Craig Shotland – CEO, Matific

Mathematics has always been a tricky subject. It can be a fun for some and challenging for others. Those who understood it in their childhood would fall in love with this subject forever, and those couldn’t, would fear from it, even later in their lives. While each kid has his/her own pace, and natural inquisitiveness to adapt to things, with the right exposure during their initial learning days, the children can craft their own path to adapt to complex learning in the simplest manner. Australiabased Matific is one such digital platform that uses ed-tech principles to simplify K-6 maths and is helping students to deal with the anxiety of the subject and making it exciting. Matific is currently present in over 60 countries and localised in 40-plus languages. Over the course of last one year, more than one lakh students in India currently uses Matific. To discuss the technicalities of this platform and its vision for India, Ramesh Kumar Raja had an e-mail interaction with Craig Shotland, CEO, Matific. Excerpts:

What was the vision behind starting Matific and focusing on maths in primary education? Please list down all the USPS of the brand.

At matific, our vision is to provide every child in every country with a mathematical experience of the highest possible quality.

the way in which mathematics has been taught in schools for over 200 years has not changed significantly. teachers and parents struggle to engage students,

who often will simply memorise formulas but never understand the maths.

matific was founded with the aim to not only leverage technology for making mathematics an interesting subject, but also create an environment where students can lead their learning and understand the basic concepts

through game-based principles. We aim to leverage these practices at scale to reach every child on the planet and are currently present in 60+ countries and localised in over 40 languages including spanish, French, portuguese, tamil, marathi etc.

the importance of stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is reiterated at several instances in today’s world. matific realises the importance of mathematics as a prerequisite for all other subjects, thus believes in instituting strong mathematical concepts from the younger years of learning.

the brand is known for its core strength that lies in its pedagogical principles developed by the matific Academic board which consists of global industry experts in mathematics, computer science, education and childhood development, including leading researchers from berkeley, Harvard,

stanford and the einstein Institute. the 5-point pedagogical principles include Conceptual Understanding, Critical thinking, meaningful Context, personalised learning and Intrinsic management.

Why did you bring the platform to

India after 7 years of launching it? matific views India as a key strategic market, driven by factors like robust market potential, strong demand for edtech, and government policies like Nep. but most importantly, the passion for education and learning, willingness to adopt technology, and strong affinity to gamified educational content makes it a great place to be right now.

We intended to be well-equipped and whet our resources before we tapped into the Indian market. Aligning ourselves with the modern-day requirements of parents and students, we made sure to have the needed gear at the disposable as we got on our feet to provide effective help in the education domain.

Witnessing an overwhelming response within one year of our operations in India, we are now gearing to expand our presence and triple our existing team size to cater to a larger audience.

How do you think the pandemic has affected the ed-tech industry in India and what does the future look like?

the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted the operations of several industries. One of the sectors caught in the crossfire is the education industry. According to the World economic Forum, more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries were affected by school closures due to the pandemic. And according to a study conducted by UNICEF, in India, closure of 1.5 million schools and lockdowns in 2020 has impacted 247 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary schools.

the global crisis has affected everyone differently, but it has also brought a tide of learning that marked the beginning of a new era- the Colonial era. making educators take a different path to mentor young learners and putting children at a place where they adapted to a contemporary approach to learning, the pandemic is making a significant impact and accelerating the edtech revolution.

the Indian education system is making amends and adapting to the new way of learning, rather than letting the physical closures of campuses affect the process.

However, the inefficient resources and people adapting to the technology at their own pace has been an obstacle, along with connectivity and infrastructure challenging the graph. this is further leading to the unresolved concerns of teaching younger children and establishing effective education strategies in rural areas. the primary-graded young learners are losing out on their crucial foundational learning which will further have an impact on their future. Owing to the support by the government launching policies like Nep (National education policy) 2020 and encouraging to opt for a blended and hybrid model of teaching, both rural and urban sectors (private as well as government schools) will ensure quality education. It will reassure the country that there is further loss of learning opportunities and thus lead to

fostering global learning.

Please explain the tech involved that allows a personalized and adaptive learning experience for every individual student. matific aims to engage the young learners and reduce the anxiety related to mathematics with the help of game-based mathematical problems available on the platform/app which is enabled with an in-built AI engine that comprehends the learning pace and rigour of each student and offers a highly personalised learning experience for all.

every matific activity is a formative assessment and an interactive learning experience that is carefully designed to ensure students are able to complete at their own momentum. Whilst students are solving gamified maths problems, matific’s intelligent algorithm is ingesting 1000s of data points to build its understanding of where a student is on their mathematical progression. this is why that we can intelligently predict what the next best activity for the student should be.

the matific platform is aligned with the local curriculum (Icse/cbse) and fully integrated into the education system through Google Classroom and microsoft.

“The importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is reiterated at several instances in today’s world. Matific realises the importance of mathematics as a prerequisite for all other subjects, thus believes in instituting strong mathematical concepts from the younger years of learning”