iSchoolConnect introduces iSchoolPrep platform to help aspirants prepare for entrance exams to study overseas

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June 27, 2022

iSchoolConnect, an AI-based Edtech company, announced the launch of the iSchoolPrep, a premier test prep platform that assists study abroad aspirants prepare for IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, and SAT.

Launched in June 2022, the platform serves as a one-stop-shop for prospective students looking for guidance on how to succeed in international entrance exams for higher education overseas.

“iSchoolPrep is a testament of our unrelenting resolve towards the student-first approach,” says Vaibhav Gupta, Head of Marketing, iSchoolConnect, when outlining the advantages of the service for aspirants. “The platform provides personalized study plans that will enable students to ace their tests. The study plans are designed by study abroad professionals with more than 50 years of combined expertise.”

iSchoolPrep will hold weekly live sessions, offer students in-depth study materials, and train them under the supervision of experienced professionals. With the one-on-one coaching approach, students will receive personalized attention and learn at their own pace.

“We at iSchoolConnect acknowledge the heterogeneity of students and don’t believe in putting all in one box. Therefore, we have developed our study materials using a self-learning paradigm to meet each student’s unique demands. This allows each student to study at their own pace,” Vaibhav adds.

Coding Ninjas joins hands with AICTE and Chandigarh University; launches India Innovate Coding Championship 2022

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June 27, 2022

Aligning with the Government’s National Education Policy 2020, Coding Ninjas, India’s largest online upskilling platform for aspiring and professional coders, in association with AICTE and Chandigarh University launched first ever ‘Innovate India Coding Championship (IICC) 2022.’ With its motto ‘Code the Future,’ the competitive event aims to encourage skill-based programming as a culture by creating a national level platform for students who seek a chance to showcase their talent.

As a part of AICTE’s (All India Council of Technical Education) celebration of the 75th Independence Day of India, the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav,’ the competition invites the students of engineering colleges from across the country to participate, experience and innovate. The three staged competition will be held online at Coding Ninjas Online Coding Portal and registered participants can join from anywhere in the country. The registration for IICC 2022 has opened on 20th June 2022.

Elaborating about the first of its kind event, Ankush Singla, co-founder, Coding Ninjas, said, “With coding as a central theme of our philosophy we believe skilling, upskilling and reskilling is the way to create an efficient workforce in the country. We, in association with AICTE and Chandigarh University, conceptualized ‘Innovate India Coding Championship’ with the sole purpose to recognise the real talent and encourage them to further enhance their programming skills. With this event we provide them with a platform to showcase, experience, enjoy and improve their coding skills.”

Along with recognising top participating institutions and their talented students, the winners and participants of IICC 2022 will be rewarded with prizes worth Rs 11 lakhs in order to motivate the students to put in best of their efforts while competing with each other. Coding Ninjas are also organising mentorship and up-skilling sessions with Industry Experts for the competition aspirants. With these top performers will be provided with internship or placement opportunities in leading tech companies and up to 100% Coding Ninjas upskilling scholarships.

Talking about the IICC 2022, Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, said, “The Idea of IICC 2022 presented by Coding Ninjas is very interesting that’s why we decided to collaborate with them. This year, we are celebrating 75th Independence Day, so there cannot be a better time to organise such a competition which aims at solving the large problems of society and nation. Today, coding is becoming a complex and challenging field with the advent of advanced technologies like metaverse, AI, AR, VR, IOT and many more. So it would be exciting to see these talented students competing, interacting and cooperating with each other and showcasing their brilliant ideas, creativity and analytical ability to become winners.”

“I take this opportunity to convey my message to the young generation that they should not wait for getting jobs but try and become innovative entrepreneurs like coding Ninjas and therefore, start honing their skills from school and college level”, he added.

A grand online ceremony to launch IICC 2022 took place on 19th June where an insightful discussion was held on programming and coding skills. Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE was chief guest of the event along with Mr Anil Shrivastava, Principal Consultant and Mission Director, NITI Ayog as guest of honour. Mr Ankush Singhla, Co-Founder, Coding Ninjas and Professor B Priestley Shan, Dean Academic Affairs, Chandigarh University were also present at the online event.

