Education technology platforms Byju’s and Vedantu have said they would offer free access to their learning platforms to all students after some states ordered primary schools to remain shut due to the Covid-19 virus outbreak.
Both companies said their paid versions will be available free for students going into the upcoming school year in April.
Byju’s said the free access would last until the end of April, while Vedantu did not mention a time period for the offer.
“Considering the rigour of the exam season, access to the learning program will further assist and help students continue with their preparation for the year-end examinations,” Byju’s said in a statement.
Vedantu is also partnering schools in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and parts of Kerala to enable schoolteachers to take live classes for students while they are at home. The company said schools would be able to use their own content, own teachers and even conduct end-to-end classes through its platform.
“We’re anticipating a spike in users as we go into the new school year in April. It’s understandable that parents would not want to send their children to any group setting for fear of contracting the virus,” said Vamsi Krishna, co-founder and CEO of Vedantu.
The move comes at a time when learning platforms globally are making available course content to students who have suffered from study disruptions.
According to a Unesco report, education of 290 million students from 13 countries has likely been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Leave a Reply