Today, the TechGraph editorial team sat down withAarul Malaviya, Founder of Zamit to understand how the company’s unique tech-based services and ai-oriented approach have positioned Zamit to be an integral part of India’s edtech growth story, and how it is catering to the changing needs of students, teachers, and schools.
Read the complete interview:
TechGraph: What specific features and benefits does Zamit provide to schools and students that set it apart from other edtech solutions in the market?
Aarul Malaviya: Unlike the typical and run-of-the-mill edtech solutions providers that mainly serve as a facilitator for bridging the physical distance between instructors and learners apart from offering regular curriculum-based courses or ERP solutions to schools, Zamit is an AI-enabled educational service provider that aims to transform the entire school ecosystem in the way that it works today. With its deeply-researched, adaptive, automated, tech-driven, and ML-based Zamit Quotient or ZQ – the world’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven, measurable future readiness indexing system – it aims to make students, teachers, and schools truly future-ready.
For students, apart from offering ZQ-derived 360° Holistic Progress Report Card, Zamit also provides a range of other services including portfolio-building, counseling, GETS (world’s first English language assessment based on modern Content and Language Integrated Learning or CLIL concept), internship programs and an assortment of championships and scholarships, etc.
Importantly, all of its products and services are mapped to the National Education Policy or NEP 2020 of the Indian government. And for schools, in addition to the ZQ assessment system, the company offers an online platform for teaching and examining. It also offers Teacher development and teaching resources, Safe recruitment solutions, Zamit Marketplace, News and Webinars, Curated stories and videos, Ambassadors’ programs, Listings and promotions, and Conclaves and awards.
TechGraph: How does Zamit’s Edtech solution cater to different types of learners, including those with special needs?
Aarul Malaviya: As an AI-driven indexing system that accounts for more than 85 skills subsumed under nine broad dimensions, ZQ has proven to be a highly-individualized assessment tool. From the smartest of the lot to mediocre students to those with special needs, its micro-level analysis and forecasting can cater to the needs of all types of students. Whatever level of skills, attitudes, traits, and competencies a student is at a point in time, ZQ can give a perfect and highly nuanced report card for his future.
TechGraph: How does Zamit ensure that its edtech solution is accessible and affordable for students and schools from diverse socio-economic backgrounds?
Aarul Malaviya: Zamit understands that socio-economic backgrounds often are one of the biggest hurdles in a student’s journey towards building a successful career for himself. And with Edtech solutions forming an integral part of modern educational services, a student should not be disadvantaged today due to a lack of finances or awareness, or even social support. Keeping all this in mind, the company not only offers a wide range of scholarships from time to time but also conducts webinars and other related events to generate awareness as well as mobilize social and familial support for students and their aspirations.
In recent times, Zamit in partnership with The Future Foundation, a non-profit, announced a research grant of INR one million for schools and school students in India. Zamit is also announcing an internship program for secondary school students this summer.
TechGraph: How does Zamit’s Edtech solution support teachers and personalize learning for their students?
Aarul Malaviya: Just like students and schools, Zamit has a wide portfolio of services aimed at helping teachers ‘self-realize’ themselves fully both professionally and personally. Its flagship Teaching Excellence and Relevance Management or TERM Analysis is a first-of-its-kind research-based AI-driven analytical tool that helps teachers analyze their current teaching proficiencies and map future potentialities.
Aggregating over 85 teaching, coaching, and mentoring skill parameters, all clubbed under Zamit’s Nine Dimensions for Teachers, TERM is a comprehensive analytical tool. It paves the way for a well-defined personalized way forward for an individual teacher’s professional development.
The ZQ nine dimensions for teachers include Creativity in classroom teaching, Employability skills for career growth, Professionalism in teaching and management, New and Innovative teaching methodologies, Communication skills in and outside of the classroom, Digital Literacy to enable the use of technology in teaching, Mentoring skills to better support students, Emotional Competencies to be able to deal with different situations and Professional Profile to showcase the teacher’s achievements.