Not the end of road for edtech: Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal

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June 24, 2022

Even though the education technology space in India is facing tough times as many startups are either shutting business or laying off employees, Gaurav Munjal, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the edtech unicorn Unacademy, believes that online education companies in India will not break down.

Munjal, in a Twitter thread said that online education companies foraying into offline space does not mean that the edtech sector is failing.

He wrote, “EdTech is here to say. In fact I am more bullish on it than I ever was.”

Munjal’s comments have come at a time when his own company reportedly laid off 150 employees this month and about 600 employees in April 2022 in order to cut costs as funds dry up. Other firms in this space including Frontrow, MasterClass and Vedantu have also reduced their workforce. While some edtech companies including Lido Learning, SuperLearn and Udayy have shut operations.

The CEO of the edtech firm which is also backed by the likes of SoftBank added, “Opening a few centers in two of our categories should not be linked to EdTech failing. Correlation is not causation.”

He further wrote, “When learners are young, they prefer a hybrid approach rather than pure offline. When learners are relatively older then they prefer pure online.”

Munjal also said, “Unacademy’s PrepLadder has a 20%+ Market Share in NEET PG and not a single Learner wants to go Offline.” And added, “Things are different in JEE and NEET. Learners want to go out. Parents want them to go out. More discipline is needed unlike NEET PG Learners where the intent to self learn is extremely high.”

He also said, “The largest offline institute has 200k Active Paid Subscribers. Unacademy has 800k Active Paid Subscribers.”

Just over a week ago, Unacademy opened two offline learning centers in Kota, Rajasthan. In a recent announcement the company said it will launch as many as 15 physical learning centers in nine cities within a month. These centers will provide offline classes to prepare for course categories including NEET-UG, IT JEE and Foundation (9-12).

Terming it a part of Unacademy’s expansion plans, Munjal then said, “Every two weeks, a new store is being launched starting with Kota, followed by Lucknow and Jaipur in the next phase. After these four stores, we are going to take a call on whether we want to open large stores or keep them small – and open 100 or 200 of them. Depending on the response, we are going to decide on the next plan of action.”

The edtech sector in India witnessed a boom due to pandemic induced lockdown which led to shutting down of education institutes. However, with students returning to physical classes after almost two years of virtual learning, the focus of edtech companies is now shifting from online to offline mode.

Also Read | Unacademy to offer offline classes at its learning centres

Apart from Unacademy other edtech firms that have forayed into offline learning include Byju’s and PhysicsWallah, which is also the latest Indian startup in this sector to have entered the unicorn club.

Edtech startup Leap bags $75 Mn Series D funding to help more students achieve overseas education

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June 23, 2022

San Francisco & Bengaluru-based edtech startup Leap has secured $75 Mn (INR 585 Cr) in Series D funding led by Owl Ventures. New investors including Steadview Capital and Paramark Ventures along with existing investors Jungle Ventures and Sequoia Capital India too participated in the funding round.

According to the startup, the total fund raised now reached over $150 Mn in equity since it was founded in 2019.

Leap runs LeapScholar, LeapFinance, and Yocket, is a full-stack international student mobility platform. The startup claims to run the world’s largest online community of study abroad aspirants with over two million students.

Further, the edtech offers a suite of products to cover an international student’s life cycle. These include international test prep like IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, etc. It also offers admissions and visa counselling as well as financial offerings including international student loans, international bank accounts, credit cards, and money remittance services.

Also Read | Bengaluru-based edtech startup SuperLearn shuts biz

The edtech said in its pursuit of covering the end-to-end lifecycle needs of an international student has enabled Leap to help over 175,000 students in their study abroad journey in the past 12 months.

Vaibhav Singh, Co-founder of Leap shared, “Students love our truly unique one-stop approach to meeting their international education needs. This combined with the overall strong rebound in international student outflows post-covid has led to exponential growth for us. Over the next couple of years, more than five million students are expected to cross an international border to fulfil their global dreams. With the backing of marquee global investors, we continue to march forward on our mission to democratize access to quality global education and make these dreams a reality.”

In recent months, Leap has undertaken several new growth initiatives. In April, it announced a partnership with Colorado State University, USA bringing the university’s prestigious MCIS program to Indian students in a multi-geography hybrid format.

