in adopting software applications similar to “Moodle”. Moodle is software for learning management system basically used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other e-learning projects. There is a need for similar software products in the market as these products will create a great market opportunities for the start-up firms to make an entry in this market. They can look for adding more relevant features depending upon the need of the target market.

Analyzing this market further, we can say that, more specific the product, more demand it will capture. There are a few companies within the education technology which have started giving course specific solutions. It is an opportunity to add more features relevant to at course, for example applications specific to Medical, Engineering, Commerce etc. Overall, the market is not competitive at present but there are chances of huge rush of providers entering into this market as they sense more opportunities due to the positive metrics associated with this segment. It will be interesting to watch out for who captures the target market first within India.

This Blog is written by Lekha Gyanchandan. You can reach her lekha@dartconsulting.co.in