Unacademy announces programme to educate 5 lakh girl students in India

New Delhi: Online education startup Unacademy on Friday announced a new programme - Shikshodaya - that aims to educate five lakh girl students in the country. Unacademy, which is backed by investors like Tencent and SoftBank, said the initiative will transform the lives of 20 lakh people, as an employed woman is likely to have an impact on a family of 4-5 members.

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Educating a girl child not only impacts the individual but also her family and society, Unacademy Group co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal told reporters here.

"Unacademy's vision is to democratise high quality education for everyone irrespective of their demographics and economic status. With Shikshodaya, we want to enable some of that transformation and look forward to creating social impact on a large scale by empowering 5 lakh girl students," Munjal said.

Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, said edtech has the potential to provide innovative, cost-effective methods to transform education and can play a powerful role in achieving universal access to quality education for all children. "Shikshodaya will not only help the girls to get jobs but at the same time ensure that it empowers girls who have dropped out of education to earn their own livelihood," he added.

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Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education, emphasised that India is at the cusp of a massive digital transformation, with the Internet, digital learning platforms and mobile phones offering tremendous opportunities and giving women the possibility to earn additional income and increase their employment prospects.

"Women's literacy, participation in the workforce and financial inclusion are crucial components in the economic progress of a country and education is an integral pillar that contributes towards their empowerment," Pai added.

Founded by Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini in 2015, Bengaluru-based Unacademy specialises in test preparation for a wide array of competitive examinations including civil service, engineering and medical entrance and banking.

It has more than 60,000 educators and 7 lakh active subscribers, and offers courses in 14 Indian languages. In August, Unacademy had raised USD 440 million in funding, which valued it at USD 3.4 billion -- a ten-fold jump in 18 months. The company has raised USD 858 million in total.