“Crisis Is An Opportunity”
Ghanshyam Tiwari, Founder, NeetPrep GoodEd Technologies, an edtech company that offers medical entrance exam coaching, PIIndia.org, as well as a national spokesperson for the Samajwadi Party is an advocate of quality education and believes in the importance of digital learning, equal opportunity and educating girls.
“What makes NEETPrep an intriguing profile is that despite being an online learning and exam prep platform with a standard user interface website, the platform has gained the same level of confidence that students have in coaching courses. The startup is profitable after three years of operation,” says Tiwari. NEETPrep provides coaching programmes to students in 600 districts, allowing 50,000 girls to sit for one of India’s most ambitious and aspirational exams.
“NEETPrep caters to the student market in India where ambitions are high but access to facilities, teachers and materials is limited,” says Tiwari, adding, “Students who wish to pursue a career in medicine are frequently left in the dark. And, it is here that NEETPrep hopes to make a difference.”
Education On Ground
Education, as a policy intervention, is a huge force to promote self-sufficiency and enhance economic growth by improving skills, thus providing opportunities for better livelihoods. Tiwari explains this by stating that India has a large young population which does not have access to low-cost affordable education. “Government must provide free, high-quality education from primary to college level,” he says.
Tiwari believes that the high cost of education is the ‘biggest deterrent to families educating their daughters’. “Girls are society’s strongest connection. Governments also require additional education officials and instructors with the necessary expertise and understanding to guarantee that girls have equal access to an excellent education,” he says.
Future Planning
An optimistic entrepreneur, Tiwari believes that the future holds a lot of promise. “I think that in the next four to five years, every child in India will have access to good education,” he states.
Education is just the start, the larger goal is to ensure employment. “We also have a great employment goal, which is to provide three to five years of education help to children who have lost their parents due to Covid-19, with the help of scholarships, financial assistance, or any other support that we can provide in addition. Furthermore, we have set out to create software that would be able to run with equal benefits. In response to Covid-19, we will give priorities to girl education and do whatever we can to aid in the immediate and long term,” Tiwari states.
According to him, though the pandemic had a devastating impact on all segments of society, it brought out the good in people as well. “You could see the dread of the pandemic, but you could also see the courage and dedication. Hence, he believed that the crisis can be an opportunity to take the country and community forward socially, politically and in other ways,” he says.
