COVID-19 and its implications on the education space

Abstract

The Indian education ecosystem has the following components: teachers, students, course material, infrastructure and increasingly a fifth component of technology. Being a country with such diverse income backgrounds, the quality and approach to education varies highly between different parts of the country and different social strata. As a result, when the pandemic hit and schools had to be shut down, that too at the most critical time of end term exams, the Indian education system as a whole was faced with new realities of finding a short-term solution but more importantly, devising long term strategies to ensure the continuity of education. While COVID-19 has impacted all aspects of the education system, for the purpose of this report, we shall primarily look at its impact on the formal education in private schools and EdTech space. Further, we aim to look closely at the impact on organizational dynamics, command structure, employee psyche and upskilling efforts.