Coaching centers today have become a part of a child’s daily routine.
The massive social pull of tuitions at all levels today has made coaching classes parallel to India’s formal education system. Coaching classes are no longer an option but a necessity. The statistics divulge that 1/3 of the income of a middle class family is being invested in education through coaching centers.
One of the four students take coaching or tuitions from the coaching center available in their proximity. According to ASSOCHAM survey in 2015, coaching industry in India was estimated at $40 billion.
Not just by articles like this and this, we realize the fact that the coaching industry in India and the success of coaching institutes are tied to successful selections of students and the quality content delivery by a star teacher; which means a well renowned teacher (star teacher) using their name and ability to deliver content and results can attract students to offline coaching centres. Everybody knows that the real rockstars in the coaching hubs like Kota, Mukherjee Nagar, Karol Bagh, Rajinder Nagar, Allahabad, Patna, Hyderabad etc. are the teachers. And in 90% cases these teachers or academician are the real owners or directors of these many coaching centres across India. For an outsider they may be teachers; for the test-prep centres of coaching hubs, they are also a business tool to attract students.
Unfortunately, the urge to grow the business by opening up more and more branches also forces them to lease centres without deeper inspection, consideration of other factors for safety and understanding of associated consequences like in the case of Surat fire. On 24 May 2019, a fire occurred at a commercial complex in Sarthana area of Surat in the Gujarat state of India. Twenty-two students died and others were injured in an academic coaching centre located on the building’s terrace. The fire was started by a short circuit in air conditioner on the second floor; the students in the coaching centre were trapped by the destruction of a wooden staircase.
Since every student wants access to quality content delivered by star teachers, there is great increase in student enrolment in tutoring and test prep institutes.
But understanding the dynamics and mindset in certain regions and based on the paying capabilities, physical coaching institutes have created hubs in the country giving access to quality /tutoring only to those who can afford to pay the high fees and/or relocate. Due to the fact that these students spend lakhs of rupees each on tuition and lodging means, there are limitations to number of students who can attend the physical coaching centres.
The offline classrooms can cater to maximum 100-400 students, whereas the online classrooms can successfully cater to thousands of students with live and personalized learning features, mock tests, private chats, quizzes, access to content/videos for self-paced learning. VIDU.TECH claims to have recently completed project with Platform Patna delivering coaching online to over 2200 students, as a proof of the concept.
VIDU is an Online Learning Technology (OLT) Platform for coaching centres. Today VIDU is provisioning the need of live learning and online assessment of students by providing online coaching technology and online assessment services to coaching centres. Currently 2.9M learners are getting benefit out of it. 45M live learning hours, 10M+ assessments are already delivered through VIDU by enabling hundreds on coaching centres across 100 cities in India. VIDU.TECH has encashed on the dual opportunity, that each coaching institute wants to maximize student enrolment and revenues and that the students from Tier 3 and 4 cities want the same coaching experience as someone in Tier 1.
VIDU.TECH has disrupted the existing coaching industry by making it accessible, convenient and personalized. By offering access to the star teacher’s lecture/session at a lower fee and no relocation cost while maintaining the stream quality despite very low bandwidths (512KBPS) , VIDU allows for cost effective tutoring for the lower Tier students.
It also helps coaching institutes to serve more student base and increase revenues by providing increase in student enrolment (via their marketplace TopRankers.com) without having to increase capital expenditure.
Speaking to Gaurav Goel, the Founder & CEO, we found that even issues like lack of education to girl child has been addressed by VIDU.TECH as 40% of the users they serve via their marketplace TopRankers.com are girls.
VIDU.TECH having presence in 100 cities, has given birth to disruption benefiting not only the learners but also the coaching institutes and providers to take their quality offline courses online for last mile connectivity and list their courses on marketplace Toprankers.com to increase sales. Working with coaching institutes across India, the platform demonstrates its ability to handle high volume traffic with concurrent usage, seamless integration with Web & Android app and Digital Rights Management (DRM) to ensure copyright protection for digital media & lectures.
The online medium eliminates the need for a student to be physically present; it opens up the classroom to pretty much the entire world. A student from smaller town of Bihar preparing for the exam can register for online coaching classes and have the same experience that someone attending classroom sessions in Tier 1 cities. This means learning and knowledge are not limited by geographies; it is only bound by one’s willingness to learn.
Online education has found its way in the Indian market and has a bright future for the betterment of learners. A report by ReseachandMarkets.com shows an incremental growth of $ 9.52 billion from 2017 to 2022, forecasting the e-learning market size to be at $ 18 billion by 2022. These numbers are surely exciting for anyone running or planning to run an online education business in India.
We find that the best part of online education is its ability to reach students in remotest of areas. As a result of competitive Tel Co’s approach to capture maximum share in the Indian market, internet data in India is 1/10th the global pricing, the internet penetration is deep in the country and of course on the rise. Let’s see how more edtech and coaching institute founders ride this wave.
