Is Singapore the next frontier for edtech?

Photo credit: Nicola Sap De Mitri

The future of Singapore means a vibrant and resilient economy filled with new growth sectors, corporate innovations and jobs, and skills for the future. Getting citizens skills-ready is more crucial than ever before to realize the first ever Smart Nation vision.

Education is a starting point in preparing for the economy of the future, yet more work needs to be done in the sector to meet changing needs.

Fortunately, as innovative technology creates waves across various sectors globally, the topic of education technology (edtech) to enable tailored and personalized learning is gaining mass awareness.

Asia is seen as the next frontier in edtech. The industry is projected to grow by 8 percent to US$252 billion by 2020 in the global market.

Asia as the next frontier

One reason for edtech’s success in Asia can be attributed to culture. According to the 2016 Global EdTech Report, the commitment to education is strong in this region and is reflected by the increasing amounts spent on securing quality education. The report revealed that in 2012, the percentage of family income spent on education was 13 times more than what was spent in 1985.

A majority of Singaporean parents are even willing to go into debt to fund their children’s education.

On the professional front, there is also a shift towards vocational training for unique skills that match specific industries. In 2016, the importance of education and the strong appetite to spend for it is still present.

The 2016 HSBC survey shows that a majority of Singaporean parents are even willing to go into debt to fund their children’s education.

Another contributing factor is mobile proliferation. Many Asian markets are mobile-first and this offers unique opportunities for educational learning, which includes gaming and adaptive learning.

Taking advantage of this window of opportunity, more startups are dabbling in the education space in Bash (Build Amazing Startups Here)–Singapore’s largest integrated startup space.

Examples of local edtech startups that graduated from Bash’s accelerator programs include: Miao, Imagin8ors, and Snapask

The building blocks of edtech in Singapore

Shifting from textbook learning

However, to embrace innovation in this space and truly benefit from it, there has to be an attitude shift towards the cultivation of adaptive learning.