The edtech further plans to bring more such offerings in the coming future across its 750+ global university partners. Earlier this year, the startup expanded its presence into the Middle East, to help students in the region in their study abroad pursuits.

Amit Patel, Managing Director, Owl Ventures said, “Owl is thrilled to be working with Leap to create a transformative company that will impact generations of students around the world in their pursuit to access and afford high-quality international education opportunities. By simplifying an otherwise overwhelming process and helping students navigate all the steps of counselling, test-prep, and financing, Leap is well-positioned to support the increasing demand to go and study abroad as more countries and companies around the world are becoming further integrated into the global economy.”

Also Read | EdTech startup PrepInsta to tie up with 30+ colleges and universities across India

Sharing on the future plans, Leap’s Co-founder, Arnav Kumar said the edtech company has built a strong framework to offer students the help they need to pursue their education from international establishments. Having built such a strong foundation, the startup is now all set leapfrog to the next level of offering global education.

“Having built the underlying infrastructure for global student mobility, we are now able to scale rapidly across multiple dimensions. We have launched many industry-first products and experiences to make the student journey seamless. Ensuring student success has been our mission and we will continue to deepen our existing offerings and launch newer ones in the months ahead,” Arnav Kumar said.

Bengaluru-based edtech startup SuperLearn shuts biz

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June 22, 2022

In another jolt for the edtech space in India, SuperLearn – a Bengaluru-based startup has failed barely after two years of its launch in 2020 when it raised $300K. The company is now focused on returning the remaining funds to investors.

This comes within days of Udayy, another edtech startup that shut its shop. Prior to this a startup – Lido Learning in this segment shut its operations earlier this year.

While sharing his views on social platform LinkedIn, the Co-founder of SuperLearn, Kunal Bhatia cited business lacking enough funding, poor interest of investors, school reopening due to ease in Covid-curbs as primary factors for the disappointing end of the venture.

“We will be returning whatever money we have left back to our investors,” said Bhatia.

“Not just VCs, even parents seemed to have seen too much of edtech. With hyper funding in the space, Indian parents had been bombarded by different companies all trying to sell them some product or the other. To add to it, with things returning to normalcy outside, the first casualty was online classes. We began seeing a dip in the number of kids attending our classes,” he added.

The SuperLearn co-founder further said, “We were moving towards a vision, but weren’t prepared for the changing tide of the market.”

Also Read | EdTech startup PrepInsta to tie up with 30+ colleges and universities across India

Bhatia founded SuperLearn in 2020 with Ricky Gupta as an e-learning platform that conducted classes like a webinar providing life skills education and extra classroom activities for kids in the age group of 3-13 years.

SuperLearn raised pre-seed funding from Incubate Fund and five angel investors viz., Anuraag Gupta, Karan Talwar, Padmanabhan Thangarajan, Rohit Razdan and Vishal Bharghav with an aim to create a user base of over one million children by August this year.

Reportedly, 40,000 kids cumulatively consumed over 4,500 minutes of e-learning on the platform of SuperLearn and attended live classes over three lac times.

It was late last year that the downfall of SuperLearn started and it reached climax early this year due to skyrocketing costs of user acquisition and plummeting interest. While the startup has also shut its website, they have not posted anything on their social media brand pages since March this year.

SuperLearn built a product-market fit for WhatsApp groups together with classes on video communications platforms including YouTube and Zoom.

The online education ecosystem in India is complex, while it experienced a boom during the Covid pandemic as it emerged as a practical way to impart knowledge and raised more than $1.6 billion during January 2020-December 2021.

Also Read | Edtech startup PhysicsWallah becomes India’s 101st unicorn

However, the sector has been hit badly as the impact of Covid has been fading with students switching from remote learning to attending physical classes in schools and colleges. To deal with this situation, many edtech companies are either foraying into the space of offline learning or laying off employees as a cost-cutting exercise.

Using the latest web technologies, innovation, adopting hybrid model, renewed strategy for customer acquisition and low-cost marketing strategies will help these startups get support from investors.

India’s 101st unicorn PhysicsWallah adopts hybrid model with first centre in Kota

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June 21, 2022

After achieving the coveted unicorn status earlier this month (7th June), India’s 101st unicorn PhysicsWallah (PW) has forayed into offline learning with the launch of its first learning centre in Kota, Rajasthan.

