A boom in learning apps during pandemic but greater challenges lay ahead

After a tough year of switching between learning at home and in-person schooling, many students, teachers and their families have grown weary of pandemic learning. But companies that market digital learning tools to schools are enjoying a coronavirus jackpot.

Venture and equity financing for education technology start-ups has more than doubled, surging to US$12.58 billion worldwide last year from US$4.81 billion in 2019, according to a report from CB Insights, a firm that tracks start-ups and venture capital.

But as more districts reopen for in-person instruction, the billions of dollars that schools and venture capitalists have sunk into education technology are about to get tested. Some remote learning services, like videoconferencing, may see their student audiences plummet.

Yet even if the ed-tech market contracts, industry executives say there is no turning back. The pandemic has accelerated the spread of laptops and learning apps in schools, they say, normalizing digital education tools for millions of teachers, students and their families.

Tech evangelists have long predicted that computers would transform education. The future of learning, many promised, involved apps powered by artificial intelligence that would adjust lessons to children’s abilities faster and more precisely than their human teachers ever could.

During the pandemic, many schools simply turned to digital tools like videoconferencing to transfer traditional practices and schedules online. Critics say that push to replicate the school day for remote students has only exacerbated disparities for many children facing pandemic challenges at home.

Apps that enable online interactions between teachers and students are reporting extraordinary growth, and investors have followed.

Among the biggest deals, CB Insights said: Zuoyebang, a Chinese ed-tech giant that offers live online lessons and homework help for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, raised a total of $2.35 billion last year from investors including Alibaba and Sequoia Capital China.

But whether tools that teachers have come to rely on for remote learning can maintain their popularity will hinge on how useful the apps are in the classroom.

The future in education is less clear for enterprise services, like Zoom, that were designed for business use and adopted by schools out of pandemic necessity.

Visit www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/technology/learning-apps-students.html to read more

Celebrating Anniversary amid Pandemic

This year, 31 Boulevards is celebrating ten years in business.

31 Boulevards began as a distributor for Cambridge University Press in 2011, and subsequently played a consultancy role for Cambridge Assessment English. 31 Boulevards and Cambridge Assessment English jointly went on to realize a unique opportunity in the HK market for an integrated solution that could help parents and schools to adopt Cambridge English as an effective tool to improve English learning for primary and secondary school students.

The company then moved forward, sought to become even more versatile and started to assist the International Baccalaureate Organization to achieve their mission of creating a better world through promotion of high-quality international education to governments, organizations and schools in the region.

And from 2014, the business further diversified to include sending of students and teachers to summer schools and teacher trainings in the UK, USA and Canada, with an objective to transform and connect people and ideas around the world.

Everything went very smoothly until 2020 when the world faced an unprecedented global health crisis. We could never have imagined that the dreadful pandemic would eventually turn out to be a blessing in disguise, nurturing an exceptional opportunity which would otherwise had not been possible for 31 Boulevards.

During this period, demand for authentic online courses soared as face-to-face teaching became highly unpredictable due to all kinds of restrictions and rules. The pandemic at the same time ushered in an era of digital communication where everyone has come to feel comfortable working/learning from home and meeting each other over the internet. Geographic distances between countries all of a sudden evaporated when video communication became reliably strong.

We witnessed and embraced this abrupt change and put together partnerships from both HK and the UK, and developed Discover Life in the UK, an online programme designed especially for children whose families want to learn more about the UK. The programme incorporates knowledge of the UK, everyday English, and key skills needed by schools, aimed at helping children to integrate into the new culture as early as possible.

For more details, please visit:

- https://discovery365.online/

- https://eshop.ohpama.com/pages/discovery365

- https://www.eclass.com.hk/2021/02/discover-life-in-the-uk/

However difficult life might seem at present, this too shall pass. 31 Boulevards will continue to act as a change agent and help our stakeholders to transform through learning and knowledge.

We are looking forward to celebrating many more such anniversaries together.

Thank you.

British independent schools sprouting all over Southern China

According to a report from a popular education consultancy, the southern province of Guangdong has seen a surge in education investment as part of the government’s plans for developing the Greater Bay Area encompassing the cities around the Pearl River Delta as well as Hong Kong and Macau. China’s southern coastal provinces, especially Guangdong, are fertile grounds for British independent school brands. Of those that plan to open in the next two years, 47% are in Guangdong and 51% of the companies that are partnered with British independent schools are headquartered in the Greater Bay Area. This trend is expected to expand to other southern provinces such as Sichuan, Fujian and the island of Hainan. However, British independent schools are in a complicated position. They have to walk a tightrope when it comes to following government regulations and capitalizing on the surge in interest from Chinese companies that want to partner them. Local authorities have put a greater focus on ensuring Chinese students aged between 6 and 15 cover the basic national curriculum, while there has also been a growth in local customs and values ingrained into schools’ cultures and routines, such as morning flag raising. Apprehension over sending children overseas for their education has also created new demand in cases where the children of Chinese parents hold foreign passports as families are nervous about sending their children to study far away from home. They can’t send them to normal school or have not wanted to because of the very difficult situations in both the UK and the US. That is why there has been a demand for international schools located in China. While some smaller schools have struggled to switch to online, which resulted in parents refusing to pay fees, one of the biggest issues faced by schools remains staffing. For more details, go to https://thepienews.com/news/china-intl-schools/