The Pandemic has changed lives across the world in the last two years and the world of education has also not remained untouched with the affects of the COVID-19. During this period, there have been many developments in the methods of education not only in the cities but also in the villages.
Many educational institutions have made technical changes in the methods of imparting education to the students. The big players in the education industry who have brought huge change through technology in the education sector in the last few years, discussed this topic during the Education Innovation and Investment Summit 2023, held in Bangalore. The discussion was attended by Kamakhya Vikram, Head, TCS (India Jio Education Business Unit), Anish Sarkar, CEO, Sodexo Benefits & Rewards, and Amit Bansal, Founder and CEO, Wizklub Learning.
Kamakhya Vikram said that the topic of education post pandemic has become relevant to a great extent. “If we talk about the adoption of technology in the field of education, the least development has been done in this field in the last several years. By 2050, 200 crore students will be receiving education globally. It is the right time for all be it educational institutions, schools, corporates etc. They should come forward to integrate technology in the field of education, especially when it comes to learning.”
“The company TCS, which has been working in this field for the several years, has created its own platform. From education management system to campus management solutions, this company is providing services related to all these areas. As far as online assessment and marking is concerned, TCS is doing all this in large numbers in India and outside the country,” he added.
Kamakhya said, even after completing college, we are not able to get a job. This is the reason why 80 per cent educated youth are still unemployed. There are many shortcomings in our industry. TCS is trying to bridge the gap in this area by entering into industry partnerships with various institutions.
Anish Sarkar, CEO, Sodexo Benefits & Rewards Services, explained, Sodexo has been in India for the last 25 years. Along with becoming the choice of many corporates and the working class, we are also working with a few schools and educational institutions. We have tried to focus our centuries of experience on schools and educational institutions to prepare them for the future to work with digital technologies.
“On one hand, we want to give opportunities to differently-abled students, such that the functioning of the schools is streamlined, more simplified, and efficient and focused, while on the other hand, it is our endeavour to provide a world-class campus experience to the students. At the very beginning of life, they should know how digital payment and digital means should be used,” Sarkar added.
Expressing his views on the matter, Amit Bansal, Founder & CEO, Wizklub Learning said, “We should look at the world around us carefully. We would feel that things have changed to a great extent. We have to understand that for the generation before us, 30 years in one career was enough. In our time it has become one to change every 10-10 years. It has become necessary for today's employed people to change themselves every four to five years.”
He said that you cannot learn everything even after studying continuously for four years. Today all the time you have to keep learning something or the other. Now that the environment around us will be like this, then it will be necessary for the children to learn everything very quickly. From today itself, when they are in the initial phase of their life, they have to learn more and more things because only then they cannot say later that we are not familiar with new technology.
Speaking on the flexible learning models and business models, Amit Bansal said, “If we talk about schools, then on the lines of a business model, schools have been hit the least by the economic downturn, because the school works to take up social responsibilities more than teaching. It is a part of the social fabric where our children go. Schools have provided everything inside their campus so that no one has to go outside campus for any work, so that Parents should also not have any problem in sending their children to school. This is all that today's technology is allowing you to do, which was not possible five to ten years ago.”
