Many Indian classrooms now have a smart class: a large screen at the front, on which the teacher plays lessons and videos. At home, children do homework on an app, or take a coding class over a video call. The schoolbook has become software.
What is sold. Education companies sell schools and families a few kinds of product:
Curriculum and coursewareA curriculum is what children are taught through the school year. Courseware is the curriculum in digital form: lessons, exercises and tests. Textbook publishers now sell mostly this.
Adaptive learningThe software changes the next question to match each child's answers. A child who struggles gets easier practice, and a child who is ahead moves on.
AssessmentShort tests show a teacher what each child has and has not learned. A diagnostic test is used to find the gaps, not to pass or fail a child.
Live classes and tutoringA teacher teaches a child online, alone or in a small group.
How adaptive learning works: the child answers a question, the software checks what the child knows, and the next question matches the last answer, easier for a child who struggles and harder for one who is ahead.
Two very different buyers
SchoolsHere the buyer is the school or the school system, not the parent. In America, public schools are run by about 13,000 school districts, and each district buys curriculum and assessment for its schools. In India, private schools buy for themselves. Government schools usually get their programmes through the state education department. Sales to schools are slow, and a programme, once chosen, is used for years.
ParentsHere the buyer is the family, and the product is usually live classes, such as coding or maths. The company has to find each family itself, which costs a lot in marketing. Parents stay only while they see their child improve.
Two very different buyers: schools, which buy slowly and keep a programme for years (Pearson, Curriculum Associates, HMH, Imagine Learning, Educational Initiatives), and parents, who buy live classes and stay while their child improves (BrightCHAMPS, Codeyoung, Codingal, 21K School). ConveGenius.AI reaches government schools over a chat app.
The industry often calls school education K-12, from kindergarten to class 12.
Where it is built. The world's largest education publishers build much of their digital products in India. Indian companies sell online classes, coding lessons and learning over chat to children, at home and in government schools.
Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.
This Market Segment has two sub-segments:
The curriculum goes digital: courseware, adaptive learning and assessment, mostly sold to schools
Classes and tutors for children: live classes, online schools and learning over chat