Education Industry Analysis

India’s education sector offers a great opportunity with approximately 29 per cent of India’s population in the age group of 0 to 14 years. Education sector in India is expected to reach US$ 180 billion in FY20. India’s higher education segment is expected to increase to Rs 2,44,824 crore (US$ 35.03 billion) by 2025. India was ranked 34 among the 100 countries in English Proficiency Index 2019. Increasing internet penetration is expected to help in education delivery. As of December 2019, internet penetration in India reached 54.29 per cent.

India has over 250 million school going students, more than any other country. It also has one of the largest networks of higher education institutions in the world. Number of colleges and universities in India reached 39,931 and 993, respectively, in FY19. India had 37.4 million students enrolled in higher education in 2018-19. Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education reached 26.3 per cent in FY19.

Education sector in India remains to be a strategic priority for the Government. The Government has allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the education sector through the automatic route since 2002. Total FDI inflow in India’s education sector stood at US$ 3.24 billion between April 2000 to March 2020 according to the data released by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). In India, the edtech market is expected to reach ~US$ 3.5 billion by 2022; received investments worth ~US$ 1.1 billion in 2020.

The Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi approved the National Education Policy 2020, making way for large scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors. The policy is built on foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability, and is aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. According to Union Budget 2020-21, the Government has allocated Rs 59,845 crore (US$ 8.56 billion) to the Department of School Education and Literacy. Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022 was announced in Union Budget 2020-21 at an outlay of Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 429.55 million).

Gujarat aims to become the first state to implement NEP 2020 with a task force to create a road map for implementing the new policy and adding changes from primary to secondary and higher education.

To ensure that skilling fulfils the aspiration of the people at local level including Panchayat level, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is laying foundation to empower the District.

To strengthen resource support at the District-level, the Ministry introduced the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellowship (MGNF), where fellows will be posted in the districts for two years will work with the district administration to create specific ‘State Skill Development Plans’.

In September 2020, the Union Cabinet approved the establishment of a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Darbhanga, Bihar, under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The establishment of new AIIMS will serve the dual purpose of providing super specialty healthcare to citizens and creating a large pool of doctors and other health workers in the state.

In September 2020, Alternative Academic Calendar (AAC) for four weeks and the next eight weeks for primary and upper primary stages had been released.

In September 2020, UGC issued new guidelines for distance learning courses. As per norms, no university whether central, state, private or deemed to be university, can offer its programmes by franchising agreements with private coaching institutions to admit learners and conduct courses through open and distance learning and online mode.