Wikipedia does good thing to the world and as per Jimmy Wales, it did help a poor Indian pass his 11th grade exams.
“..met this young man on the street who told me that he had used Wikipedia to pass his 11th grade exams.” “Wow, that’s really cool, right? We’ve had some impact, even in such a place where I’m talking to this guy, and there’s mud streets, and cows, and it’s really quite a different environment from London.” – AFP
Indian Education - The BoP Market
While one can question what Jimmy Wales is mentioning (which I am sure many of us will), the bigger question is – why is Indian education (which is such a great market) doesn’t have major credible players/startups?
Why is everybody trying to be educomp/roots-to-wings in this space? Aren’t there enough opportunity to be a no-frills school in India?
Few stats on Indian Education System
- Nearly 97% of the Central Government expenditure on elementary education goes towards the payment of teachers’ salaries.
- As per census 2001, non-grads market in India stands at 502,994,684
- As per census 2001, graduation market in India stands at 37,670,147 [wikipedia]
Is there an opportunity to ‘free’-up’ the education space? Give away free copies of wikipedia?
While IITs are supposed to upload videos on YouTube, I couldn’t find any real pattern in the entire process (there are some lectures present, but mostly it’s random)
What’s your take?
But who’s this rather amazing kid whose parents purchased him a PC and net connection but forgot to buy him books?
I strongly agree with ” but mostly it’s random”
Agreed with Rajesh Kumar … maybe jimmy wales definition of poor indian is anyone working on muddy streets which very well might be a national highway
Quite expected from few cynics! – i.e. take the easy way out by questining the very basis of data..
there are multiple ways where one can access wikipedia – For instance , the receptionist in my office has the access to Internet.he could have gone ahead with acquiring more knowledge..rgt?
Havent u heard of a waiter becoming an IAS officer?
working – typo meant walking
And the way he talks about it makes the reader feel he is talking about someone from underprivileged background… The question is what are the odds of that happening. Anyways, guess we should rather think about bigger question ashish had put.