About the Contest

As part of OCD’s objective of highlighting niche communities on the Hive Blockchain, this week, the focus is on the Home Edders Community. As you would have noticed, the community is about home educating and home educated. All can gather and share their views on the subject.

If you fancy participating and share your own knowledge, you can do so here.

Home Education

The concept of home education is something unheard of in India, as education meant only that which can be imparted in a school or college. If that was not enough, jobs depended on formal education. Companies accepted only certified graduates from schools or colleges. So, a home educated cannot possibly hope to get a job of his choice.

India is also the home of the Information Technology (IT) revolution, which brought millions out of the lower-income group into the middle-income group. The Indian middle-income group, as a population, is one of the largest in the world. What that also meant was that generation after generation who had anything to do with IT would throw their weight behind the idea of being educated in the right schools and colleges. So, most of these IT communities’ children also went to schools with big names, which their parents could now afford. But what this did was disallow the concept of homeschooling or home education to take wings.

But the COVID pandemic changed things a lot. Starting in the year 2020, the lockdown ensured that kids could not go to schools. So, in a way, they had to complete their education at home. The schools were, of course, available online, but kids didn’t spend as many hours as they would normally do. It is usually anywhere between 6-8 hours of school five days a week before the pandemic struck. The pandemic and the subsequent lockdown reduced this schooling (online, I mean) to just about a couple of hours a day for five days. That left parents like me a bit worried about the studies that happened.

So, what could we do?

The Education Revolution | Pandemic Inspired

Being recipients of the education system's success, parents like me look at alternative education systems for our kids. Being of the hard-working and, therefore, of the 6-8 hours of schooling mentality, we started searching for other avenues which could augment the current education system in the pandemic-driven environment.

Incidentally, India had the answer. Just a few years prior to the pandemic, online education systems, driven by the likes of Byju’s, Cuemath, or Whitehat, had gained acceptance with the masses. The idea was to augment what the kids were already learning or to make the school learning interesting. It did have its following but not as much until 2020 arrived.

Parents looking for alternatives to schooling did not have to look too far. Byjus and Whitehat were a runaway success. The success was visible as the owners of Byjus became the newest Indian billionaires. The concept of homeschooling, without calling it so, was taking shape. But when this concept happens in India, remember, it is happening at a whole different level. We are talking about tens of millions of students, if not more. How else would these online education system creators become billionaires? 😊

But thanks (unfortunate use of thanks) to the pandemic, parents and children witnessed new learning avenues. Did you know that Whitehat Jr. or CampK12 actually taught coding for children? And when I say children, we are talking about kids from the 8 to 15 age group. Heck, we as engineers learned coding at the age of 20, and here kids are doing it much faster and better than us.

That also gave a new learning for the parents. Kids are the ideal age to learn whatever they want to learn. The inhibitions, if any, are in the minds and hearts of the parents, who may assume that their kids can’t do it.

That also gave a new learning for the parents. Kids are the ideal age to learn whatever they want to learn. The inhibitions, if any, are in the minds and hearts of the parents, who may assume that their kids can’t do it. What do I mean? Ask all those parents whose children went for the coding classes if they believed that their kids could learn the subject? I am pretty sure there would be a high number of skeptics, as much as myself. But my daughter absolutely loved coding, and she would be doing the next course too. How’s that for a new vision of education in India?

What Does All this Mean? | Home Education

We are practically witnessing a new age and new idea of home education. The traditional concept of home education that we have understood from other countries rallies around the need for education at home in the absence of an established system to educate children. This, too, is true in parts over here in India.

Then there is home education which is required because the children are learning too fast for the education system to keep pace. These are children that we would normally classify as “prodigies”. And the last is home education that children with special needs would warrant.

Who would have thought that one day we would classify physical in-person education as brick-and-mortar schooling?

These are largely the three situations that would warrant home education. But the fourth one, driven largely by the pandemic, is reaching children faster than the traditional brick-and-mortar school. Who would have thought that one day we would classify physical in-person education as brick-and-mortar schooling? Times change. Sometimes we bring about the change, and sometimes it would be the times imposing the change. Either way, we humans comply.

Let us understand home education under the ambit of online innovative courses.

Home Education the Online Way!

Now, one thing we have to admit, education going online has made it cheaper for students. Not only cheaper but made it available. What I mean by available? The penetration of the education system in India still leaves a lot lacking but guess what? The penetration of smartphones is a lot better than the brick-and-mortar education system.

Now, combine the two and we get schools that could reach students through their mobile phones. These mobiles have decent internet speed. That’s the online revolution of homeschooling in India!

But what about the cost. Surely, the cost of education could be one of the prohibitive factors for many. No, not really. You see, I stay in Mumbai, one of the costliest metros in India, yet the subscription cost for various education modules is more than affordable.

Let’s take an example. As I mentioned before, my daughter is doing a course in mobile application development. This is a course for three months or 36 live online sessions of one hour each. The charges are just INR 20,000. That would be US $285 for the entire course. Now find me a college or physical school where we will find a similar course at a lesser cost. That’s definitely going to be challenging.

