Trends in Education(part 2)

E tutoring

Due to ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy (NCLB) issued by the US government in 1998,Indian companies are recognizing opportunities and aggresively taking advantage of this very lucrative $2-billion annual market.

About NCLB
The NCLB Act mandates schools to meet 100% pass percentage by 2014. Schools failing to comply will be denied state funds. The NCLB along with lack of trained teachers in the US is pushing the demand for "virtual teachers".


These "virtual teachers" basically works in two modes

1. Either they work in specified office locations (IMS follows this one)
2. They are provided login and passwords by which they can work from home.(Career launcher)

The basic trends :-

1.There exists a big market in europe for e-tutoring which companies are looking at.
2.Movement to other subjects(science,english) other than maths.

Issues

1.Human Resource:Companies need to train employees in American/European culture, history, geography, literature, civics, economics.
2.Accent:There are other issues like accent training which needs to be dealt with(lessons from BPO can be very useful here)
3.Competition :Finanacial Express writes,"Countries like the Philippines can offer the same with better quality.Philippines was under US rule for about 50 years and is more closer to US culturally".


But I am bullish on E-tutoring and India's role in this emerging industry.



Happy new year :-)


Kapil Bhatia