Edtech: Revolution or Profiteering!

Introduction

Edtech—education technology—once held the promise of democratizing quality learning, bridging gaps between urban centers and rural hinterlands, and equipping India’s youth for a digital future. In 2020–2021, buoyed by COVID-19 school closures and remote learning imperatives, edtech valuations soared to multi-billion-dollar heights. Venture capital (VC) poured in, propelling startups like Byju’s, Unacademy, and Vedantu into the global spotlight. Yet beneath the veneer of innovation and “ed-utainment” lurk accounts of exorbitant fees, aggressive upselling, and toxic workplace cultures that exploit both customers and employees. Byju’s insolvency proceedings in mid-2025 exposed systemic shortcomings in governance, financial management, and ethical conduct—casting a harsh spotlight on the darker side of India’s edtech boom. This article unpacks how edtech, once heralded as a force for good, increasingly resembles a high-stakes game of profiteering, where vulnerable students, indebted parents, and overworked staff pay the price.

1. The Seduction of “Unlimited Learning” and Aggressive Sales Tactics

At its core, edtech markets itself as a panacea for India’s educational challenges—offering curated video lessons, AI-driven assessments, and adaptive learning modules. However, most platforms rely heavily on commission-driven sales teams mandated to close high-value “annual subscription” deals. According to an extensive Frontline (The Hindu) investigation (May 2025), Byju’s sales personnel were pressured to meet weekly targets of at least ₹100,000 in course fees, resorting to tactics that ranged from overstating placement statistics to misrepresenting course outcomes (Frontline). In many cases, families were persuaded to sign up for multi-year subscriptions—sometimes worth over ₹2 lakhs for a single child—under the promise of guaranteed IIT-JEE or NEET success.

This high-pressure environment led to a rash of consumer complaints:

• Over 3,700 unresolved grievances on ConsumerComplaints.in related to Byju’s, including non-refunds, mislabeled “trial periods,” and “unethical” marketing to digitally illiterate, low-income parents.
• Vedantu and Unacademy sales teams similarly implicated in mis-selling, with former employees describing a “quota-or-perish” culture that discouraged refunds and downplayed student grievances (Frontline).

In April 2025, the Supreme Court admitted two appeals in Byju’s insolvency case, citing non-payment of dues to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Amazon Web Services (AWS)—underscoring the company’s overleveraged balance sheet and reliance on aggressive growth financed by debt rather than sustainable revenue models (The Times of India, The Economic Times).

2. Employee Exploitation: “Work Here at Your Own Risk”

Even as edtech platforms marketed seamless remote working and “dynamic workplace cultures,” internal accounts revealed a grim reality of harassment, bullying, and mental health crises among staff. Byju’s employees reported:

• Endless work hours: Salespersons recounting 15-hour shifts with no lunch breaks, denial of even single sick days, and continuous harassment via WhatsApp groups—even on off days (Frontline).
• Arbitrary pay cuts: Financial constraints led to sudden salary deductions, delayed disbursements, and removal of basic workplace amenities (coffee machines, cleaning staff) amid a $1.2 billion debt crunch in late 2023–2024 (Moneycontrol).
• Psychological pressure: Managers threatening to mark employees “absent,” lock bags, and physically impede departures if targets were not met—contributing to depression, anxiety, and a fear of being “blacklisted” in a tightly networked edtech job market (Frontline).

Vedantu and Unacademy staff described similar environments, with performance review metrics tied solely to revenue generation rather than learning outcomes. Turnover rates in flagship edtech firms surged above 40 percent in 2024, reflecting high attrition and a pattern of “burn-and-churn” recruitment focused on volume hiring without commensurate employee support (Frontline).

