The bait and hook of EdTech

India’s EdTech sector, among the fastest growing in the world, is sending families into debt with promises it cannot keep

Alisha*, a mother of two, married to a taxi driver, believed educating and skilling her children would help the family escape the cramped chawls of Mumbai. Over the Diwali break in 2021, an advertisement for a three-day coding boot camp, organised by Lido Learning, an EdTech company, was posted on her school messaging group. She grabbed the chance and enrolled her Class IX son.

Four days later, Lido representatives came home with a pitch. “They said my son had a bright future. But to achieve his potential, he had to enrol in a three-year course,” says Alisha. The three-year course in Physics, Maths and coding would cost ₹25,000 annually: nearly twice the yearly school fees.

Alisha sought time. The salesperson gave them 10 minutes. As the clock ticked, the offer became more irresistible. “They offered an EMI option and full refund if we didn’t like the classes. The clincher was when they said my son would be given an internship at Microsoft at the end of three years. This was an opportunity people like us don’t get.”

The family borrowed a laptop and waited for the classes. The EMI repayment started, but the classes didn’t. The EdTech representatives had lost their jobs, and the company remained non-responsive.

Lido did not respond to queries from  Magazine.

Alisha’s story echoes in thousands of households across the country. Caught in the swirl of an EdTech boom, many families have been lured with false promises into vicious debt traps.

These concerns reached the Parliament in December when members sought regulation of ‘predatory practices’ by EdTech companies. The Ministry of Education issued an advisory warning parents against ‘blindly trusting edtech advertisements’, ‘taking out loans’ and to ‘understand edtech marketing strategies’. But EdTech is unstoppable: in India, the sector is among the fastest growing in the world, estimated to be growing at 39% annually. By 2025, over 37 million people are expected to enrol with digital learning platforms.