Pradip K. Saha is a journalist and writer. He is a cofounder of The Morning Context, where he writes primarily on education technology, but also on mobility and the gig economy. His prior associations include the Deccan Chronicle and Mint.
<p style="text-align: justify; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18.85px; letter-spacing: 0.2px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40); line-height: 1.3em; font-family: "pt serif script=all rev=5";"><span style="font-family: "Source Sans Pro";">There is little trust in institutions – indeed, especially in the top ones – and hence it is convenient for everyone to simply look at a number in a single test – so-called “merit”. This deeply damaged ecosystem is where apps like Byjus (and many others) thrive. Indeed, there is little discussion on how to make the debilitated school system more robust so that these technologies/centers can at best provide a supplementary role – of making learning more engaging and deeper. Rather, the school system – especially its evaluation sub-system – is not held accountable at all, and the boards only ruthlessly homogenise in their evaluations. </span><span style="font-family: "Source Sans Pro"; font-size: 18.85px; letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Companies like Byju’s, as Saha notes, had initially tried to make learning genuinely more engaging with animations and visualisations, and it is easy to believe that at one point Raveendran must have been a sincere teacher sharing his joy. The problem remains that if everything is anyway geared toward a few scores in a few exams, there is little learning – among other things, learning cannot happen in this atmosphere of high anxiety.</span></p>
