Mumbai: Buoyed by the multiple benefits of teaching online, the vast informal Indian teaching and tutoring community is rapidly moving beyond vanilla video solutions to adopt full-service digital teaching solutions, to enhance their teaching experience and manage their teaching business more efficiently and effectively. According to data collated by Teachmint, a Bengaluru based EdTech start-up providing digital tutoring solution, the shift today is being led by 1000 Indian towns ranging from Srinagar to Port Blair and Jaisalmer to Dibrugarh with 75% of all enrolments emanating from Tier 2 and below towns and villages.
Early trends today indicate that digital transformation of the informal tutoring sector, whose stickiness is based on a highly personalized teaching experience, is a far bigger opportunity in India as compared to the content centric impersonal EdTech models, or even the organized sector competitive exam preparation models. Since its launch in May 2020, Teachmint has enrolled 2.4 lakh teachers on its platform and is witnessing an inflow of 50,000 teacher enrollments every month.
Explaining the phenomenon, Mihir Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, Teachmint said, “At Teachmint, we are on a mission to democratize distribution and access to online education. We are working tirelessly to deliver two-way video communication and operating a full suite of teacher-student learning workflow including value added services like managing assessments, notes sharing, tuition fee management and many other features which are unique to the Indian environment. These exciting new features will remain relevant even when face to face teaching is fully restored fully, providing teachers with an option to operate a hybrid practice offering all the value-added features to offer a superior learning experience for their students more efficiently. With a focus on ‘Build for India’, Teachmint is available in 11 languages pan-India and supports low bandwidth connections through our custom video technology. Teachmint through its offering is becoming the technology and infrastructure backbone for teachers across the country from Srinagar to Port Blair.”
Exemplifying the benefit of scale that can be achieved through digital teaching is Dr. Vivek Singh, a tutor of Political Science and Assistant Professor at the University of Allahabad, who after signing up on Teachmint has been able to expand his student base and is today serving 1000 students across UP, Rajasthan, Haryana, MP, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh.
Sharing his experience Dr. Singh said, “At first, I was not sure about how to go digital with my classes. I did a few test runs and was pleasantly surprised with how simple and effective it was. Teachmint has helped me scale up my initiative called Nayi Pahal under which I give back to the community by tutoring and providing guidance to youngsters without charging them. These interactions were extremely satisfying for both the students and me. Inter-city teaching is fast becoming a trend thanks to Teachmint with students being able to access tutors without any geographical barriers. Teachmint has helped me connect with over 1000 students from various states which is remarkable”
As India moves towards the future of education, it is looking more and more likely that online learning is the way forward. Teachmint has been able to strike the right balance for tutors by enabling teachers with the right digital tools for each tutor to run their classes in a manner that is best suited to them and highlights their unique method of imparting education to their students. The platform has seen wide acceptance and rapid adoption by tutors across the country and helps them manage their tutoring sessions with a combination of online as well as recorded videos. With online classes cutting down on infrastructure costs like rent and electricity, private tutors believe digital classes are the future and are of the firm opinion that this will be instrumental in spreading quality education to students located in the farthest corners of the country.
