6 highlights from India Education Innovation Conference 2016
I recently exhibited with Learnium at the India Education Innovation Conference, Europe’s premier conference on the Indian innovation and EdTech space. This year’s edition (IEIC2016) was hosted at the Microsoft UK Headquarters in Reading between the 2nd and 3rd of February. These are my impressions and the top takeaways.
India works with big numbers
It’s common knowledge that India has 1.25 billion people, but finding out that there are 1.2 million schools blew my mind! What’s also remarkable is that the Indian education system pushes 20 million citizens into the workforce each year. Crazy figures!
Investment is accelerating
Three big forces are shaping the world as we know it: the increasing coverage of mobile connectivity, the rise of the knowledge economy and the ubiquity of content. Although India has one of the world’s fastest growing EdTech markets, there is still huge growth potential as only 2% of Venture Capital investment is directed to Education and EdTech. Gaurav Mehra from Kaizen Private Equity and Isabel Newman from Nesta Impact Investments stated a preference for investment in Higher Education and Adult Learning as these markets have fewer gatekeepers.
India needs a more international outlook
Despite the huge potential, India does not have an institution in the top 250 THE World University Rankings. According to Trevor Barrett, Managing Director at TES Global, part of the reason is that Indian universities have fewer international research collaborations and attract fewer international students and faculty than most other universities. No Indian university has managed to enter the Top 200 Most Outward-Looking Institutions either.
Political interference is real and hurting Education
I was really impressed with the honesty showed in a panel discussion on what India’s education system needs. Nathan Andrews from Expat Group was the first to touch on the negative impact that political interference has on Education.
“India needs a politically agnostic university system”
Prof. Madan Mohan Pant, Former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University, reinforced this by stating that “India needs a politically agnostic university system”.
India has a bunch of great EdTech startups
Besides Learnium, there were several other great companies presenting their products and services. Embibe uses data & analytics to improve students’ test scores. Klik2learn produces blended learning content. iCompete is a platform that helps students practice for their exams. Campusknot lets students connect with each other. Flipick can produce fixed-format eBooks directly from within Adobe InDesign. Teach Pitch helps teachers find the best online resources available. Third Space Learning provides online Maths tutoring for primary school children. Learn Forward uses real-time technologies to power two-way communication in tech-enabled classrooms.
Prof. Madan Mohan Pant is amazing
Former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University delivered multiple gems on stage. Here are some of them:
Disclaimer: I am the CEO & Co-founder of Learnium, one of the companies mentioned in this article.