Humble beginnings pave the way for big aspirations. Divya Gokulnath, co-founder and teacher, BYJU’S, is a living example of that maxim. The daughter of a doctor, her love for learning started early on and inspired her to pursue science and maths. Her parents always encouraged her to dream big, and their belief in her gave her strength to chase her goals fearlessly. She had a taste of teaching students at a young age, and she fell so in love with the profession that she gave up admission to universities in the US for further studies, and, instead, stayed back to help her students realise their dreams. The rest, as they say, is history.
Divya and Byju Raveendran fell in love, and started not just a new life, but a new company together: BYJU’S—The Learning App. The journey has been wildly rewarding, with an overwhelming 70 million registered students learning with the app. BYJU’S has also come in a few rounds of funding, looking to expand in multiple ways. According to a recent report, Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath have been ranked 46th on an India Rich List and have a combined net worth of $3.05 billion (approximately Rs 22.3 thousand crores) in 2020. So, education is, after all, the best way to make it big!
Image Courtesy: Divya Gokulnath, Reproduced With Permission
Few know that you are a teacher first. Tell us how your journey in education began.
I first heard of Byju’s (Raveendran’s) classes from a friend while preparing for competitive exams. Along with the rest of my batch, I was mesmerised by his approach to teaching. While awaiting my results, I got the opportunity to take my first class for students at BYJU’S. I was 21 at the time, but instantly realised that I was passionate about teaching, and that it gave me immense satisfaction. By that time, my results had been announced and I had cracked admission to a few universities in the US, but I decided to continue teaching. And, since then, there has been no looking back. Truth be told, overall, teaching, for me, has been an extremely rewarding experience mentally and emotionally too.
I was 21 at the time, but instantly realised that I was passionate about teaching, and that it gave me immense satisfaction. – Divya Gokulnath
The more I connected with students, the more I understood that we needed to customise our approach for each student.
One of the challenges has been the mindset of parents. While students have always been open and enthusiastic about e-learning, in the beginning, we noticed that parents were a little apprehensive about them learning digitally. – Divya Gokulnath
Our vision is to be one of the largest education brands in the world, but our goal beyond numbers is to continue our focus on enjoying education and making students across the world fall in love with learning. – Divya Gokulnath
I was 21 at the time, but instantly realised that I was passionate about teaching, and that it gave me immense satisfaction. – Divya Gokulnath
Which subjects did you teach then, and which remain your favourites even today?
Maths and science have been my strong subjects throughout, but, yes, I have always been the biggest fan of biology.
Can you share a few happy instances from your teaching experiences?
I started teaching when I was 21. My students were more or less in the same age group, or just a little younger. In fact, I used to wear saris to look slightly older (smiles). The best thing is that, because I realised my passion for teaching early on, it provided me with a head start; I haven’t looked back since. For me, teaching is a rewarding experience as I am able to connect with students.
The more I connected with students, the more I understood that we needed to customise our approach for each student.
Every student does not have the inclination towards a subject. How do you ensure that all your students have understood the matter?
Every student’s learning journey is unique and different. Not every student might feel connected to a particular subject. When I started teaching, I realised that there was vast scope to enhance how learning was approached—there was an urgent need to move from fear- or exam-based learning to learning based on love, to something that fuels a learner’s curiosity. The more I connected with students, the more I understood that we needed to customise our approach for each student. And, hence, at BYJU’S, since the inception of the app, we have always centred our product around the needs of students. The one-size-fit-all approach doesn’t work when you want children to become active and life-long learners. My fellow teachers and I understand that—we know that to make students fall in love with learning, we need to explain concepts contextually and visually with real-life examples, and have these delivered by the best of teachers, as it makes the learning process engaging and fulfilling.
When the system focuses only on marks, how do you get students to realise that understanding a topic is much better than rote learning?
Our vision is to make students fall in love with learning, as it is the most integral and defining part of childhood. We truly believe that we should teach our next generation ‘how to learn’ and not ‘what to learn’. We should encourage them to question why, and not just spoon-feed them to answer questions. In fact, the World Economic Forum estimates that 65 per cent of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new jobs that aren’t defined yet. Hence, we need to prepare them for the unseen jobs of tomorrow, and that is possible only if they are able to learn, unlearn, and relearn.
