Education inequality has eaten deep into the Asia Pacific that, when a student from a rural background gets admitted to an elite University, it makes the news.
It is not so for the wealthy and middle class rated students in the Asia Pacific. Yet, the quality of educational resources available to the wealthy class is also different from middle-class students – a situation that still emphasizes education inequality.
Two approaches that present promising solutions to education inequality are making available information access and the whole digitalization of education.
Solutions for education inequality
Some studies hold the opinion that rural regions in the Asia Pacific do not have access to information about educational opportunities, both international and local.
Even when the students do have access to the data, they are not easy to navigate through.
The study calls for a centralized clearinghouse of information and resources.
Edukasyon portal
The Edukasyon portal collects information about local and foreign schools and collates them into their portal, where students can easily access and inquire for more details as needed.
Over 500,000 students presently visit the portal for information, thereby confirming that the information gap is a significant contributor to education inequality in the Asia Pacific.
A second approach to reduce education inequality is the development of a completely digitized education platform. This approach suits the educational needs of diverse students, like those who lack time to attend school, those who reside in rural areas such that commuting is a significant challenge. Also, students who have special learning needs like visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners.
Topica EdTech Group
The Topica EdTech Group originated in Vietnam and is currently adopted in Thailand, Indonesia, and other markets in Southeast Asia. the EdTech group provides short skill courses, degree courses through a reality app such that students obtain degree courses without being obstructed by their living situations.
With EdTech, going to college and earning a degree is now simplified for students. Thus, making education much more inclusive.
Ed-tech competitor
EdTech is relatively new in Asia and yet to adequately gain workforce. Its competitor, Tenopy, is already employing the latest cutting-edge technology and has raised over $1.5 million from venture capitalists in Singapore, China, and Japan.
Founded in 2017, Tenopy engages students in a live online teaching platform. With the latest technology, the platform can provide learning resources to meet different types of learners – visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners.
The mixture of learning tools makes it possible for students to engage and retain information. The Tenopy company’s in-house algorithms track data and help personalize the learning experience of students further. Tutors receive this data, enabling them to customize their lessons to the individual learning needs of each student.
Tenopy has successfully engaged 1,500 students who have collectively taken 3500 courses. This success by Tenopy shows that technology could be used to bridge the education inequality experienced worldwide.
This is a clear call for more sophisticated tech solutions to better cater to the varying needs of students across Asia and the world at large. Such technologies could include artificial intelligence and blockchain.
The challenge with EdTech is that the platform attracts more education-oriented professionals than technologists, the reason being that they gravitate toward other fields, such as more general consumer-facing industries such as ride-hailing, fin-tech, or e-commerce.