This is the first big announcement made by PW after it joined the unicorn club. The edtech said more than 1000 admissions are already done.

PW’s new centre in Kota will be dedicated to JEE & NEET aspirants and Class 11-12 droppers who aim to make a career and thrive in engineering and medical fields, said a press statement.

Further, the centre is designed to assist engineering and medical aspirants, offering them a competitive as well as friendly learning environment with 24/7 doubt clearing facility. According to the edtech, the learning centre will offer a student-teacher ratio for each class at 125:1.

Commenting on this new development, Alakh Pandey, Founder & CEO of PW (PhysicsWallah) said, “We chose Kota for many reasons. The city holds an unbreakable track record for assisting students in cracking various competitive entrance exams. It has gained the trust of every parent and aspirant when it comes to delivering the best education from the best teachers from across India. Moreover, it has an average literacy rate of 82.80%, which is higher than the average national percentage of 74.04%, as per the census of 2011.”

As per Pandey, the edtech will continue to focus on these two major aspects in the coming years as well. And opening a centre in Kota is in line with fulfilling these objectives.

Started as a YouTube channel in 2016, PW (PhysicsWallah), the brainchild of Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari, prepares students for engineering and medical entrance examinations by providing them with guidance from able teachers.

PW specialises in offering comprehensive lectures and sessions through YouTube, PW app, and the website for students aspiring for NEET, JEE Mains. Since its inception in 2016, the edtech has witnessed continuous growth, as it said.

However, as it happened with India along with the world, the pandemic has changed the dynamics for the education sector–the segment included digital mode of learning. During the pandemic of 2020, Pandey joined hands with Prateek Maheshwari to work on a technology solution for students by launching the PW app.

It is here to be noted that, PW raised $100 Mn in Series A funding from Westbridge and GSV Ventures and has become India’s 101st unicorn earlier this month. The edtech claims to boast over 87 Lakh subscribers cumulatively on YouTube.

Banaras Hindu University launches new department of Museology

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June 20, 2022

The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has launched a new department of Museology in wake of rising demand for professionals, academicians and experts in the field, which is an inter-disciplinary professional programme. So far, Museology was being run as a section under the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology in the Faculty of Arts.

The Faculty of Arts, also known as the mother faculty, has 22 departments now including the Museology department. The university has notified the creation of the Museology department following the approval of the President Ram Nath Kovind.

BHU currently offers postgraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral programs in the discipline of Museology. There are a total 15 seats in the Museology postgraduate programme including two paid seats.

Usha Rani Tiwari, Professor in Museology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), said that the discipline offers a number of professional opportunities such as museum director, conservator, and assistant professor among other opportunities. She further said that the setting up of the new department of Museology will add to the growth and glory of Banaras Hindu University.

RV University signs three new MoUs

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June 18, 2022

Bengaluru-based RV University, which began operations in 2021, has inked MoUs with Old Dominion University in the US, Teesside University in UK and Ziroh Labs, to name a few. With these 3 new MOUs, the total number of such collaborations has gone up to 45.

The partnership with Dominion University encompasses a wide range of offerings that are mutually beneficial. These include collaborations in the form of international mobility by faculty and students for educational purposes, joint research activities, exchange of academic materials and publications, faculty mobility for research, lectures, and discussions as well as student mobility for study and research. Old Dominion University is a dynamic public research institution located in the city of Norfolk in the region of coastal Virginia, USA.

An MoU was also signed with the Teesside University of Middlesbrough, UK, ranked in the 301-350 band of 539 global universities in the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2022. The collaboration includes the exchange of scholarly ideas and expertise as well as developmental programmes. It enables student exchange programmes and advance entry from one institution to the other where students are appropriately qualified.

The students and faculty from the School of Business and Finance, School of Design and Innovation, School of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Economics as well as the School of Liberal Arts and Science at RV University will benefit from this global exposure. “It’s a great opportunity for RV University students and faculty to be associated with world-class institutions and gain exposure to global benchmarks and best practices in academia. The international partnerships are a win-win situation for the academic institutions through such knowledge-sharing partnerships”, said Prof. Y.S.R. Murthy, Vice-Chancellor, RV University.

