Edtech sector poised to grow 10x to $30bn in next 10yrs: Creative Galileo founder

She is not a believer in traditional worksheet-based learning and had always wanted to make learning more immersive and fun for the children, complete with hands-on activities. Little wonder therefore that Prerna A Jhunjhunwala, an alumnus of NYU, founded edtech startup Creative Galileo, and Little Paddington Pre-school in Singapore. It was her first-hand experience of the stark reality of education in India that led her to start both her ventures. She carefully conceived, designed and created Creative Galileo so as to ensure that it becomes an e-learning app that brings together the best of education and entertainment to create personalized learning experiences for children between three to eight years of age. It focuses on the six learning domains – numeracy, language, arts and aesthetics, social and emotional learning, motor skills, and discovery of the world through narrative videos, gamification, and personalised learning journeys. Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively, Jhunjhunwala shares her thoughts on how edtech industry is shaping up in India and explains that a child's future not only depends on the grades in various subjects but also on their impeccable social, cognitive and leadership skills

What is the overall market size of India's edtech sector? At what rate is it growing? Where do you see this sector heading to over the next 5-10 years?

India's education sector has been going through some structural and dynamic changes over the past few years. The current industry size is estimated to be anywhere between $2.75 and $3 billion and is projected to become a $30 billion industry in the next 10 years. By 2022, online education offerings across grades 1 to 12 are projected to increase 6.3 times to create a $1.7 billion market, while the Post-K12 market is set to grow 3.7 times to create a $1.8 billion market. According to recent numbers by DataLabs, India is home to over 4,450 edtech start-ups, making it the second-highest country for its number of edtech companies globally. This will further create meaningful opportunities for incumbent players like us and space for multiple new start-ups. Also, we believe the adoption of digital technology can lead to achieving quality education for all. After China and the USA, India is among the top three countries to get venture capital funding in this sector.

Despite all the hypes and talks, India's EdTech sector is still one per cent of the overall private education business. What needs to be done to meet the targeted growth?

The country is moving towards fostering a healthy start-up environment. The sector has to set a larger competition goal and churn itself into the post-pandemic economic growth patterns. As an industry, we need to articulate the best mechanisms to realise our 4 Ds- digitise, dematerialise, demonetise and democratise education. Edtech sector has the golden opportunity to make education quality and accessible to all. We need to ramp up our operations in digitally connecting India. Furthermore, we also need to normalise e-learning across verticals of education sectors, themes and cities. Tier 2 and 3 cities are becoming more and more inclined to adopt such practices. We have to channel the sector to steer growth in the same direction.

This is one sector that the pandemic has positively impacted. What kind of growth are you expecting post-pandemic?

We have recorded over 3 million plus downloads and over 5,00,000 monthly active users in less than a year. The response has been remarkable, downloads and the active user base are increasing every day. We are witnessing downloads from international markets as well, apart from the Indian subcontinent. The tremendous response we are receiving for our app is a testimony to the hunger for quality content and how edutainment will be the key to making learning fun for children. We believe in the next five years, Creative Galileo will become a universe of e-learning for children with multiple popular characters. Our strategy is simple- penetrating the country's remotest parts and strategically selecting edutainment content that can offer crucial reinforcement for learning. We are eyeing 10 million downloads in the next 12-14 months and are set to launch smart learning journeys that assess the learning levels of children and plans out their activities to achieve their learning goals, providing parents with regular updates on their improvements.

To what extent does entertainment have to be clubbed up with education, especially in kids' education in the edtech model?

While growing up, kids were always told to spend less time on television and cartoons and instead focus on their studies. This has created a dichotomy that entertainment is fun and education – boring, which pushes children, especially in their early years, away from core ideas of learning and enhancing their skills. The solution was, therefore, to club the two. When children study along with their favourite cartoon characters or stars, their whole outlook changes, and now they willingly wish to invest their time into this. The entertainment industry can be clubbed into educational and academic overtones. Once we find the right balance, there is an increased chance of students grasping concepts.

Besides the overall market size and growth prospect, was there any other trigger to get into this space?

Access to quality education remains a challenge with low literacy rates. It can be attributed to a large rural population, sometimes inadequate infrastructure and a lack of well-trained teachers. Creative Galileo's mission is to help address these educational gaps and make early learning accessible by leveraging technology to deliver new value to the regions underserved. The foundational years are critical as they shape children's development and learning in general without these basics in place, education is weakened. With our e-learning app, we are building the foundation for kids in their early years. The learning journey is helping them improve their knowledge base and reinforces their educational concepts and goals/ outcomes.

Where does India stand vis-a-vis other developed and developing nations when it comes to the edtech sector?

India is the third-largest growing edtech market in the world after the US and China. Both US and China represent the developed and developing worlds and for India to find its mark on the third spot in the list indicates its growing mark in the global sector. India has the largest population globally below the age of 21, around 500 million, of which 150 million children are active internet users. With the growing internet penetration and 5G slated to launch in 2022 across India, edtech usage will see a sharp growth soon.