Back to school, and business

Raja Simhan T.E.

FRESH enrolments? Not on the scale that existed earlier - this is what some of the country's top computer education providers have been saying in the last few months, following the IT slump. And the September 11 terror attacks in the US have only aggravated the situation.

But computer education providers need only to lower their sights, literally, to tap another vital segment - the K-12 (kindergarten to Standard 12) one.

Consider the data provided by a large IT education provider. In India, there are around six lakh primary schools (class one to five), over 1.5 lakh upper primary schools (class 6-8), over 65,000 secondary schools (class 9-10) and over 23,000 higher secondary schools (class 11-12).

The rural areas have around seven lakh schools including government, private, government-aided schools, minority and nursery schools, while the urban areas have around 1.50 lakh schools.

However, among the software education providers, only NIIT Ltd has made ''sizeable'' inroads into school education. Others are yet to tap the ''enormous'' potential school education offers, say sources.

In the highly complex and fragmented K-12 segment, only the ''unorganised'' small vendors deliver content and solutions to regional schools. The quality of the offering is a major concern. But, for the schools, cost is the major factor, not quality, say sources.

Says L. Balasubramanian, Senior Vice-President, NIIT Ltd, ''school education is a huge market, waiting to be tapped. But, it is complex. The awareness level on computer education among parents, the school management and students is pretty low.''

The differentiating factors for companies planning to tap the K-12 segment would be on the reach, content, research and funding. The revenue growth in the K-12 segment could be as high as 150 per cent. But, a large investment is required to penetrate this sector, and only large players can do it, he says.

In the US, some of the top hardware vendors, and large companies such as Microsoft, AOL and even the Discovery Channel offer content for the K-12 sector. However, in India, this sector is dominated by a large number of small vendors, he says.

Incidentally, NIIT's K-12 independent unit recently bagged India's largest IT contract worth Rs 148 crore from the Karnataka Government for implementing computer education in 700 high schools over the next five years.

The segment, however, did not help the company's topline growth in the last few quarters. It could probably be a game for the long-haul, feel experts.

'Teach-to-test' won't do

Education experts say that in the past, educating a boy or a girl was to inculcate good behaviour, learn good skills, get a good job and lead a good life. However, there has been a big metamorphosis in the social environment, and today it is ''teach to test.'' This means a student today gets education only to pass a test, while value-based education is missing, they say.

Balasubramanian says in India there is a shortage of teachers. The teacher:student ratio is around 1:40. The gap is widening every day and technology (computer education) can play a major role to bridge this gap. The entire school curriculum could be provided at the touch of a mouse, he adds.

According to V. Narayan, Director, I.T. Kids (P) Ltd, one of the early entrants in providing IT education for children, unlike the software, hardware or the so-called body shopping sectors, education in the country was static. Further, IT education has a long gestation cycle, making it attractive, he says.

Five years ago, IT training was towards Y2K, while the large players concentrated on providing high-end courses. Today, opportunities in these sectors have gone down considerably, while the K-12 sector still looks prosperous, albeit waiting to be tapped, he says.

Narayan says, ''some small companies have, in the last one year, entered the K-12 sector. Despite this, there is no competition, because the sector is huge, and we have touched just the tip of the iceberg.'' He estimates the sector to be as high as around Rs 20,000 crore, taking into consideration the 10 lakh schools, with around 750 students in each school.

Says Narayan, unlike the high-end courses, providing content for children is a complex exercise. There are stages wherein a child spends his/her time -academic in the school, entertainment during play, and value education at home. ''We need to use this configuration, and provide computer education,'' he says.

And the computer education is for academic reinforcement and value inputs - done with fun and adventure. ''While playing football, you can also learn calculus. This is impossible in the real world,'' he says.

Further, customisation can be done as per the school's and students' requirement, impossible in the real world. Take for instance virtual labs which can be created for students to try out various combinations. In reality, a laboratory is a costly proposition. Students are often not permitted to use all the equipment.

Online makes a difference

While offline computer education has enormous potential, the online version is also a huge market. (In offline, children would learn through CDs and the like at training centres. Online learning would be tapping the Net from your seat.) However, the major constraint in online, says B. Ramakrishnan, Founder & CEO, Schoolinigindia.com, is lack of Internet access in schools. ''We can do wonders with online computer education. But, the schools are not yet prepared to take it. The reason? Schools, teachers and even parents feel the education system so far has been doing well without the Internet. They are jittery about it. Unless schools enforce it, the use of the Internet in our education system is a long way.''

''The Internet can be a powerful tool for students to integrate in their day-to-day affairs. However, they are not told about the positive features either by the teachers or their parents. The result? School students go to a browsing centre, and access porn sites, and often spend time chatting,'' he says.

For schools, the Internet provides enormous information at a fairly minimal cost. ''Imagine how costly it could be for a school to own an Encyclopedia Britannica which is available free on the Net,'' he says.

According to K. Ramesh Babu, Director, Schoolingindia.com, students should be educated on the positive features of the Net. ''Security (especially in terms of access to porn sites) is no doubt a concern. But, that should not be the only reason for schools to ignore the Net, which provides unlimited access to information,'' he says.

Ramakrishnan feels that despite the problems, online education has good prospects in a few years' time. There are only a few players providing online education, including classteacher, egurucool, schoolingindia and zeelearning. The penetration would be around just 0.2 per cent, which is very poor. ''There is no compelling need for students to go for online. We need to go a long way before Indian students take up online education, as in the US,'' he says.

raja@thehindu.co.in