The launch of New Education Policy 2020 and the changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have led to several regulatory developments lately. The scope of virtual classrooms is expected to expand by 10-fold in the next 5 years.
According to a study by RedSeer Consulting, virtual mode of pursuing higher education will possibly become a $5 billion market by the financial year 2025.
In contrast to pre-COVID times, the Indian educational institutions will be permitted to offer up to 40 per cent of their courses through the virtual mode Post-Covid19. The demand for online education will take a huge leap due to the decoupling of courses.
The possible decline of the economy will lead to a lot of ambiguity which in return will increase the need for continuous learning. The era of Covid19 has led to the termination of several skills and demands new skills. It has created a huge gap between industry demands and the skill set. Online education will be able to bridge the gap between industry requirements and the educational industry curricula.
NEP 2020 envisions to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio from 40 million to 92 million by the financial year 2035; while a striving goal to double the enrolment in higher education to 50 per cent under NEP 2020 has been set by the government.
To democratise access to education along with enabling supply and advancement of the same, online teaching will play an acute role.
Ed-tech companies are now given green-light to collaborate with the top universities who can now also provide online degree courses.
“The model may put cost pressures on the educational institutions as revenue is shared and can influence the quality of educational offerings. It will, however, be certain that the future of education can't ignore the developments in the EdTech industry or integration of technology into education. While some of the institutions have already done this to some extent, the future will be to take it to the next level,” said Prof Nagarajan Ramamoorthy, Director, IIM Amritsar.
The growth of online higher education in India is expected to be accelerated and the education market will benefit from the new reforms.