Fermat Education - Introduction

This blog has been created with a view to publishing relevant articles on the education sector in India. In the period from 2006-2010, education has become the "hot" sector in India and everyone seems to have an opinion on the direction this sector will/should take over the next few years.

The top down indicators are straightforward - India has huge middle class, which will only get bigger; and will only end up spending more and more on education. Depending on your source, you can different large numbers to support this core hypothesis. And with global money-printing close to an all-time high, we are seeing investments rushing into this sector. On this blog, we will not be focusing on the money flowing into this business, neither will we be focusing on the top down analysis of market sizing. We will discuss the different models that are coming up in this space and try to give our views on this.

Although we will try to be as objective as possible in running this blog, it is probably best to mention the institutions to which we are linked. In some form or other Fermat Education (the blog), is linked to 4GMAT, TopGRE, AIEEE.BE and Ascent Education. Kindly bear this in mind in order to filter out our biases.

As far as the education sector in India goes,
1. It is very likely that the market has not yet hit upon the right model to reach out and provide education to Indians of all stripes. In our view, the various models that are out there currently each carry some fairly big flaws that need to be ironed out if we have to have a breakthrough
2. Technology, as it stands now, will be an enabler to provide some supplement to the prime education channels. Current technology cannot create a substitute for traditional delivery models
3. Education is essentially a non-linear market. (This is linked to point 2) and all new models have to keep this in mind when planning their expansion.

More to follow. I forgot that this was meant to be merely an introductory piece.