Why aren’t edutech companies living upto their potential ?
Why aren’t they being able to fix our broken education system ?
We all understand the importance of educating students , and this is why investors are happy to pump in tons of money in this space.
The problem is this is a very top down approach , where the focus is on maximizing return on investment , rather than helping students to learn.
This is why so many of these educational startups go belly up.
The most important players in the educational ecosystem ( outside the home_ are the teachers . They are the ones who actually interact with students – they care for them, and have a one-on-one personal relationship with them.
Technology should be used to enhance and supplement this relationship , rather than try to replace . Unfortunately, most edutech startups sell their products by badmouthing teachers and blaming schools for doing a shoddy job. This may well be true, but doesn’t address the elephant in the room – the teachers have a lot of clout, and are important decision makers.
If we want to put our students first , we need to respect the teachers , because they are the ones who can actually make a difference in the student’s life. We all know this from personal experience , because we have all had teachers who helped us to become better versions of ourselves !
We can use technology to help more teachers do a better job with educating their students .
This way , everyone stands to win , and when that happens , the money will automatically flow in, because this is such a large market , and it’s not going to go away anywhere !
If it takes 12 years to educate a student, can’t startups be equally patient, if they want to stand out ?