There is no denying that edtech is the future of education. Even before the pandemic rendered it a necessary medium of imparting education to all and sundry, it had begun to catch on like wildfire among the urban elite. While they mostly viewed these edtech platforms as an extra boost to their children’s education, the rest of the world only woke up to its charms during the pandemic–when even education became a form of entertainment and distraction with everyone stuck indoors. Another noteworthy aspect is the ability of edtech platforms to democratise education and make it available across the board to anybody with a smartphone and a passable internet connection.
According to business research platform Statista, in 2020, the edtech market in India was worth USD 2.8 billion, however, by 2025 this is expected to change drastically, increasing the overall market size to USD 10.4 billion. Is it any wonder then that people are jumping on the edtech bandwagon in droves? However, for a new edtech platform to stand apart in this clutter of platforms, it must focus on providing a holistic education, where children focus on academics and varied extra-curricular activities as well.
Orphicy (Orphic Learning Private Limited), an Ahmedabad-based Education Startup is here to address this problem. Led by seasoned academicians with over a decade of experience, this platform has only recently been launched. Vipul Tyagi, CEO of Orphicy is a serial CAT Topper and has been part of the education sector since 2010. When asked what sets Orphicy apart from its competitors, Tyagi shares with candour, “We are a highly engaging education company that provides online live lectures to school students of grades 5-10. The company takes pride in its holistic approach to education, stressing equally on academics and extracurricular activities.”
Its unique methodology for virtual education sets Orphicy apart from other edtech startups. Their one-of-a-kind ‘Flipped Learning Approach’ includes three distinctive steps. The first of these encourage students to prepare beforehand by listening to pre-lecture capsules that will stimulate interest in a subject, no matter how disliked it may be. The next step is to encourage students to participate in the live learning process, by imparting superior learning with hands-on activities and through active discussions. Lastly, the team focuses on the process of learning to ensure a continuous improvement in the students’ exam readiness index.
To achieve their goals, they rely on visualisation methods, live interactions, analytics, and psychometric analysis and provide dedicated career guidance to each student. One can choose from their Flagship Course covering the school curriculum, with the unit and term tests, subject-based mentoring and access to concept based worksheets; a Free Programme with pre-recorded lectures, assignments and tests along with performance analysis and weekend webinars; and the Aspire Programme aimed specifically at students preparing for Olympiads, and JEE-NEET with interest-based monitoring, higher difficulty of questions, blended learning, and exposure to practice sheets for competitive examinations.
“Apart from providing live online coaching for the prescribed school curriculum, our startup helps students prepare for NTSE, Olympiads and other competitive exams,” shares the founder. The promising concept and operational excellence displayed by the team at Orphicy, have led to them successfully obtaining their first round of funding recently.
Studies have shown that hands-on learning incorporating fun elements of education, leads to better academic results as well as the overall development of the child’s personality. Keeping this in mind, the team at Orphicy introduced the ‘Orphicy Curiousity Box’, which aims at improving children’s comprehension and knowledge retention, through a series of hands-on experiments related to the child’s syllabus. In addition to this, several ‘Micro-Courses’ focussing on extra-curricular activities, aim to equip every child to deal with the dearth of quality on-ground teachers and the high fees they are forced to pay for attending schools.
Ultimately, it is important to bear in mind that education cannot simply be restricted to traditional modes of learning and a strong focus on academics. Were this to remain the case, present and future generations of children would be severely ill-equipped to deal with the realities of life. Education is a tool of empowerment, and therefore choosing the right kind of education for one’s child, is a heavy burden indeed.
The writer pens lifestyle articles for various publications and her blog www.nooranandchawla.com. She can be reached on nooranand@gmail.com.