Catering to both school & college students as well as working professionals, industry experts claim that online education currently generates about $200 million in revenues
MUMBAI: It’s 2:30 pm on a scorching April afternoon and tuition time for 14-year old Rajan Mohan.
With just four days to go before his eighth standard annual exams kick off, the bespectacled gangly teenager appears tensed and anxious as he awaits his tutor.
But wait a minute — Mohan’s tutor is in Bangalore, about 1000 kilometers away from Mumbai, where the Kendriya Vidyalaya school boy resides.
Sitting cross-legged on a wooden chair in front of a computer, the Mazagaon resident adjusts a set of headphones and scans for the chapter in chemistry that will be studied for the next one hour. Mohan and tutor KV Sunitha would interact via video conferencing.
Mohan’s parents, who work in PSU banks, have to shell out around Rs 2,000 per month for the three-hours-per-week tutoring sessions.
In another room, Mohan’s sister Rohini arranges herself in front of another computer to solve grammar tests. An information technology professional working with the Indian subsidiary of a California-based multi national corporation, the 24-year-old, who draws a monthly package of Rs 25,000, enrolled for the English programme to improve her vocabulary, grammar and “develop overall personality.”
“Once my English is polished, it will surely boost my confidence and eventually give my career prospects a boost,” she avers.
Both brother and sister are part of a growing tribe of individuals who get serviced by the ‘online education industry’.
Catering to both school & college students as well as working professionals, industry experts claim that online education currently generates about $200 million in revenues — and this is estimated to shoot up to $1 billion by the turn of the decade.
“Due to a shortage of teachers and educators, online tutoring and courses that are delivered over the web are helping a larger section of students and professionals,” says Karthik K S, chief executive officer of 24x7 Learning, a Bangalore based e-learning company.
According to financial services company Credit Suisse, India currently has about 6 million qualified teachers for approximately 460 million people in the 5-24 years (target education market) age group. This works out to a teacher student ratio of around 1:75, which is way below international standards of 1:20.
“Thus, through courses that are delivered online, several students or professionals stand to gain,” says Karthik.
Moreover, riding on high disposable income levels, more and more people are able to afford a personal computer for their homes. According to the Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology, more than 7.25 million personal computer (PC) units will be sold in fiscal 07-08. In financial year 2006-07, about 6.34 million PC units were sold in the country.
“These factors present tremendous scope for growth of online education,” states Gaurav Bhatnagar, senior vice-president, Educomp Solutions, a New Delhi based education company.
Educomp’s online math tutoring service MathGuru provides solutions to students of classes 6-12 following the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) system. Though no real tutor is involved, Bhatnagar says that a video file provides solutions to all sums in the syllabus.
Developed by a team of 15 teachers and educators in July 2006, the portal initially had about 3-4,000 students using the service, says Bhatnagar.
According to HDFC Securities, about 32,000 students would be using the MathGuru service by the end of 2008 and the number would increase to 87,000 by 2010. Likewise, revenues would reach Rs 19.1 crore by the end of this decade, up from Rs 5.8 crore in 2008.
Everonn Systems India Ltd has a slightly different approach. It uses a virtual & technology-enabled learning solutions platform called ViTELS. The Chennai based company provides two-way audio video interface between students in remote classrooms and teachers through satellite based very small aperture terminal (VSAT) technology.
“Currently, 33% of our business is driven by this model. We have a presence in 225 private colleges and 100 schools in the south. We will scale up the number significantly in the near future,” says P Kishore, managing director of Everonn.
As per HDFC Securities extimates, revenues from ViTELS are expected to grow from Rs 25.2 crore in FY08 to Rs 78.6 crore by FY2010.
Expanding online education in the world of working professionals is 24x7 Learning. The firm provides self-help online courses to employees of about 150 companies in different verticals like C++, java, and Six Sigma. As some of the companies that are registered with 24x7 learning belong to sectors like infrastructure, retail, realty, etc the firm also provides relevant course in the concerned domains, adds Karthik.
“We have had about a million individuals making use of the different courses since 2001. We see this number increasing two fold in the near future. Today’s people appear quite gung ho about studying and learning.”
Similarly, GlobalEnglish Corporation, a California-headquartered provider of online courses in English communication, is delivering courses to about 5,000 employees of 12 Indian subsidiaries of MNCs.
“The growth in India is high as many MNCs have started hiring people from smaller towns who need to sharpen their English skills. Currently, about 5% of our revenues are from India and we expect a 20-30% growth of user base in the country,” says Deepak Desai, CEO of GlobalEnglish Corporation.
g_priyanka@dnaindia.net
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