But wait, $285 may sound not much, but is it affordable to all in India. Good point, the course may be too much for our society where a family comes from a lesser economic background. What happens then? Well, here is the tie-breaker. The pricing is not a one-fit-serve-all kind. What I mean is, the teacher who is teaching my daughter is from Gujarat. Now, that means that the online company is able to get a teacher from a place where the cost of living is lesser, and hence that teacher’s salary would be lesser. This also means that the company's net earnings (or profit) are going to be larger. So, the company has to do only three things to reach the masses. Identify target student communities, figure out the pricing, find teachers from around that community at that standard-of-living and hence price the module in a more reasonable range. Does that make sense? It does, right? Not only are these the parameters, but the profit is also another lever that the company can use to make things manageable for different economic strata of society. Remember, we are talking about India. There are a lot of kids in this country. 😊

Taking the previous point, we can extrapolate the variance of the cost of the course as follows. If we take $285 or, let’s say $350 as the absolute maximum for the mobile application development course, then on the lower side, the same course could be worth $100 or lesser. Can you imagine that? An app development course for kids in less than US $100. Phew! Now, that’s new-age home education!

And all these that I spoke so far are “Live” courses being conducted by teachers on a one-to-one session. Imagine how cheap it would be to do recorded sessions! 😊

This Is Great! | But What About Cost of Living in Mumbai?

The concept of online education nullifies the need to be in a specific location for learning. You can be anywhere and still be able to access your course with utmost ease. But, for the sake of argument and a better understanding of the economic needs at any location, we will look at the cost of living.

 

Talking about any location, we would first talk about food, clothing, and shelter. Thereafter, we would think about movement, which is transportation, and interaction, which is communication in the form of phones. These five aspects should give a rough idea of the cost of living.

Let’s take each one by one.

Food

It is said that Mumbai, despite being a metro and the financial capital of India, is a great representation of the economic divide that is visible across the country. Both aspiring earners and the super-rich live in the same city. And we are talking about the super-rich who are in the top 10 on Forbes billionaires list. Go check for yourself, Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Industries. He is from Mumbai.

Alright, now let’s come to the food. The city is home to the humble vada-pav that is a potato patty version of a burger. It cost just INR 10 for one vada-pav. And two to three should suffice for one meal. That means in INR 30, I can have a good one-time meal. INR 30 translates to just above US $0.4. That’s cheap, and there are cheaper, tastier alternatives too. On the other side of the spectrum, we have all the five-star hotels and gourmet restaurants across the city. You can splurge as much as you want. So, yes, starting at $0.4, you can manage to eat well.

Clothing

Again, on one end, you have dress material and quality which meets the need of the masses, and at the other side of the spectrum, we have the Louis Vuitton and Guccis of the world.

Now decent pants can be bought for INR 500 in outlets like Max. This would translate to roughly US $7.1. If we look at standalone stores in local outlets, it could be even cheaper. Also, if we are looking at T-shirts in Max, it could be anywhere between INR 299 – INR 599, which translates to US $4 – US $8. Not too much, right? And guess what, you can get it still cheaper if you go to standalone stores in certain localities.

Shelter

Well, Mumbai is home to a 70 odd floor, US $2 billion home, of Mukesh Ambani. That is one side of the spectrum. Coming to the other end, we realize that not everyone is here to buy a house. Most are here to live and earn. So, obviously, they are looking to rent out apartments.

 

Let’s admit it - whatever you do, you cannot undo the fact that Mumbai has one of India's costliest real estates. Also, it is one of the costliest top 20 cities around the world. So, how does an immigrant (domestic immigrant) stay here and work? That’s by pooling a house. Yes, people don’t rent a house alone. They usually pool in. So, a humble 200 square feet apartment that would rent out for INR 6,500 could be having four occupants, each paying an equal amount. That would be a per head rent of INR 1,625 per month. In USD, it is $23 odd per month. And guess what, there are way cheaper houses for rent also. So, you can stay in a US $2 billion house or US $23 per month house. That’s the wide variation.

Movement

Transportation would be one of the cheapest in the world. You can decide to travel by local trains, rickshaws (tuk-tuks and shared tuk-tuks), taxis (OLA-UBER), shared bikes (newest concept over here), or public and private buses. That’s a wide option to choose from, and the trains are the cheapest. Coming FY 2022-23, we will also have the Mumbai Metro cutting across the city. We do have one phase of Mumbai Metro and Mumbai Monorail already operational. So, yes, plenty of options.

 

Just to give you an idea of the cheapest travel option – the train - you can travel thirty kilometers by train for just INR 20. That would be US $0.2. Get that. Of course, on the other side of the spectrum, we have Maybachs, Phantoms, Bentleys, and Sportscars. So a wide spectrum indeed! 😊

Communication

Okay, this is one of the ways by which education, the main point of our discussion, can reach students. So, let’s understand the cost a bit better. There are two costs – the device cost (phone) and service cost (internet and/or call carrier). So, let’s look at the pricing for both.

The cheapest smartphone comes to around INR 4000. That is about US $35. So, you can get a smartphone which can allow you to browse the internet. Now, the services are available in the monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription model. A data service guaranteeing you 4G speed for 2 GB per day is available from service providers at INR 249 or US $3 per month.

So, you can get started with communication at US $38 and expect a recurring cost of US $3 every month. That’s how cheap the data cost is. The good part about this is that the data cost is the same for the other end of the spectrum. Muahhhhahaha… of course, the cost of the device can be in crores. You know, the diamond-studded phones. Yeah, that’s what I am talking about it. 😊

So, that’s It!

With that, we conclude our discussion on home education and how the meaning has changed since 2020. Will it be any different once the pandemic is over and people start physical travel and schooling? We don’t know. But I suspect that homeschooling, the online way, is here to stay. At least for extra-curricular. As you can see, it is quite a cost-effective option even in one of the costliest metro in India.

So, yeah, all’s well with education!! 😊

 

Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons || Pixabay