Indian Actor Vivek Anand Oberoi backed EdTech Brand, iScholar poised to create glocal education support for UAE based IIT Aspirants

In the first landmark step towards capitalising the huge potential towards a robust and resilient bilateral partnership that opens the doors to a plethora of markets across the globe, India and UAE have signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. It is estimated that the trade opportunity will grow to about 100 billion dollars on the back of Openness, Opportunity and Growth.

Under the trade pact, it was agreed that the UAE will be home to the first-ever Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus outside India. This step to establish world-class institutions that encourage and support innovation and technological progress, will enable and empower global aspirants towards being ready with international levels of education. 

Among well-known brands that offer additional tutoring for global students, iScholar, an EdTech start-up backed by Indian actor Vivek Oberoi, is best poised to offer students with its phygital model. It leverages the advantages of traditional physical model as well as modern tech advancements, to bring the benefits of its extraordinary talent pool of teachers and instructors to students through a one-on-one interactive engagement that outlines a single teacher’s focus only to 30 students. 

iScholar Knowledge Services Pvt. Ltd. was born with a single mission to connect high-quality teachers with students wherever they are, and impart excellent education using internet based interactive tele-education platforms. It is an initiative of national importance by highly qualified and skilled teams of educationists, technologists, and professionals with decades of experience in India and abroad to bring the need of the hour changes in the Indian education system, and introduce 21st century education to our children to transform them to be globally competitive. 

This model by iScholar has already enabled more than 1,00,000 students despite situations like the lockdown, with social distancing successfully proving its phygital design. Its brand of classes, i30, is the holding company’s USP – offering an exclusive 1:30 teacher-student one-on-one collaborative exchange of knowledge. The success of the iScholar model comes at a time when both the UAE and Indian Government are focused and aligned on mutual growth as well as on growth through education. For instance, under India’s NEP, which has a dual focus approach covering both national and international, several countries including the UAE have expressed interest in replicating these models - ‘vocal for local’ and local for global. 

In this manner, UAE will find the model of phygital extremely useful in increasing the penetration of their education systems. Additionally, their expertise in multi-curriculum applications within their local environment will enable Indian students to understand and learn from global expertise. iScholar brings to the table the best of both worlds - high quality teachers, tech advancements with access to traditional physical classes, and alignment of focus towards empowering education.

In his Vision 2021, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, announced eight pillars of development:

1. To be among the top 20 countries with the highest performance in the International Student Assessment  Programme

2. To be among the top 15 countries with the highest performance in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study

3. To ensure that all schools in UAE have high quality teachers;

5. To ensure that 90 per cent of students in the ninth grade of public and private schools have a high proficiency in Arabic

6. To increase the highschool graduation rate to 98%

7. To provide early years education to 95% of children aged between four and five through public and private preschool provisions

8. To eliminate the need for Emirati students to complete a foundation course to qualify for university entry

The curriculum will be based on building critical thinking skills, developing innovation and teamwork among students, and using information technology in problem-solving. The ability for iScholar to leverage this model on the back of both  technological advancements as well as physical support systems takes the glocal story into the heart of India. On the heel of its 100th centre launch in India within just two years of inception, this growth story will add impetus to the synergies and the direction between the two countries as being paramount and education being the common goal for a future ready country with much to learn from each other.