3. Financial Unsustainability and Debt-Fueled Valuations

Behind the glittering headlines of unicorn status lay financial red flags:

• Byju’s reported operating losses of over ₹2,000 crores in FY 2024–2025, funded by $5 billion in debt and equity round valuations that outpaced revenue growth by a 10:1 ratio. The Supreme Court’s May 2025 decision to continue its Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) underscores the gulf between hype-driven valuations and underlying cash flows (The Times of India, The Economic Times).
• Smaller edtech startups—K12 platforms and upskilling firms—mirrored this pattern, relying on VC infusions to subsidize customer acquisition costs. According to a 2024 Business Standard report, over 60 percent of mid-stage edtech startups were “cash-burning,” with monthly cumulative net burn averaging ₹15 crores—yet still projected “path to profitability” in 12–18 months, a forecast that repeatedly slipped due to weak unit economics ([The Economic Times][4]).

In consequence, investors began seeking quick exits through secondary share sales, placing short-term profit motives above pedagogical integrity. The focus shifted from “delivering learning outcomes” to aggressively scaling user bases—often at the cost of service quality, student retention, and ethical conduct.

4. Regulatory Gaps and the Call for Accountability

The edtech phenomenon has outpaced regulatory frameworks, leaving a vacuum in which unscrupulous practices flourish. Key areas of concern include:

1. Absence of a dedicated Edtech Regulatory Authority: Current statutes—Information Technology (IT) rules, consumer protection laws, and the Right to Education (RTE) Act—offer only tangential oversight. There is no specialized body to monitor learning content quality, ethical marketing, or student data privacy in edtech platforms.
2. Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (amended 2021): While it mandates easy refund mechanisms and transparent pricing, compliance remains uneven. A study by Consumer Complaints found that over 60 percent of edtech-related grievances went unresolved beyond the mandated 30-day period (Frontline).
3. Data Privacy and Child Protection: In the absence of a robust Personal Data Protection Bill (yet to be enacted), edtech firms have unfettered access to sensitive data—academic performance, learning disabilities, family incomes—raising concerns about misuse, targeted advertising, and profiling of minors. The Human Rights Watch (2024) noted that several government-endorsed learning apps in India collect and share children’s personal data without explicit parental consent (Frontline).

Policy prescriptions must therefore include:

• Establishment of an Edtech Regulatory Authority: A statutory body empowered to audit curriculum standards, enforce fair-pricing guidelines, monitor refund compliance, and adjudicate student/parent grievances.
• Mandatory “Pedagogical Efficacy” Audits: At least annually, every edtech firm should undergo third-party assessments of learning outcomes, with results published publicly. Companies failing to meet baseline efficacy thresholds should face fines or temporary suspension of new enrollments.
• Stricter Data Privacy Norms for Minors: Enact a separate chapter under the forthcoming Data Protection Bill specifically covering educational technology—mandating data minimization, explicit parental consent, and severe penalties for unauthorized sharing of student data.

Conclusion

India’s edtech landscape embodies both extraordinary potential and alarming pitfalls. While technology can democratize education in a country of 1.4 billion people, the current wave of profit-driven startups has too often prioritized rapid growth over educational outcomes, regulatory compliance, and human welfare. From aggressive sales tactics that push families into unmanageable debt, to toxic workplace cultures that exploit thousands of employees, the system has revealed itself as one of fleeting hype rather than sustained impact. Transparent regulations, ethical business models, and genuine accountability are imperative to ensure that edtech fulfills its promise of inclusive learning—rather than devolving into a fleeting, debt-fuelled mirage.

References

1. “Investigation | Byju’s staff reveal harsh work conditions, Indian parents say edtech giant pushed them into debt,” Frontline (The Hindu), May 2025. (Frontline)
2. “Byju’s cutbacks: Employees struggle with deteriorating workplace amid massive cash crunch,” Moneycontrol, December 2023. (Moneycontrol)
3. “Supreme Court admits Byju’s insolvency appeals,” The Times of India, May 2025. (The Times of India)
4. “SC refuses stay on embattled edtech startup Byju’s insolvency case,” The Economic Times, May 2025. (The Economic Times)
5. ConsumerComplaints.in, “Byju’s Complaints,” accessed May 2025. (Frontline)
6. Human Rights Watch, “Data Privacy Risks in Indian Government-Endorsed Edtech Apps,” May 2024. (Frontline)