NEP must partner with ed-tech start-ups to achieve desired outcomes: IAMAI

Role of ed-tech start-ups not clearly spelt out in National Education Policy draft, the association says

The government should look at more effective partnerships with education technology start-ups in order to maximise the outcome envisioned in the draft National Education Policy, industry association Internet and Mobile Association of India said.  

Welcoming the focus on technology in the policy draft, IAMAI the role that can be played by ed-tech start-ups has not been clearly spelt out.

Krishna Kumar, CEO, Simplilearn, and Chairman of the IAMAI Ed-Tech Committee, emphasized that India has a unique opportunity of establishing itself as a global destination for a digital-ready workforce in the future.

He said, "Indian Ed-Tech companies are already doing a great job communicating the importance of constant skilling and thereby skilling hundreds of thousands of professionals every year. If there is a way for such people to move from an online skilling course to formal education, this will go a long way in building the workforce of the future."

The draft policy provides for reforms at all levels of education from school to higher education. It seeks to increase focus on early childhood care, reform the current exam system, strengthen teacher training, and restructure the education regulatory framework.

The proposed National Education Technology Forum (NETF) should consider partnering with the ed-tech industry as well as educational institutions to establish Centres of Excellence, IAMAI said. This will accelerate and streamline research and deployment efforts and enable the NETF to adopt industry-led best practices.

The NEP describes NETF as "An autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), will be created to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to improve learning, assessment, planning, administration, and so on."

IAMAI said several ed-tech start-ups are using technology like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) to provide simple yet effective education solutions.

The use of AR and VR has massively impacted the efficiency with which e-learning is offered to students and the way it assesses their performance. The learning resources are static in nature and this need has been addressed by the ed-tech start-ups, which are transforming traditional methods of education.

Ed-tech companies have digitised education and seemed to have figured out a number of critical drawbacks. Technology and education go perfectly well together providing exciting opportunities for learning and teaching, IAMAI.