As a child, some of us would remember a few popular tutors in the vicinity that parents and students would flock to. It was usually through word of mouth, and most of us thought those were the limited options to pick from. But the web world along with tech tools has broadened the horizon. Genextstudents.com is a hybrid tutoring that combines physical tutoring and technology aided learning. It helps parents and students search and connect with a tutor as per their requirements in their vicinity. What sets it apart in the ed-tech space is the end-to-end solution it offers and deep learning technologies such as analytics and artificial intelligence to ensure one gets the right teacher, and further tools to help students excel. It is founded by Ali Asgar Kagzi and Asad Daud, both have a Masters degree from London School of Economics, London, UK. Now, a team of 12, Kagzi says it’s a unique combination of young, highly educated and passionate individuals. He tells us that in the past ten weeks the startup has already completed more than 2000 hours of tutoring and expects larger growth with start of the new academic year. Their proprietary technology platform uses artificial intelligence to find the best tutor for the parent, the parent can set up a demo online, and all other admin activities are also conducted using our tech platform (as discussed above like attendance, testing etc.). “For students, along with the provision to connect with tutors, we also provide comprehensive digital content for adaptive learning. This content consists of study notes, solutions to text book question, sample question papers, past year board exam papers, video lessons and question & answer forum along with very comprehensive and chapter wise assessment modules,” co-founder Ali Asgar Kagzi tells us. There’s in-depth analytics (performance analysis tools) to track and analyse student’s study progress and their performance. The analytics tools offer students strong and weak areas in a particular subject, subject-wise and chapter-wise scores and performance status, historical performances, top performers for that particular class ( or subject or chapter), and more. The startup has built tools to empower tutors too. It has built a platform that will enable teachers gets discovered easily and has a separate app for teachers to take care of their admin work and help them focus completely on the core responsibility of teaching. “These tools include – student and batch management system, attendance tracking system, tutor language proficiency testing module, test generators, student progress tracker, parent messaging and communication system and student doubt clearing forum,” Kagzi added. Currently, it caters to school students of classes 1-12 for CBSE, ICSE, SSC (Maharashtra), Rajasthan and UP Boards. “The content for Rajasthan and UP Board is in Hindi language and we are the first ed-tech company to have structured content in Hindi language,” he said. It recently launched the home tutor connect services available only for Mumbai, but plans on expanding to other states soon. The startup plans to add content for vernacular languages too as there are less resources available for them. “There are several players which are either focusing on very good content or listing of tutors. However, no one is providing the end-to-end combination of services that we offer,” he said. The startup makes money through tutor connect wherein a student connects with a tutor for tutoring services and the payment is made by the student (parent) on the platform. The startup then passes on the tutor’s share to the tutor. And, also through subscription to digital content on web or mobile app. The entire package for a class is available for Rs. 3900 per year and there are smaller offerings starting at as low as Rs 30 too. But awareness in the ed-tech sector is one of the biggest challenges. “We are undertaking several online and offline marketing activities to reach out to our target customers. In addition, we are creating lot of strategic partnerships and will leverage our existing partnerships to reach out to a large consumer base, “he explained.
Armed with a Bachelor of Electronics Engineering degree, it is writing where Naina finds her calling. She has got her finger on the pulse of what's new and trending in the world of technology, right from gadgets to innovations. When she isn't hammering away on her keyboard, she is busy looking for figurines to add to her growing collection of Kinder toys. It doesn't get more diverse than that.