[Research] Reading between Byju’s lines 📖

[Guru]

The enormity of the situation hit us earlier this month during a
house-to-house survey of four Dalit and Adivasi hamlets in Latehar,
Jharkhand. There was no trace of online education, most children were
unable to read a single word, and all parents were desperate to see the
schools reopen. That this injustice remained virtually unquestioned for
16 months is a telling indictment of India’s exclusive democracy.


Read this edition online
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Edition #352. Thursday, 19 August 2021

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Good morning RAAT,

Every narrative tells a story. But have you thought about what the story
doesn’t tell? Sometimes the bigger story may be in what was omitted. Be
it Byju’s founder’s op-ed piece in a newspaper or the Reserve bank of
India in a press release—what they chose to tell is only one half of the
story. 


    The meaning of Byju Raveendran’s Indian Express op-ed


      Rohin Dharmakumar

<https://the-ken.com/writers/rohin/>

Byju Raveendran is the billionaire founder and CEO of India’s most
valuable edtech firm, Byju’s (if you want to read /The Ken’/s stellar
coverage on the company over the years, start here
<https://the-ken.com/tag/byjus/>). The company is so adept at growing
its market share and raising capital that valuation figures get outdated
in weeks.

In June 2020, it was worth US$10.5 billion. In April 2021, US$16.5
billion. Now, there’s talk of it approaching US$21.5 billion. And with
China deciding to clamp down on profiteering in its edtech sector,
there’s even more capital chasing India and Byju’s. 

Byju’s raises global capital at will. It acquires companies at will.
Byju’s doesn’t need much help, thank you please.

Which is why it was surprising to find Byju Raveendran author an opinion
piece
<https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/how-startup-ecosystem-can-help-india-become-powerhouse-of-global-economy-7457018/>in
the /Indian Express/on how “India’s startup ecosystem /can help
India/become powerhouse of global economy”.

When CEOs of powerful companies write
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mark-zuckerberg-the-internet-needs-new-rules-lets-start-in-these-four-areas/2019/03/29/9e6f0504-521a-11e9-a3f7-78b7525a8d5f_story.html>
opinion
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/opinion/sunday/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-news.html>
pieces
<https://www.ft.com/content/602ec7ec-4f18-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5>in
national newspapers, one must always pay attention. Because they usually
have very strong reasons to. Reasons that may not be very apparent
<https://www.vox.com/2019/1/26/18197883/mark-zuckerberg-wsj-regulation-messaging-monopoly>at
first glance. 

In his column, Raveendran exalts startups. Makes sense.

In 2021 alone, Indian startups have so far raised upward of $20 billion
in funding, achieved unicorn statuses, and more....From 2011, when
India’s first private company achieved unicorn status, to being on track
to have a 50-plus strong “Unicorn club” in 2021 according to Nasscom,
the country now finds itself at the epicentre of entrepreneurship.

How startup ecosystem can help India become powerhouse of global
economy, The Indian Express
<https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/how-startup-ecosystem-can-help-india-become-powerhouse-of-global-economy-7457018/>


He also talks about India’s demographic promise, and about how Indians
are “set to make up one-fifth of the world’s working-age population in
the next five years and likely to have an estimated 850 million internet
users by 2030.” 

He ends it with a call seemingly addressed to fellow startups, but in
reality, a message to the government. 

In view of achieving this transformation at scale, the Indian startup
ecosystem must focus on developing solutions that allow businesses in
key sectors to meet goals of national importance. It also must view
India’s economic and social challenges as opportunities for growth and
leverage new technologies.

How startup ecosystem can help India become powerhouse of global
economy, The Indian Express
<https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/how-startup-ecosystem-can-help-india-become-powerhouse-of-global-economy-7457018/>


The last paragraph captures the essence of Raveendran’s op-ed effort:
position the growth and prosperity of private tech startups as analogous
to India’s national growth. And quietly acknowledge the presence of
“economic and social challenges” in India.

It’s also important to note what Raveendran does /not/refer to: India’s
school children and their parents. Considering that they’re his primary
customers and the source of his company’s galloping valuation, their
omission seems odd.

Because they are both in dire distress
<https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/raghuram-rajan-warns-of-lost-generation-if-kids-arent-back-at-school-soon>.
Tens of millions of Indian children are perhaps already three years
behind their more privileged peers in India and elsewhere.

"Imagine the quality of lessons they've had over a year and a half. The
problem isn't just that they are not keeping up, but that they're
forgetting," Rajan told The Quint Group Co-Founder Raghav Bahl in an
interview. "If you've been out of school for a year and half, you're
probably three years behind at the time you go back."
Schools in India have remained shut since the onset of the Covid-19
outbreak in March 2020. Any discussions around reopening earlier this
year were thwarted by a deadly second wave of the pandemic. According to
UNICEF, the closure of schools has impacted nearly 25 crore children
across the country.
"If you have not brought these kids back up to speed in class and you
just treat it business as usual, the schools open, kids come back to
classes and nothing really happens, well then you've got a lost
generation of kids," he said. "That lost generation isn't going to go
anywhere, it is going to be there with you for the next 60 years. How do
you deal with that?"

Raghuram Rajan Warns Of 'Lost Generation' If Kids Aren't Back At School
Soon, BloombergQuint
<https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/raghuram-rajan-warns-of-lost-generation-if-kids-arent-back-at-school-soon>


Research has shown how even a gap of a few months during summer
vacations
<https://blog.nebraskachildren.org/2019/12/05/education-poverty-and-the-achievement-gap/>can
set back poorer kids against their wealthier peers. (Because kids from
better-off families continue informal and guided learning even during
those months).

