EDUCATION SPECIAL...Reimagining Education

 LESSONS FROM STARTUPS 

Reimagining Education 

Startups are going to government schools and universities with superior content and technology to help raise education standards. And it does make business sense too

    In the popular imagination, government-run schools are a byword for backwardness. But entrepreneurs across the country are finding that government schools and colleges are eager consumers of state-of-the-art content and technology, making for exciting business opportunities. 

The large volume of business and the prestige of being recognised as a technology supplier to government-run institutions is proving to be attractive for a number of young companies. These firms provide animation-based content, digital assessment and innovative course material using a low-cost, highvolume model. “The government is the largest supplier of education in the country. The impact we can create is unmatched,” says Anantharaman Mani, 38, cofounder of Chennai-based Report Bee, whose eponymous product recreates the dreaded report card as a fun and interactive digital application. 

The scope is vast—over half of Class V students in government schools in rural India could not read at even the Class II level, according to the latest Annual Status of Education Report by education-focused non-government organisation Pratham. Government officials are realising that they need help to address this problem. “We need to tap talent where it is available. It is cost-effective and less time consuming to go to private players who have expertise,” says a senior official in the Tamil Nadu government who is working with Report Bee on various projects.

 It is this opportunity that companies, such as iNurture Education Solutions, Report Bee, InOpen Technologies, Foradian Technologies and Kriyative Education, are addressing. Report Bee, founded in 2010, started a data analytics project for the Tamil Nadu government in 2011 in which it converted a 300-page document on Class X and Class XII performance across various districts into a single sheet of actionable analytics. The company is also doing a pilot programme where it has introduced its analytics product in five Chennai corporation schools and 64 government schools across Tamil Nadu. 

Using algorithms, the application summarises every aspect of a student’s school history. Teachers can track the progress of a single student, see a class’ overall performance and compare classes. Schools that do not have access to digital data can send an excel sheet to Report Bee and the company will do the analysis. “We get immense goodwill and validation as well. We have got a number of private schools as clients who have seen our work with the government,” says Mani, an IIM-Bangalore alumnus. The company, incubated at IIT-Madras’ entrepreneurship cell C-TIDES, has 40 private schools as clients and charges a minimum of 50,000 per school. Valueadded analytics cost more. 

The large reach of government schools is what spurred Rupesh Shah, 26, cofounder of four-year-old InOpen Technologies, to focus on this sector. His company, incubated at IIT-Bombay, offers a learning programme that uses animation, games and other interactive multimedia tools to impart computer science education at schools. The company is providing this training to around four lakh government school students in Assam in partnership with the state government organisation Assam Electronics Development Corporation. 

Such volumes would be impossible to attain if InOpen were working with only private schools. The company, which is targeting about 11 crore in revenue in fiscal year 2014, is also in final stage talks with two more state governments. InOpen backed by venture capital fund VenturEast, has implemented the programme in 200 private schools in eight states and in over 30 government-aided schools in Maharashtra. InOpen’s annual rates vary from 150 to 500 for a student. Startups are not just targeting schools. 

Bangalore-based iNurture, founded by 47-year-old Ashwin Ajila, works with universities and colleges to provide under-graduate and postgraduate courses in emerging areas like mobile applications, creative management and IT security. “We want to be the preferred end-toend solution provider of new emerging courses for both industry and universities,” says Ajila, a chartered accountant who previously worked at KPMG in UK. The company, which is targeting revenue of 44 crore in fiscal year 2014, works with industry experts or companies to create content that is in the form of a full-fledged programme—approved by the university—and conducts the courses with its own faculty in the university or college campus. iNurture has partnered with around 15 universities and colleges, including state institutions like Gujarat University, Jaipur National University and Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University. Its first batch of 142 postgraduate students has passed out of Gujarat University and the company claims they have seen full placement. “They provided good academic input in the form of content and faculty and the student response was good,” says KS Rangappa, University of Mysore’s vice chancellor. In an earlier stint as Vice Chancellor of Karnataka State Open University, he introduced iNurture’s animation and MBA programmes in the university. However, startups do face challenges. The time taken is a concern, as governments have to go through a tender process before providing a contract. Report Bee’s Mani says it is necessary to have a proven track record before any government institution will give a company work, a criterion that young ventures find difficult to fulfill. 

Mani decided to provide services pro bono to the government initially. “It gives officials confidence and we can prove the scalability and reliability of our product.” Others like Chennai-based Kriyative Education have tied up with large organisations, who in turn work with government schools. It has created NCERT-based content that follows the neuro-cognitive methodology, which helps kids learn naturally with everyday examples. It provides end-to-end academic solutions, including content, material and teacher training to about 70 private schools. 

The company, which is targeting 7.5 crore in revenue in fiscal 2014, partnered with Cognizant Technology Solutions’ Project Outreach last year. It provides content and material along with training to the volunteers of the project and they in turn deliver education to government schools.

 “We have developed a low-cost model, which delivers the same quality of education as our regular model,” says 33-year-old cofounder J Jeyappriadhevi, who adds that with the pilot programme successfully concluded last year, the next academic year will see full-fledged rollout in 110 government schools. Kriyative has now reached out to various state governments and is hoping to finalise contracts with four states. 

Another worry for many entrepreneurs is government corruption, but these ventures say that fear is unfounded. “I have never had to pay a bribe to get a contract,” says InOpen’s Shah. “Governments have realised that they will have to partner with private players if they want high quality content and services. There is no other way.”

Radhika P Nair ET130503