It's all happening in the Indian ed-tech sector.
On a day when it emerged that India's leading online education portal Byju's was set to acquire entrance exam preparation centre Aakash Institute, Amazon India formally announced its entry into the sector.
Amazon has launched Amazon Academy, an online service to help students preparing for the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) for entrance to engineering colleges.
"The online preparation offering will equip students with in-depth knowledge and practice routines required for the JEE, through curated learning material, live lectures and comprehensive assessments in Math, Physics and Chemistry," the company said.
The beta version of Amazon Academy will be available free of cost on the web and the Google Play store.
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Live mock tests a highlight at Amazon Academy
The test preparation platform has been around for some time. But it is only today that Amazon has made a formal announcement on Amazon Academy.
It will offer students a range of JEE preparatory resources at launch, including specially crafted mock tests by industry experts, over 15,000 handpicked questions with hints and detailed step by step solutions for practice.
The mock tests include chapter tests, part tests, and full tests that simulate the JEE pattern, helping students manage exam preparedness at their own pace. Amazon Academy will also hold live All India Mock Tests (AIMT) at scheduled intervals, Amazon said in a press statement.
"Amazon Academy will help aspirants know where they stand with an All-India Rank for the respective mock test and assess their test performance through personalised reports highlighting chapter-wise time and strength analysis," the statement added.
No fee at Amazon Academy as of now
Aspirants will be able to gauge their progress and compare their performance with other JEE aspirants who have attempted the test in the same time slot on Amazon Academy. Students can track their progress over time, identify their strong and weak areas, and get detailed insights on the overall test-taking strategy.
Amol Gurwara, Director, Education at Amazon India, said, “Amazon Academy aims to bring high quality, affordable education to all, starting with those preparing for engineering entrance examinations. Our primary focus has been on content quality, deep learning analytics and student experience.”
In addition to the JEE, those preparing for BITSAT, VITEEE, SRMJEEE, and MET exams --- all top engineering institutes' entrance exams --- will also benefit from the quality content resources available.
The content is currently available for free and will continue to be for the next few months, Amazon said.
Boom time in Indian ed-tech sector
The ed-tech sector in India has over 4,400 startups. It is said to be the third in the world, behind the US and China. India also has Byju's which is one of the highly valued startups in the industry.
But the new ed-tech companies, sensing an opportunity for growth in these Covid-19 times, have been admittedly going overboard in trying to lure parents to enroll their children on their platforms. And we have had controversies like with WhiteHat Jr.
India's ed-tech market size is estimated to grow 3.7x over the next five years from the current levels of $2.8 billion to $10.4 billion, says a recent report. It suggests that ed-tech would go beyond supporting school curriculum and test preparation, to include skilling and learning management systems.
