Why are edtech firms opening coaching centres?

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Editor's note: Edtech was supposed to democratize education. It was supposed to be the alternative to the expensive and bloated tuition and coaching centres. Edtech companies were supposed to use technology to go remote, change pedagogy, make learning holistic and fun and take education out of the confines of four walls and make it accessible to all. And startups raised billions of dollars to fulfil that dream. According to data from Venture Intelligence, edtech companies have raised nearly $9 billion in venture capital since 2016. This money was supposed to help startups create digital platforms to cut the clutter of physical education infrastructure, so that everyone could have access to quality education. But the unthinkable has just happened. Startups are now saying that online education can go only so far. After that, we need physical coaching centres. In the last six months, every company worth its salt in the K12 (short for kindergarten through class 12) and test-prep segments has either started coaching centres or indicated it would do so in the future. The companies that once wanted to kill coaching centres …