1. Please let us know about Vidyakul and its whole spectrum of courses
Founded in 2017, Vidyakul is one of its kind interactive vernacular e-learning platforms that enables teachers to create online courses for K-12, JEE, NEET, AIIMS in tier-II & tier III cities. Vidyakul is working on preparing study material, video lectures, study notes & online tests by analysing last 10 years’ exam papers & NCERT books with the best teachers across India. Vidyakul offers live lectures and pre-recorded courses (from Class 9th- 12th in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, and Hinglish) to help state board students learn academics.
Currently we are offering vernacular content to state board students 7 state boards.
2. Over recent years, what are some of the changes that you’ve noticed in Indian education sector, and how has Vidyakul responded to these changes?
New developments have taken place in the recent years and pandemic has further fuelled this shift in the EdTech space. The gradual shift from conventional classrooms to online learning has reshaped the way educational space now looks like. This change in the system was not easy to adapt for students from the state board due to lack of resources like the internet,availability, language barriers and others, whereas students from metropolitan cities are well versed with technology.
Vidyakul came as a solution to those kids and started delivering live classes for the Hindi state board. This gradual shift was also witnessed in other states like Gujarat and Maharashtra, and within a year of lockdown we have delivered more than 30,000 live classes in vernacular languages like Hindi, English and Marathi.
3. As per your research report ‘State boards Students are more skilled as compared to CBSE students but when it comes to the quality of education, both in School & Online learning they are far behind from others due to the mismatch in the language’. What steps can be taken to curb this issue?
The need of the hour for state board students is to develop the skills that they are lagging behind due to scarcity of resources and quality education. As a solution to this problem, it is important that we focus on qualified and refined teachers. Vidkakul as a platform is trying to bridge that gap by not only giving them a platform at home but where they can study under the guidance of teachers who are well versed in their subjects across the country. Another barrier is the local language as not all state board students are confident and comfortable in english and Hindi, hence we made sure that we have teachers who can help children in their prefered local language.
4. The NEP states that students till Class 5 in schools should be taught in vernacular language. What’s your comment on this?
We feel that this is a very good initiative and it is crucial for the students to stay connected to their roots and maintain the authenticity as language is the first connection to any culture. To maintain the diversity within our culture, we should teach our state board students in vernacular language. Languages like English and Hindi that are recognised across the globe are a part of the curriculum throughout their lives and can be learnt at a later stage also, but the local language once skipped is difficult to adapt.
5. How do you perceive the booming edtech sector especially after COVID pandemic? How do you plan to tap this opportunity?
Covid pandemic has brought in a larger shift in online education from offline to online, this shift will only help us expand more as we are a technology based platform. Students have now become comfortable with online classes and are more used to than ever before. Taking this as an opportunity to expand our mission and vision we will be coming up with more such online studios, increasing the number of teachers and more languages on our platform.
6. May we have your thoughts on soft skills and its relevance in education? How does Vidyakul help students to enhance their soft skills?
The 21st century skills which include soft skills like confidence, problem solving and many more real time skills can be attained through the interactive learning of the mainstream subjects itself. Vidyakul as an EdTech platform allows students to learn through interactive methods and easily ask questions.This helps students in building confidence and understanding the concepts better to apply them in real life and real time understanding.
7. How do you think one should choose a career after 12th standard?
It is a very personal question to every student, more like to each its own.what my advice to students would be to make sure what they pursue is what interests them the most. Follow your interests and heart in terms of your career choices and make sure to have done a detailed research on your choice. When students follow their passion, the chances of success are always higher than if they are forced or manipulated to study what they do not wish for. Students should think about the larger goals and choices that would make a difference in the longer run.
8. What are some unconventional courses that you will recommend for 12th class students?
Like I earlier said, the choice of subject is very personal to every student, but if you ask me some of the unconventional courses that I would like to mention, it would be vernacular languages again. India as a country is rich in diversity with more than 23 local languages. It’s time that we start preserving this culture, more and more people are forgetting their roots, so if your language interests you, without a second thought you can take it forward and build a career in it. We don’t have a lot of local language enthusiasts and experts, this can definitely be an unconventional choice of subject for students and can take them places.
9. Profession or passion; what do you think most important while planning a career?
I strongly believe if you follow your passion right, you can always make it your profession too. When people are passionate about their interests, they work hard for it, and if not today, tomorrow the results of hard work will always show up. Profession should not be mistaken or misjudged with any limited set of jobs or careers, anything that is a source of income and is satisfying can be a profession.
10. How do you intend to steer the growth of Vidyakul in the years to come?
In a very small span of time we have 1 million registered users and over 2.5 Lakh students in hindi belt( Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar) and this number is continuously increasing.
We have successfully marked our presence in more than 7 states. We plan to become the leading vernacular platform for all state board students and accomplish our mission to provide students with quality education and solutions. We plan to rigorously expand in the coming months where we will be delivering all state board content in regional languages via live classes with 20 million + users. We have witnessed a 200% growth on our user side in just one year.