Over the last few years, access to education in India has witnessed some improvement, with recent NSS data suggesting that about 95% of rural households have a primary and secondary school within a distance of 5 km. The survey also indicates that nearly 48% of youth in the 15–24 age group were engaged in formal and non-formal education. Despite these promising numbers, however, equity in and quality of education remain a significant challenge in India, further exacerbated during the pandemic, leading to learning loss and discontinued education.

As key stakeholders in the ever-evolving education landscape, BYJU’S launched its social impact initiative Education For All in 2020, in the thick of the pandemic, to mitigate the challenges of access to education and provide equal learning opportunities to children across India, irrespective of socioeconomic barriers.

Exceeding expectations

Since its launch, Education For All has been creating a positive impact in the lives of children from underserved backgrounds by bridging the gap between quality education and its access through tech-driven digital learning programs, free of charge. While its initial mission was to empower 5 million underprivileged children by 2025 and bring a positive systemic change to the education ecosystem, BYJU's Education for All was able to impact 3.4 lakh underprivileged children in the first year itself.

Witnessing the resounding success, BYJU’S revised the goal and is now on a mission to solve the trilemma of access and cost at scale for 10 million underprivileged students by the year 2025. So far, it has impacted 5.5 million children through 175+ NGO partners across 400 districts in India. Further, with every new paid user, BYJU’S aims to educate one new underprivileged student under EFA.

Creating a Lasting Impact 

Driven by the belief that every child, irrespective of their socio-economic background or geographical challenges, deserves the basic right to education, BYJU'S Education For All has launched several initiatives under its umbrella over the past three years.

In 2022, BYJU’S Education For All successfully partnered with several state governments and civic bodies to help empower and educate children in the respective states. Some notable milestones include Education For All’s collaboration with the Border Security Force (BSF), the Government of Delhi, the WCD Department of Chhattisgarh, Thane Municipal Corporation, the Changlang District in Arunachal Pradesh, and the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

With its strong network of NGOs, BYJU’S has been providing licenses to beneficiaries across remote locations. Devices and Android boxes loaded with BYJU’S premium learning content are being distributed to students free of charge through EFA’s partnerships with NGOs like the Adani Foundation, Rotary India Literacy Mission (RILM), Khaana Chahiye, Rural Development Trust, IN-DEED Foundation, Indian Cancer Society, SOS Children’s Villages, Smile Foundation, etc. In November 2022, BYJU’S Education For All took its mission global, announcing the onboarding of football superstar Lionel Messi as its Global Brand Ambassador.

Towards a digital future

Digital interventions in the field of education in India have enormous potential; the market for online education has quadrupled to $3 billion since 2019. KPMG determined that, after the United States, India is the second-largest market for online education. With conducive policies and initiatives of the Indian government, such as the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and over 5,000 EdTech start-ups across the learning life cycle, the current education environment is ripe for digital transformation. With Education For All, BYJU’S is taking one step forward in enabling this transformation and ensuring equitable access to quality learning for all.