We aim to democratise Edu-tech Space: Priyavrata Mafatlal

Priyavrata Mafatlal, Co-founder and Director of Uniform Junction and MD & CEO of Mafatlal Industries recently joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation as part of NewsX India A-List. He is an educational entrepreneur who aims to be the support system of schools. He offers top of the class school utility products, services and courses. In this exclusive conversation, he shared the origin and aim of Uniform Junction, gaps in the Edu-tech industry, how to make edu-tech engaging for both students and teachers and much more. 

He commenced by talking about the origin of the Uniform Junction, he said “we have been into uniform space for about six to seven decades now. We control 85% of the fabric market in uniform space. This was a logical extension to what we already have which is a strong supply chain and good relations that we built over the decades. Hence, it was logic to move into school tech.”

Explaining the existing gaps in edutech industry in our country, he shared “We have edutech today wherein a lot of people are moving on the back of a pandemic into a space where it facilitates online learning, whether curriculum-based or not curriculum-based. The other set is which not a lot of people are catering to which is about addressing supply chain issues that schools have today. Very few people are trying to tackle the supply chain issues which we’ll bring in, in addition, to support we give to edutech.”

He expanded on how his company helps on the backend. He explained “We are one spot support system for schools. It starts right from the fact that the supply chain is essentially inefficient; you are here to make that entire supply chain very efficient, thus empowering schools. On the other hand, with the boom of edutech especially over the last 2-3 years, we have so many different companies and partners people can opt for. As a parent you are not sure what’s right for your child, that’s when we curate and give options to parents and schools. We make the back end efficient and allow them to choose between so many options available to them in edutech space today. We are hoping to democratise the entire edutech space.”

When asked about how they make edutech space interesting and engaging for students and teachers. He responded “When it comes to students, it’s a hard one because students by nature are more active and need to be around people. We through our extensive partner network, have tried to bring fun partners on board that you won’t associate with traditional learning. We have got partners who teach Maths as a life skill rather than a subject, we have partners teaching Chess through that teach problem-solving. I think the challenge will always be to keep the kid entertained and make it fun but we are very confident about it because of our partners. The challenge that teachers might face is especially they might not be equipped with the digital boom we are seeing. That’s why we have other partners from Junction that helps and trains teachers. They help schools to prepare for the new education policy that the government announced last year. So we have an array of partners focusing on different aspects.”