As the education space in India matures, there is a need to re-skill the available human resources so that they are aligned with the requirements of the segment, said panellists at News Corp VCCircle Education Investment Summit 2016.
“Over 50% of IT personnel will be re-skilled in the coming year. There is massive disruption in the form of automation, too,†said Gopal Devanahalli, senior vice president, Manipal Global Education Services.
Edupreneurs also have to constantly assess industry requirements to know which skills to impart while also keeping a tab on which model of education dissemination is working.
“The learning which happens online has to be as easy as the physical thing. So we bring in simulators to aid learners,†said Devanahalli.
There is a general perception that a child from an urban slum has relatively lesser aspirations compared with a middle class child. This is not correct, and the more relevant question is whether children living in slums have the means to chase their aspirations, according to the panellists.
With the increased focus on providing access to education, quality has been a casualty, said Manjula Pooja Shroff, chairperson of Kalorex.
“The general perception is that quality comes at a price which is where private universities come in. There is also a perception that private players provide more quality than government ones,†she said.
Bindu Rana, founder and CEO, Millennium Education Management, said education doesn’t necessarily be a viewed as a social work. An entrepreneur, who is able to make money out of an educational enterprise, should not be viewed suspiciously, as a business has to be hinged on profit to be sustainable.
“We need a price point for quality; otherwise new schools being established will not be different from existing ones in rural areas,†she said.
Prachi Windlass, director - India Education at Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, said there is not enough innovation in education to achieve this price point.
“We are taking cost parameters as a given but not doing anything about it. Technology should be used to reduce this cost,†she said.
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