Is the Edtech sector in the country going to be regulated?
By MYBRANDBOOK
Digitalization is on its peak and the development in EdTech has provided teachers and assessors with far greater access to data on individual achievements and progress. Online platforms, new learning formats and mobile applications have vastly improved access to education. It is enhancing the learning process as well. The online and cloud technologies in EdTech standards also bring exciting standardization possibilities for content.
However, experts feel that the lack of a regulatory framework in India along the lines of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe could impinge on the privacy of students who now use educational technology (EdTech) apps for learning. Since the onset of the pandemic, online education has replaced conventional classroom instruction. This has spawned several EdTech apps which have become popular. Schools and colleges have been able to move their content delivery, engagement and evaluation from offline to online and ensure minimal academic disruption.
This exercise has forced teachers to become facilitators in learning rather than being content providers. The EdTech apps have the advantage of being able to customize learning to every student in the system. Among the edtech sub-sectors, K-12 education startups with $4.3 Bn in total market size will have the single highest market share - 41% of the total edtech market in India. Taking into account that the pandemic has brought plenty of momentum for edtech adoption in India, the market size of edtech in India is estimated to grow 3.7x in the next five years, from $2.8 Bn (2020) to $10.4 Bn (2025).
The concern is, many education technology companies prey on underprivileged parents by force-selling courses, with this the privacy of students who use EdTech apps for learning is at risk. As there is no regulatory frameworks been defined, the firms are using the resources as the open cast mine and experts are raising voices calling upon the government to regulate the sector.
Sources said, these companies deliberately employ predatory marketing practices and then signing them up for loans without knowledge or consent. This practice is in fact so thoroughly ingrained in certain companies' practices that they have partnered up with lending companies to push unsuspecting parents to debt traps. Secondly, consumer complaint forums are full of complaints by helpless parents about being auto-debited each month despite repeated requests to cancel and the poor quality of content being received by their children.
There is also news that certain Edtech companies have also signed partnership with NITI Aayog to promote their agenda across the country, with this the present education system is getting disrupted.
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