Using TERM and armed with a Zamit Quotient (ZQ) score for each of the nine dimensions along with a detailed personalized report – that serves as a benchmark analysis – a teacher can chart out his entire professional development journey and stay attuned to the needs and best practices essential to 21st-century teaching.
In addition to the well-designed and curated Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programs, Zamit also offers periodic engagement programs such as webinars and symposia that help serving teachers update themselves on the latest pedagogy, curricula, best practices, etc. Notably, Zamit also offers to create a dynamic professional profile for teachers that can be used for periodic appraisals and for monitoring their commitment to CPD. This is a prerequisite recommended by the NEP 2020.
TechGraph: How do you see the edtech market evolving in the next few years, and what role will Zamit play?
Aarul Malaviya: As the evolving technologies and platforms are continuously recasting the educational and career landscape worldwide, India is not indifferent to these trends Indeed, it has emerged as the world’s second-largest e-learning market after the US and is expected to grow to $10 billion and 37 million paid edtech users within the next two years.
With its unique and tech-based service propositions and futuristic outlook, there is no doubt that Zamit will prove to be an integral part of the Indian edtech growth story powering the new-age Indian educational sector ahead.
TechGraph: What are the most significant challenges schools and students face in adopting Edtech solutions, and how does Zamit address these challenges?
Aarul Malaviya: Apart from resource constraints, most schools and students find the tech-driven transition particularly challenging from the standpoint of acceptability, adaptability, and proficiency. Of course, there is some resistance stemming from cultural and habitual points of view; therefore changing people’s mindsets including that of teachers and students is a challenge, particularly in the less exposed remote areas and the hinterland. And for those who are willing to make the transition, besides the paucity of funds and therefore lack of suitable gadgets and equipment, the initial phase-transition doubts and insecurities can become a stumbling block.
The bring-your-own-device or BYOD practice also raises ethical concerns about sharpening the digital divide among students, schools, and communities. While Zamit addresses the resource constraints challenge by way of making its offerings available in the market at fairly competitive rates, it addresses the early-phase anxieties by convincingly demonstrating examples of successful cases wherein school and student clients had benefited tremendously from Zamit’s service offerings.
TechGraph: In your opinion, what are the key trends and challenges in the edtech market, and how is Zamit addressing these issues?
Aarul Malaviya: Even as new educational technologies and platforms are emerging regularly, most of the educational curricula have broadly been limited in terms of their adequacy and relevance vis-à-vis the needs of the so-called fourth industrial revolution-engendered job market demands. As a result, although students finish their regular coursework and degrees, they are ill-equipped to perform satisfactorily in a real workplace, as pointed out by repeated surveys.
Due to the traditional lack of focus on teaching quality, this further worsens both the industry and the student community. For its part, the edtech industry is facing a slew of challenges such as choosing the right revenue model, especially given the prevailing ‘phygital’ delivery models, improving user activation rates, managing retention rates, and data collection and security, etc.
Where Zamit stands out is that apart from bringing to market its proprietary first-of-its-kind AI-based assessment systems for making students, teachers, and even schools future-ready thereby fulfilling in a way the needs of the fourth industrial revolution-induced economic models, it is also set to emerge as a major consolidator of services, products and activities that include the largest database for searching, comparing, rating and reviewing, counseling, video teaching, online examining and teacher training, etc. In other words, it has emerged as a one-stop solution provider for all school education-related services with no peer competitors in sight, as of now.
TechGraph: How does Zamit plan to continue innovating and improving its edtech solution to meet the changing needs of schools and students in the future?
Aarul Malaviya: As its products are largely AI-based and adaptive, with more users and data, Zamit will continuously fine-tune its algorithms (ML) which measure ZQ (future-readiness skills and attitudes), and upgrade and improvise on the assessments for the English language. The company is also constantly looking to develop cutting-edge and innovative offerings to support students and teachers on their journey to future readiness.