The Indian education system has been facing hurdles in coping up with the pace of the digital revolution, especially for the unprivileged. There is no doubt that technology-induced education is coming of age during the pandemic, and with it, the educational inequality within the system is rising. While many market players have focussed on students with large disposable incomes in the past, entrepreneurs are coming up with solutions for the bottom-line students who cannot afford costly-subscriptions. It is commendable how these innovators have been quick enough in making technology-based education available to all aspirants.

Here are 4 startups making education affordable for students of all socio-economic backgrounds.

1. Whatsapp-based learning by ConveGenius: The brainchild of Jairaj Bhattacharya and Shashank Pandey, ConveGenius is an Ed-Tech Social Enterprise with a vision to make quality education accessible to over 100 million underprivileged students and bridge the learning gap in India. The platform can be accessed through a simple application such as Whatsapp. In addition to it being affordable, services can also be accessed in low connectivity areas with 2G/3G internet services. ConveGenius offers personalized evaluations and remedial classes for fruitful home learning.

2. ThinkZone: This Odisha-based startup has been working towards quality education to students of 3 to 10 years of age. The learning model of ThinkZone is based on providing innovative yet accessible solutions to K-12 students. ThinkZone was founded in 2014 and is currently working in over 400 villages in Odisha. Along with its ‘School-in-a-Box’ education solution, the platform also empowers women entrepreneurs in rural Odisha.

3. Veative Labs: Veative Labs is an education technology solutions provider to over 100,000 users in 25 countries—including the US, Canada, Japan, India, Nigeria, South Africa, Vietnam, Malaysia, UAE, Saudi Arabia. Veative Labs have initiated an inventive solution for experiencing classes online, through web browsers even without VR devices. They are indeed ‘bringing Virtual Reality home’. With a motto that learning should never stop, this enterprise is bringing creative solutions for experiencing STEM and ELL (English language learning) modules in virtual reality.

4. Eduauraa: With a simple motive – to eliminate the tuition culture, especially for a school-going kid, Eduauraa has proved to be a boon for many parents whose kids have been spending time on OTT platforms all this while. Eduauraa can be accessed by users through its app, website, or even Zee5. It has various subscription packages, as affordable as an OTT. The platform currently offers services in both English and Hindi.