What do you think 1.5 years (and counting) of /outright school closures
/will mean?

A report published by Azim Premji University in February indicates that
92% of government school students across grades 2-6 in five states have
forgotten at least one “specific language ability” from the previous
year. Students have also forgotten foundational concepts like numeracy
and literacy from 1-2 grades prior, the report said. Without mastering
these concepts, they’d struggle in senior grades.
Losing an entire school year is gut-wrenching for India’s low-income
students, who mostly attend government schools or affordable private
schools . While access to schooling is less of an issue now, the quality
of education and problems like teacher absenteeism, rote learning, and
lack of quality resources have put Indian students at a cruel disadvantage.
Even before Covid, almost 40% of grade 1 students were unable to
recognise letters, according to an ASER 2019 report. The pandemic has
had a meteor-like impact on this precarious situation. It has set
students back and potentially wiped out entire years of learning from
their minds.

The hard lessons from India’s lost school year, The Ken
<https://the-ken.com/story/lessons-indias-lost-school-year/>

Online education is no solution.

The fig leaf of online education has masked the elephant of school
exclusion for a full 16 months without anyone taking serious notice
outside specialised circles. This is a dramatic manifestation of the
indifference of privileged classes towards the educational aspirations
of the poor.
The enormity of the situation hit us earlier this month during a
house-to-house survey of four Dalit and Adivasi hamlets in Latehar,
Jharkhand. There was no trace of online education, most children were
unable to read a single word, and all parents were desperate to see the
schools reopen. That this injustice remained virtually unquestioned for
16 months is a telling indictment of India’s exclusive democracy.

Still short of schooling at 74, The Hindu
<https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/still-short-of-schooling-at-74/article35915435.ece>


The economic impact of this is expected to be devastating for developing
economies like India.

On an average, every student affected by school closure in a developing
Asian country stands to lose an estimated $180 every year, equivalent to
a 2.4 percent drop in average annual earnings in future. The lost
earnings are projected to reach $16,000 over a student’s lifetime.
Globally, this generation of students is at risk of losing about$10
trillion in future life-time earnings — an amount equivalent to almost
10 percent of global GDP. These losses reflect only the private income
of the individuals and do not capture the social returns or the
long-term benefits of education on health, scientific progress, gender
equity, harmony or peace. It is estimated that in India, 23.8 million
additional children and youth may drop out of classes this year due to
the pandemic's economic impact alone.

We’re already late to school — Let’s not delay any further, Moneycontrol
<https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/were-already-late-to-school-lets-not-delay-any-further-7275971.html>


Capital is, of course, blind. It chases financial returns. Which is why
India’s stock markets and startup valuations have continued to defy the
/lived/economic reality of its citizens. 

That is a key reason why China cracked down on its tech sector.

Sociologists and political economists believe that while Beijing's
tightened grip on the private education sector might hamper the growing
wealth and power of the online-learning companies, it is ultimately an
attempt to avoid massive social unrest.
"Education has been crucial to [the] CCP's legitimacy as a people's
party," Ye Liu, a sociologist at King's College London who studies
education inequality in China, told Protocol. "The recent crackdown on
ed tech and private tutoring can be seen as an attempt to respond to the
concerns of the poor."

China’s edtech crackdown isn’t what you think. Here’s why, Protocol
<https://www.protocol.com/china/china-edtech-crackdown-education-inequality>


And it’s not that India’s ruling party, the BJP, does not study what
China’s communist party practices.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) plans to not only surpass the Communist
Party of China (CPC) in terms of registered members to become the
planet’s largest political party but now also hopes to learn from that
party's well honed skills to train cadres.
A 13-member delegation of BJP legislators left today for Beijing and
Guangzhou for a week-long visit. According to a BJP statement, the
delegation will try understand CPC’s internal party structure, political
functioning and its role in establishing a welfare state. The delegation
will interact with CPC leaders and cadres, from grassroots to its
Central Committee and Politburo.
A key part of the delegation's itinerary will be a visit to the ‘Party
School’ of the Central Committee of the CPC, located in Beijing. The
delegation will submit a report to BJP President Amit Shah of their
visit to China, and particularly to the CPC Party School. “The BJP is
working towards becoming the largest party on the planet, and both BJP
and CPC are cadre based parties and can learn from each other. Our
(BJP's) history is evidence of how our positive attitude to constructive
criticism has contributed to our growth as a political party,” BJP
national secretary Shrikant Sharma said when asked about the visit of
BJP members to CPC’s Party School.

BJP legislators take lessons at school run by Communist Party of China,
Business Standard
<https://www.business-standard.com/article/politics/bjp-legislators-take-lessons-at-school-run-by-communist-party-of-china-114111501563_1.html>


/That/is what Raveendran’s op-ed is targeted at. The likelihood of the
Indian government peeling apart the façade of booming edtech valuations
and asking the question: how are the users and customers of these
products faring? What sort of business practices
<https://the-ken.com/story/byjus-silencing-of-online-dissent/>are being
adopted? What alternatives
<https://the-ken.com/story/exposing-edtechs-vanity-metrics>should the
state promote? Is there any evidence that billions of dollars being
spent by Indian parents is leading to any outcomes
<https://the-ken.com/story/edtech-wont-take-the-dipstick>?

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