Eminent speakers offered their ideas on widening the private sector's role in boosting India's education sector.
The "Ed-Tech Innovation for Impact" conference organised by Yes Institute in Delhi on 23 February attracted top educationists.
They discussed the serious and meaningful aspects of education technology. The plenary session revolved around the role of private sector in shaping up the education ecosystem in India and how private-public partnerships (PPP) are undertaken to overcome the major challenges.
The remaining day witnessed and learnt three more panel discussions on supporting the 21st century skill development with technology, digital disruption in education and catalyzing capital in the ed-tech sector, chronologically.
Among the eminent speakers were: Gowri Ishwaran, founder principal of Sanskriti School; Mamta Saikia, COO of Bharti Foundation; Dilip Chenoy, ex-CEO and MD of NSDC; Arun Maira, former chairman if BCG India and member of the Planning Commission; Nita Kapoor, CEO of VCCircle; and Ajay Bohora, co-founder and CEO of Credila Financial Services.
While speaking about Yes Institute's initiative to make a difference in the Indian developmental industry, Preeti Sinha, senior president of Yes Bank and Glocal Convenor of Yes Institute, said: "We started Yes Institute two years ago with the objective of catalysing private capital for development".
About the importance of aid in the developmental industry, Preeti stated: "There isn't enough aid or grant to solve the problems. Our hypothesis is that development needs business models so that capital goes into it and revolves. The business models catalyse a rigorous set-up to generate an impact investing system. This invites investors to get social as well as some financial returns".
Nita Kapoor, in giving a quick snapshot on the last five years of Indian ed-tech industry, stated, "This industry observed about 700 million dollars of investments and 225 deals signed. 99.9% of the total money was invested in the primary education and K-12 segment."
As much as digital presence was important in the education industry, what worked and what didn't is still a major dilemma.
Discussing digital disruption, Manish Kumar, co-founder and CEO of SEED schools, said, "Scripted lesson plans and its online availability has increased access and minimized monetary expenditures. However, one surprising element here is teacher refraining from using the voiceovers in the lesson plans."
Education is a core developmental issues in India. Yes Institute in the days to come will organise more such discussions on other developmental aspects of Indian society.
