🎯 Education : The need for Regulation in Ed-Tech
🅾️Interesting read from Chetan Bhagat- Though he has a point but here are the two gaps I noticed in his narrative
🅾️1) His issues with the Ed-Tech is that what was previously confined to a few centres in Niche urban centres has now spread across the country in the same exact manner- a mass model of Education- a one size fits all approach- His issue?- It is making parents pay more- This isn't an issue of Ed-Tech but the business model per se. Coaching institutes have existed before and they exist even after that- Coaching Industry thrives on the principle of Market competition- Irrelevant ones perish. Gone are those days where Coaching centres alone can score better than others -The standards of exams have evolved- So one Regulation that can be brought is the application of consumer protection Act to hold them accountable for Advertisements with a small room for any errors considering the nascent stage of the industry and internet penetration?
🔰What Ed Tech can better do is utilise Technology to customize to each student's use. After all, Artificial Intelligence and Data analytics can only augment your productivity not replace human beings 🙂
🅾️2) The second issue that I find with not just this column but a lot of others as well- They end vaguely by saying government should "Better Regulate"- How? This is not answered here- An example of How not to end your answer in UPSC Mains. Objectivity is the one line that separates an activist from a policy maker
⚠️(Edit) : NOTE- Most importantly he argues that there are more ed tech startups than colleges because the regulation is flawed- This is a major loophole in the narrative- Edtech and coaching is a service industry- they give a service- Hence GST is levied. Whereas university Education is meant to be not for profit model.
These two are two different things- Rather the narrative could have been to bring in Quality of Governance and service delivery Should be better than what it is now so that the need for coaching and Ed tech itself becomes unnecessary and forces them to move away from what it is now to offer a higher quality of service which government can not offer at this point of time due to lack of financial resources.
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