Digital Dollar? An exploratory study of the investments by IFC in the Indian educational technology sector

A review of the investee companies of International Finance Corporation reveals that there are serious gaps between the work of these companies, and the priorities of Indian education, with respect to questions of access, affordability and inclusion; adherence to labor, environment and child protection standards, and quality of services. The larger impact of mainstream EdTech risks diluting the role of the teacher and weakening the public education system.

The report recommends that IFC needs to conduct a serious evaluation of its protocols and processes for funding EdTech companies. It needs to be more transparent about the design, monitoring, and assessment of its funding, in line with its role as a public institution, to ensure that such funding does not harm its development mandate. Thirdly, it needs to institute monitoring mechanisms that can regularly and adequately assess if the funded entities conform to the funding norms and exit if they are not.