Amazon on Wednesday launched the Amazon Academy, a service that will aim to help students in India prepare for entry into the nation's prestigious engineering colleges. The American company is the latest addition to this market where dozens of startups and institutes have launched digital offerings in recent years.
The e-commerce giant, which has invested more than $ 6.5 billion in the world's second largest internet market, said Amazon Academy offers curated teaching materials, live lectures, fictional tests, and comprehensive assessments to help students. to learn and practice math, physics and chemistry, and prepare for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), a government-supported engineering entrance assessment conducted in India for admission to various engineering colleges in the country. About two million students take the JEE test every year.
The tests offered on Amazon Academy are "designed to mirror the JEE experience by helping students understand the nuances of the exam. Students will also benefit from shortcuts, mnemonics, tips and tricks, equipping them with the tools they need to retain concepts and solve questions effectively, "the company said in a press release.
Amazon began testing Amazon Academy, formerly known as JEE Ready, in India in mid-2019. Amazon Academy, available via its website and as an app for Android and iOS, is free and will remain so for "the next few months". the company said.
More than 260 million children go to school in India, and much of the population sees education as a key to economic progress and a better life. ProWellTech reported last month that Amazon was also looking to hire executives in India to launch Amazon Future Engineer, a program through which it aims to bring computer education to underserved and underrepresented children and young adults in India later this year.
"Amazon Academy aims to provide high-quality, affordable education for everyone, starting with those preparing for engineering entrance exams. Our mission is to help students achieve their achievements while enabling educators and content partners to reach millions of students. Our main focus was on content quality, deep learning analytics and student experience. This launch will help aspiring engineers better prepare and gain the winning edge in JEE, "said Amol Gurwara, Director, Education at Amazon India, in a statement.
Global rivals Amazon, Facebook and Google, have also been lobbying the Indian education market in recent years. Last year, Facebook partnered with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), a government agency that oversees education in private and public schools in India, to launch a certified curriculum on digital security and online wellness and reality. augmented for students and educators.
Facebook has also invested in Unacademy, a Bangalore-based startup that offers online learning courses. Google, which has invested in the Indian edtech startup Cuemath, has also partnered with CBSE to train more than 1 million teachers in India and offer a range of free tools like G Suite for Education, Google Classroom, and YouTube to help digitize education. educational experience in the nation.
India's top edtech startups - Byju's, Unacademy and Vedantu - also offer lectures to students to prepare for the JEE test. Last year, these startups placed tens of millions of students on their platforms after the coronavirus outbreak prompted New Delhi to close schools nationwide. Byju, which became the world's most valuable edtech startup last year, is in talks to purchase Aakash Educational Services Aakash Educational Services, which owns and operates more than 200 physical tutoring centers across the country targeting students preparing to qualify for high-level engineering and medical universities, for $ 1 billion, Bloomberg reported this week.
