Early Childhood Education Technology (KidTech)

The main articles are:

• IT in Education (EdTech, EduTech)
• IT in the education of the Russian Federation

2023: The demand for technology for preschoolers in Russia will double in the future

The demand for technology for preschoolers in Russia will double in the future. This was announced on July 13, 2023 by the press service of the Moscow Innovation Agency.

The level of competition is not yet high, but it will grow - large companies are entering the market that are constantly looking for new audiences. At the same time, the main competitors of KidTech products are offline centers and kindergartens.

Every year the share of children who begin their studies even before school is growing. By, to data Rosstat the number of children under 7 years old attending additional educational programs in Russia has grown by 18% over the past five years and amounted to 8.2 million people in 2022 (62% of the total number of children).

Pre-school education is one of the leaders in the educational market, countries but the penetration rate of technology in it is the lowest (less than 1%). Nevertheless, the preschool segment may become a new stage in the digitalization of the industry, accelerated thanks to. pandemics

According to a study by the Moscow Innovation Agency, over the past six years, the revenue of KidTech companies has grown by an average of 49% per year. The most dinamichnyy̆ growth was observed among companies for which preschoolers are not the only target audience: initially they focused on other segments of education and diversified their business by entering the doshkolnyy̆ segment.

Not only small players enter the industry, but also large companies - IT corporations, fast-growing educational holdings and manufacturers of children's goods. To enter the market, companies use various strategies: launch their own products, build partnerships or buy KidTech projects.

In Russia, online schools attract the most investments, and in the world - solutions for parents who help parents raise and develop a child, choose the most suitable services, including kindergartens.

In Russia, investments in solutions for preschool education began to grow at an accelerated pace since 2019: in 2021, the volume of investments in KidTech increased by more than 5 times compared to 2019 and amounted to $39.3 million.

The study also notes that the demand for technology for preschoolers in Russia will increase. This is due to both the current low level of digitalization of preschool education and kindergartens, and potentially bolshoy̆ tselevoy̆ auditoriyey̆ - more than 30 thousand kindergartens (excluding children's centers of additional education) and more than 13 million detey̆ under the age of 7 years.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that on average a quarter of preschoolers study on online platforms, and 62% of children attend additional classes, the demand for educational technology can potentially double.

Another driver of the development of the KidTech market is the ability to close the kadrovyy̆ deficit in kindergartens, especially in specialists of a narrow profile, for example, psychologists, speech therapists, through the introduction of digital products.

According to the study, there are more than 120 companies developing technological products for preschool education in Russia. Most of them develop solutions for end consumers - preschoolers, most often over 5 years old. Online schools are the largest and fastest growing segment of the market. It accounts for more than a third of the total number of companies and revenue, with revenue more than doubling annually over the past five years.

Most Russian KidTech solutions are aimed at developing cognitive skills (attention, logic, memory), more than a third - help children prepare for school, develop numeracy, reading and writing skills that are important for preparing for school. Preparation for school is one of the most competitive areas in the KidTech market, because it is at the intersection with school education, which is digitalized faster than preschool, and attracts more attention from large companies.

KidTech developers strive to take into account the key requests of parents in their products: the benefit and safety of educational content. They also create separate parental applications that allow you to track the educational process of the child and learn about children's development in general.

Only 10% of companies that attracted investments in 2022 in the world use the latest technologies in their products. The most promising are augmented and virtual reality, which allows you to keep the child's attention longer, and artificial intelligence, which has the most application scenarios.

2014: Electronic queue in kindergartens connected all subjects of Russia

In April 2014, the Russian government announced the introduction of an electronic queue for accepting applications for registration and enrollment of children in preschool educational organizations. The accounting methodology was also introduced, providing for separate accounting of children in need of places in preschool educational organizations in the current academic year and in subsequent years. Read more here.

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