What we are trying to do is transform the whole learning experience, where teacher-led content is delivered on a student-led platform. Engagement is at the core of our platform, and the learning experience is enhanced with the use of game-design principles, animations, interactive quizzes and tests. Every concept is broken down and explained contextually.
Additionally, our learning programmes are created for all students, and not just for the motivated few. Our adaptive learning platform is personalised, and allows for the creation of a learning footprint of the student. Our platform is designed to create self-paced and active learners, who learn not because of fear of exams but for the love for learning.
Image: Divya Gokulnath, Reproduced With Permission
What was your reaction when BYJU’S first thought of moving classes online on the
VSAT platform?
While we started as offline test-prep classes, we soon realised that if we wanted to create a real impact, we would have to ensure that everyone had easy access to our learning programmes. And, it’s only through technology that we could scale this up and take it to the masses.
One incident convinced us that we were on the right track: Byju was taking a VSAT class in Bangalore, and students across the country had logged in, but it suddenly started raining and the session stopped. What surprised us was that there was pin-drop silence; we saw that people were just waiting silently. It was then that we realised that, to keep students engaged, you need great content backed by technology. That was when we realised the need and importance of integrating technology in learning to offer an uninterrupted service to students.
Eventually, we launched our flagship product, BYJU’S—The Learning App, in August 2015. This was a turning point because smartphones, as a learning device, and the app, as a medium, gave our learning programme infinite reach.
One of the challenges has been the mindset of parents. While students have always been open and enthusiastic about e-learning, in the beginning, we noticed that parents were a little apprehensive about them learning digitally. – Divya Gokulnath
BYJU’S looked at the digital model way ahead of its time. Did you face any resistance?
For us, it has been a case of passion intersecting with a real need. During the phase when the team was travelling across the country to conduct test-prep classes for thousands of students, we realised that our education system faced three key obstacles: first, the lack of access to quality teachers and quality content; second, the lack of personalisation in the conventional learning environment, and, finally, that learning was driven by the fear of exams rather than the love of learning.
One of the challenges has been the mindset of parents. While students have always been open and enthusiastic about e-learning, in the beginning, we noticed that parents were a little apprehensive about them learning digitally. But, since lockdown, we have noticed a massive shift in the mindsets of parents as well as teachers. Now that they are witnessing the real benefits of online learning, they are opening up to it.
Image: Divya Gokulnath, Reproduced With Permission
What are the plans for BYJU’S going forward?
Our vision is to be one of the largest education brands in the world, but our goal beyond numbers is to continue our focus on enjoying education and making students across the world fall in love with learning. From introducing courses in vernacular languages to launching more subjects, we will continue to strengthen our offerings and penetrate further into India to address the learning needs of all students. Given the current demand, we plan on accelerating several launches this year to revolutionise the after-school learning segment.
Our vision is to be one of the largest education brands in the world, but our goal beyond numbers is to continue our focus on enjoying education and making students across the world fall in love with learning. – Divya Gokulnath
What is your message to teachers and students across the country?
The pandemic has definitely brought online learning and the role of teachers to the forefront. We are at that crucial point in history when our classrooms are possibly changing for the first time in a hundred years. Learning to leverage technology and tapping into the power of the internet is key. As teachers, we should always keep in mind that understanding students’ learning journeys is essential as every journey is unique. We need to proactively move away from the one-size-fits-all approach. Moreover, merely switching modes from offline to online cannot help students have an immersive learning experience; teachers must embrace technology, and utilise its power to broaden the spectrum of their teaching abilities. It is also phenomenal to see how teachers are adapting to the recent changes, and using technology to empower and enhance their teaching processes.
What is your message to those students who have attempted entrance exams multiple times but not secured the percentile they want?
Every little hurdle on the way only makes you stronger. Take these challenges as little bumps on the road so that, when you hit a mountain, you can fly across. It’s all about failing small and winning big. Our failures are stepping stones towards our successes, and I truly believe that it’s crucial for us to celebrate our failures as much as we do our successes.
November is a very special month for us, as we celebrate 61 years of being India’s most-read women’s magazine. In this anniversary special, we celebrate New Beginnings in the post-pandemic world, and have featured women who have been path breakers in their fields by crossing the toughest barriers to reach where they are. Download our Anniversary 2020 issue and find out inspirational journeys of the latest copy and read about them UNSTOPPABLE women.
Also read: Femina Power List: Ekta Kapoor, The Unparalleled Queen Of Content