My 2.0 Version
Fast Forwarding my Journey to the Digital World
By Sunita Prakash
Vanamala Ramesh, the brainchild behind the EdTech start-up company “VIDYA FOR ALL,” has changed the concept of education by making it accessible to students to the remotest corners of our country and all economic groups.
Her journey from a freelance educator to its CEO is an inspiration to all young minds to follow and chase their dreams.
She was born in Bangalore and graduated from Bangalore University in 1988. Her passion for teaching was innate, and she believed that education had the power to positively change children’s lives.
Marriage made her move to Delhi as her husband was a bureaucrat. She chose to be a hands-on mom to her children, decided to become a freelance instructor to CBSE and UPSE students.
She put her heart and soul to teaching, to her education was just a part; she was more concerned about her students’ wellbeing. Taskmaster, she was at the same time warm, accessible, and caring, shared a great rapport with her students, and successfully extracted a perfect score from her students.
2009 saw her as a full-time educator, but deep inside, she was not happy. Teaching no more gave joy and satisfaction. She felt education in India had capitalist vested interests and deprived them of their childhood. Robotic learning and rote learning became the norm. Education was commoditized.
The government emphasized education, but quality education was not accessible to society’s lower strata, especially in rural areas. She says with a gloomy tone that some states in our country have the worst pupil-teacher ratio. A great admirer of Abdul Kalam, she believes in tapping the hidden talent.
In 2015, India was becoming digitally active. She quit her job as she wanted to impart free education through the digital medium. She says the transition from the era of classrooms, blackboards, chalks, and duster to the digital medium was a challenge, which she accepted and succeeded.
2016 she started her own YouTube channel, GURUKUL, which provided free quality online education to middle and secondary school students. It was an instant success and paved way for rich digital dreams.
2019 she started her EdTech VIDYA FOR ALL, catering to CBSE and State boards. The objectives were to provide free and quality education. Later on, when the company takes off, it would try and monetize it with very minimal charges to make it affordable. Of course, the signature mark and focus would remain free education.
The start was bumpy. Ideas and vision were big, but the team and the budget were limited, she was not in a position to recruit high-quality teachers, and digital marketing agencies, nor hire a celebrity to endorse the brand.
2020 saw COVID-19. It showed that nature does not discriminate against people based on human-made distinctions. Modern world, which has sought to control everything, stood disoriented and lost in front of the virus. This public health crisis generated social, political, economic, and psychological consequences with a global impact.
In India, students were left in a lurch as educational activities were suspended. Time for online education to emerge as a crisis management solution, and she wanted to make full use of it.
She joined the Digital Deepak Internship Programme where she learned marketing tools like Law of Marketing, Google Ads, SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Lead magnets and Generation, Sales and Conversion, Landing Page Conversion, and many more. Investing her time and energy in the Digital Deepak internship brought results in a short span.
2021, Marketing Strategy helped VIDYA FOR ALL soar to great heights, corporates like Azim Premji of Wipro, Sudha Murthy chairperson of Infosys Foundation, Anand Mahindra of Mahindra Group, and Tatas were ready to invest as a part of CSR. Reliance Jio helped in getting fast internet services in rural areas. Free and quality education became the talk of the town.
2022, the Subscription model arrived where the student could choose a mentor for guidance. Other features were live tests, quizzes, and scholarships for Einstein’s. Pandemic accelerated our subscriptions; by the end of 2020, we had 40 million users who availed the free courses and 300,000 subscribers who opted for the paid model.
She started acquiring coaching institutes which had great faculty but were shut due to the pandemic. This move had a magnetic effect where children in large numbers opted for the subscription model and got a chance to be mentored by their favourite educators.
VIDYA FOR ALL was chosen as the brand ambassador for Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, the government’s flagship program, which focuses on quality elementary and digital education in rural areas.
2023, she proudly says the company is at a vantage point that provides live courses for CBSE, UPSE, CAT, NEET, CLAT, Digital Marketing, Content Writing, TOEFL, FIITJEE, and LMS skill-based courses.
Company moved on from a two-room office to a plush office at Manyata Tech Park in Bangalore, with 200 happy employees, and she proudly says her students are her brand ambassadors. She calculates her turnover, not in terms of income, but by the number of students who have been successfully placed in companies after availing VIDYA FOR ALL services.
EdTech also focuses on individual growth and wellbeing, community rebuilding, and environmental restoration like the Swachh Bharat cleanliness campaign and afforestation drives. Street plays highlighting issues on plastic, habitat, importance of education are enacted in Bangalore.
In her book “Don’t Sleepover Your Dreams Chase Them” she traces her digital journey from Generation X to Generation Z. Book’s revenue proceeds goes towards girl-child education in Bidar, a backward district in Karnataka.
Sadguru’s speeches motivate her, and always ushers her New Year at Isha Foundation in Coimbatore. The statue of Adiyogi has a mesmerizing effect on her as she comes back energized and revitalized.
She believes in the power of intermittent fasting and practices Ashtanga Yoga, which keeps her physically and mentally fit.
She dreams of A LITERATE AND EMPOWERED INDIA.