Built on the backbone of NEP 2020, with its contemporary, new-age curricula, RV University is well-positioned to fully leverage emerging disciplines. “The National Education Policy 2020 gives a big thrust to Internationalisation in higher education and these partnerships will immensely benefit our students and faculty,” said Prof. Murthy.

In addition to the international collaborations, RV University and Bengaluru-based Ziroh Labs have signed a pact for Academic Alliance Programs that will further improve the quality of teaching and facilitate imparting practical skills to students from the School of Computer Science and Engineering as well as undertaking research and consultancy.

NEP 2020 lays emphasis on blending liberal education with different domains to ensure a well-rounded education system. It enables and focuses more on an inclusive, flexible, and globalized education programme. Foreign collaborations enhance cross-learning through student exchange activities and twinning programmes. The promotion of research collaboration between Indian institutions and global universities helps in enabling local institutes to design their curriculum in alignment with global teaching standards. It offers a diverse portfolio of subjects and specialisations to help students and faculty with collaborative learning for an inclusive world.

AICTE, MoE and MSDE join hands to launch Digital Skilling – a free skilling platform on emerging technologies

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June 18, 2022

All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) have joined hands to launch a joint initiative ‘Digital Skilling’ – a free of cost skilling, upskilling and reskilling platform. “The initiative aims to provide future-ready technical and digital skills on emerging technologies to one crore Indians,” Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairperson, AICTE told FE Education Online. According to him, the platform will bring companies from all sectors under a common roof and help fill the skilled workforce gap in the country.

AICTE claims to have identified 30 emerging technologies, 55 job roles and 155 skill sets which it claims will be in demand in the next 20 to 30 years. “With 50% of the Indian population below 25 years, a huge opportunity for youth and young professionals awaits to form the foundation of the country’s economy. The facts we have gathered highlight that it is necessary to handle the challenge of the skill gap in emerging technologies by digitally skilling our youth,” Sahasrabudhe added.

The platform will offer courses on new-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Information and Communications Technology (ICT), among others, along with internship and apprenticeship opportunities from market leaders. So far, 63 companies, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Service (AWS), International Business Machines (IBM) among others, have already confirmed their participation in this initiative. “We expect more than 200 companies to join hands with us in an effort to offer training programmes across categories,” Chandrasekhar Buddha, chief coordinating officer, AICTE, said.

Furthermore, the three- to six-month-long courses will cater to school students between seven to 12 grade, undergraduates and graduates or professionals. As per the body, the course curriculums are designed keeping in mind the three categories of learners – basic level for school students, advanced and expert level for the rest. The skilling platform will further provide internship and apprenticeship opportunities for undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals at partnered companies, it claimed.

Andhra Government signs MoU with Byju’s to provide quality content to government school students

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June 17, 2022

YS Jagan Mohan government has signed an MoU with Byju’s, to provide quality-oriented content for the government school students from 4th to 10th standard. Further, the government will also provide tabs for all the 8th standard students with a budget of Rs 500 crores.

CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said, “This initiative will transform the lives of many poor children at the govt schools. The project is about to boost the government school children so that they pass out 10th and 12th CBSE exams with merit. This partnership will strengthen the dreams of the students.”

He added that the visual presentation and content enhancement would come through starting from 4th to 10th standard at government schools, and it would be a game changer for poor students who can’t afford private schools.

The CM said that it would cost students around 25 thousand per annum for the content available to them in private schools and those subscribed to the quality content. “Now this facility will be available to government school students for free. The government also decided to give the tabs to the 8th standard students to provide digital experience and digital knowledge to the children,” said the Chief Minister. The teachers will also be given orientation so that they can teach the students in a better way.

Byju Raveendran, CEO of Byju’s said, “Our meeting with the Andhra Pradesh government happened a few days ago, now we have signed MoU with the government. Andhra Pradesh government is moving faster than a start-up. I am excited and happy about the opportunity given to us. After this MoU Government school students to get the equal opportunity to quality education, which their counterpart in private school is having.”

Andhra Pradesh government has taken another crucial step in revolutionising the education system in the state by signing an MoU with Byju’s. The state government, which has already implemented programs like English medium, bilingual textbooks, Amma Odi and Gorumudda, embarked on another massive program.

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