Each country has a highly skilled representative willing to go beyond their call of duty to bring world-class education to those who need it. Such influencers have access to a huge database of resources for teachers, schools, and colleges or universities. They believe that equality in education for everyone is the greatest gift one can offer the world. “Together we can make this dream a reality,” says Sunil Sharma, an educational influencer and CEO of EasyShiksha.

Mr. Sharma is exceptionally well-versed with the EdTech industry of the country and with his online platform, EasyShiksha, he has been making a difference in the field. Despite being new in the industry, EasyShiksha has evolved as a nationally acclaimed educational forum. As ones’ education does not end after a degree, EasyShiksha not only helps you get educated in your field of interest by offering online courses with certification but also guides you in choosing your career based on your performance.

Through the following series of questions, we can understand out how Mr. Sharma plans to enable education that is feasible for everyone:

Kindly brief us about the graph of your career as an educationist.

I consider myself a ‘tech-pundit’ driven by the social change who has a deep understanding of the levers of revenue growth, from picking up the phone to closing a deal, to full-funnel digital acquisition, to building amazing products. Being a creative and innovative professional, I have helped develop various Indian and international start-ups and platforms such as HawksCode, EasyShiksha, Navhoo (a ride-sharing platform in the UK), AQT Australia, Amstore Innovation UK, and Grasshopper Australia, Maccabiah Israel, Qstomize and Podify Israel, and Make My Styles to name a few. I have also worked with the US government for a pioneering online education platform. I am a passionate leader with first-class communication skills and a long track record of successful management.

I am educated to a very high level, with extensive knowledge of all current technologies, economic, social, and regulatory issues. Being an inspiring and motivational leader with first-rate interpersonal skills, I have the ability and passion to develop the vision for any company. I can push performance improvement whilst at the same time delivering growth. I have built numerous widely admired businesses and products in Human Resources, Educational, Software Development, B2B/B2C as an entrepreneur.

These ventures include: HawksCode, EasyShiksha, HRCrux, The NationalTV,  HawksCool. EasyShiksha, an endeavor of HawksCode, began with a vision to make education better and easy for everyone. The education platform aims to make Shiksha (education) easy for educators and Edu-seekers alike. Coming from a rural background, I faced multiple challenges in my path to getting an education.

There was a lack of awareness and little information available to students in small towns and villages about the multiple options they can choose from. Due to financial constraints, lack of information, and guidance about the new-age education fields, I believe that children remain orthodox in their thoughts and fail to get a proper education following their skill-set. Hence, I was motivated to work in the education sector to provide a level playing field to all children, by providing them with information and mentoring them on the varied opportunities available globally. I quit my US-based MNC job in 2012 and founded EasyShikha, which is based in Jaipur.

In this internet era, a student from a village too can get information about opportunities with the help of an educational portal. We think that every student has the right to get a quality education. Initially, EasyShiksha was envisaged to be a simple website that provided user details about thousands of colleges across India. Slowly, the web portal evolved to provide students and parents all the necessary tools required to help them make an informed choice about the education and the jobs and career prospects thereafter.

Over seven years, the website has come to host the following verticals: Career Helper helps students know their career choices. The program helps them discover their strength, interest, and talent, thereby providing them information on varied occupations. The career helper program is based on four tests – IQ test, Basic Test, Advance Test, and Psychometric test.

EasyShiksha Magazine, introduced in April 2018, is a small prototype of EasyShiksha’s web portal. It aims to provide a user with all information related to the field of education like, case studies, opportunities, new updates in the education world, and informatics. The Campus Ambassador program enables the organization to stay connected with colleges and their events. This initiative gives them a chance to represent their college at a global web platform. With the program students from all over India can share their ideas and maximize their learning.

They are also responsible for administering and managing the EasyShiksha events and activities on their campus. The web portal also provides information on over 200 distance learning online courses & internship training programs with certification and support students and help them improve their knowledge without being physically present for the studies.

What is your idea of an educational influencer? How do you align with that idea?

An educational influencer is an established independent company/individual with high credibility on the topic of education, usually with a niche focus. Educational influencers may be teachers/instructors, education enthusiasts, educational content creators, or ed-tech companies/experts.

EasyShiksha is empowering students from small towns and villages with online distance learning program offering online courses, internship training programs with certification, Career Helper, Online Test series, Campus Ambassador Programme, Enterprise plans for colleges & universities, etc. Through its various verticals, EasyShiksha hopes to empower the students and move from technical knowledge to technical skills-based education programs.

What unique ideas have you implemented as a leader at easyshiksha.com that makes it different from competitors?

With digitization, students today go online to access information related to their college education and for study materials to prepare for competitive exams to gain insight and real-time information about educational institutions. Through EasyShiksha, users can explore thousands of institutes with their courses, faculty, facilities, and placement details and can choose the right institution for higher education.

The website also provides a platform for colleges and universities to advertise their courses. Further, many institutes also publish their press releases on the website, providing regular updates on school registration, scholarship availability, exam results, jobs, and vacancies. We believe that every student has the right to get a quality education. EasyShiksha is a leading e-learning global platform providing numerous services on a single platform which makes us different compared to our competitors. 

What’s the one thing you would change about the education system (nationally or globally)?

While India is home to some of the oldest universities, EasyShiksha opines that the present universities and education institutions, other than the IITs and IIMs, fail to focus on practical knowledge and skill development. Even the school-level education does not provide any skill development courses, as they focus primarily on theoretical knowledge.

An outdated syllabus is also a big issue. Schools and college curriculum are not updated. College syllabus should be according to industry requirements. Our education system does not offer working and research-based programs. We need to produce creative minds from our universities and colleges. India needs job creators, not job seekers.

In your opinion, what is the best way to establish a good relationship among students, staff, and parents?

We believe that the most valuable resource we possess is our stakeholders (students, staff, and parents).

EasyShiksha provides students, staff, and parents a place to find support and help. As we are all striving for the best e-learning foundations for the students, we have the resources to make this happen. The platform is built not only on someone’s exceptional skills but rather on collaboration and teamwork between all stakeholders. EasyShiksha unites students, staff, and parents from all corners of the earth to find resources, advice, and support as they strive for quality education.

What aspects of your job are the most challenging and how do you overcome them?

Whether your users consist of students and staff or parents, various roadblocks can prevent learners from actually absorbing the content and the key aspects of eLearning deliverable. As an eLearning professional, we have to consider a wide variety of eLearning challenges such as lengthy to-do lists, hectic work schedules, and several other distractions, before designing your eLearning courses.

Sometimes a learner is not able to see the value or benefit of the eLearning course, and especially how the subject matter is going to help him/her in the real world. For learners to become truly engaged in the overall eLearning process, they have to be aware of how the content is going to translate in real-world settings.

To overcome the challenges, we create effective and enlightening eLearning courses & internship training programs for our learners with a preview video, detailed course description, etc., to encourage them to enrol for the programs.

What advice can you give to the aspirants who seek to become influencers or leaders in the field of education?

There is a revolution happening in the field of education and expert educational influencers can help in this process of bringing a positive change.

How do you perceive your career to be in the near future?

Online learning platforms cannot completely replace a college degree since it would not provide a student with all the skills that he/she can develop in a real-time environment. With the current COVID19 pandemic almost every student, school, college, the university is switching to eLearning platforms for online education and skill-based courses.

EasyShiksha will be continuously striving to enhance the eLearning platform and introduce the new online course, training programs, and looking at even launching online academic courses in the near future. Additionally we are working at various levels to partner with leading colleges, universities, institutions, and promoters etc., which will give us a leading edge in the eLearning sector.