Gifts / Sports & Toys

The release of the "Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Students' Homework and Off-campus Training in Compulsory Education" (hereinafter referred to as the "Double Reduction Policy") triggered a huge shock in the education and training industry (hereinafter referred to as the "Education and Training Industry"). Education and training stocks fell across the board. Many education and training institutions/companies closed, layoffs, and transformed... Originally regarded as a track with a bright future, it became "cool" for a while.

Many times the education and training industry will use science and education toys, and this volatility is bound to have an impact on science and education toy companies. However, industry insiders believe that this impact is not negative, but rather gives the industry more opportunities.

Policy favors science education

"In the past few months, we have experienced several "big earthquakes" in the education and training industry." Zhang Jianjun, the founder of the new factory, introduced. "The Outline") was released. The "Outline" proposes that by 2025, the proportion of Chinese citizens with scientific literacy will exceed 15%; by 2035, the proportion of Chinese citizens with scientific literacy will reach 25%; and propose five enhancement actions during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. , Put the young people's scientific quality improvement action in the first place, and emphasize the improvement of the scientific education level of the basic education stage.

In late July, the "Double Reduction Policy" was released, clearly stating that the burden of excessive homework and off-campus training should be alleviated, and the occupation of national statutory holidays, rest days, and winter and summer vacations was explicitly prohibited to organize subject training. Regarding the division of disciplines and non-disciplines, the Ministry of Education has also given a clear classification: disciplines include language, mathematics, foreign languages (English, Japanese, Russian), morality and rule of law, history, geography, physics, chemistry, and biology. Non-disciplinary subjects refer to physical education (or sports and health), art (or music, fine arts) subjects, and comprehensive practical activities (including information technology education, labor and technical education), etc.

On the one hand, the emphasis on scientific quality education, on the other hand, is the tightening of discipline training. In Zhang Jianjun's view, these two policies are opportunities for the science and education industry. "The "Outline" is a great benefit to training institutions for maker education, robotics education, and children's programming. With the cancellation of subject training, families will reduce this part of expenditure or invest this part of expenditure on quality education. Scientific quality education such as robotics, maker, and programming may all become parents' new choices. The rising demand for scientific quality education will drive an increase in purchase orders for science and education products."

Institutional transformation quality education

"I predict that in the future, more discipline-based training institutions will transform into quality education and training such as makers and robots. The school will also expand after-school service channels, such as connecting after-school services with quality education and training institutions." Zhang Jianjun's guess Is being confirmed. According to public information, under the "double reduction policy", all teaching and training institutions are urgently thinking about the direction of transformation, of which quality education is one of the directions. Among the many quality education categories, STEAM-related projects such as programming and robotics have received more attention.

The leading K12 education and training company Xueda Education mentioned in the 2021 semi-annual report that they will improve the "personalized product matrix". The product range includes children's programming, memory training, college entrance examination, independent enrollment, art test, and overseas study. , Covering the population from elementary school students to high school students. In fact, Xueda Education has been in the programming field a few years ago, such as investing in the online children's programming platform Programming Cat in 2019. Therefore, on the second day of the official release of the "Double Reduction Policy", Xueda Education announced the launch of programming classes and stated that the programming classes have been fully launched in hundreds of campuses in more than 30 provinces and cities across the country.

After launching online education platforms such as Ape Programming and Zebra, the online education brand ApeTutorial also launched the science education brand "Pumpkin Science", and released its STEAM scientific products at the end of July. It is understood that, as a product line that has developed more rapidly in the field of quality education, the product allows children to adjust the rhythm of scientific research in the form of voice interaction according to their own learning situation. It is the first in-depth application of AI in Yuandao. STEAM science education product with intelligent voice function.

In addition, NetEase Youdao held a press conference on August 5, exposing a variety of quality education products, including children's programming, Go, science, art, robotics, etc. Doushen Education turned to non-disciplinary training and divided its business into two major sections. Among them, the B-side business includes the smart education service business, the high-quality course content enters the post-class delay service business, and the large-screen video distribution business; for the C-side Business includes art learning service business and AI companion learning products that combine online software and hardware.

Education and training institutions transform quality education, and science and education products are one of the directions

Industry optimistic to find opportunities

Regarding the above two policies, companies related to science, education and toys are relatively positive and optimistic, and they say there are certain opportunities.

Guangzhou Koladuo Culture Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Koladuo Culture") has a training institution that uses Kolado brand products as equipment. Manager Wang of the company's marketing department told reporters that they belong to the quality education category to develop children's scientific interest and improve the children's ability to do experiments. They do not belong to the national "double reduction policy" category. "On the contrary, because of the'Double Reduction Policy', more parents realize that school education, family education, and the development of children’s interests have different focuses and need to be combined organically. Therefore, their attention to us has increased and come to us. There are also more parents who have in-depth knowledge of the store."

A very important point in the transformation of teaching and training institutions is the curriculum, and it takes a long time to develop a new curriculum, and teaching and training institutions that are eager to transform to maintain their livelihoods simply cannot wait. There are also some small and medium-sized teaching and training institutions that may not have the strength to independently develop non-disciplinary courses. Therefore, choosing to cooperate with companies that have complete courses and product supply will be a shortcut.

"Children's education circle develops courses by itself, and then purchases or customizes products according to the courses. We also provide training services for courses and products to teachers in various education channels. The implementation of the'double reduction policy' is more positive news for us. "Ye Sheng, chairman of Guangzhou Children Education Circle Information Technology Co., Ltd., revealed that since this year, the revenue of the children education circle has risen year-on-year.

Whether it is the development of science quality education in schools or the transformation of quality education in teaching and training institutions, courses and products are necessary. This is an opportunity for science and education toy companies. But how to grasp this opportunity depends on the company's planning. Ge Yuanyuan, head of the scientific canned food division of Aoguang Animation Co., Ltd., believes that the sales channels of science and education toys will be more diversified in the future, and the products will be more systematic and connotative, focusing on providing users with comprehensive solutions and making science more Interesting and more grounded.

Problem pain points still need attention

The policy has brought benefits, but at the same time there are some issues that need to be considered and paid attention to. Zhang Jianjun said that many education and training institutions still have many worries. For example, the country will have stricter review of non-disciplinary training institutions in the future. Does this mean that it will be more difficult for training institutions to obtain qualifications? Another example is the prolonged time of students at school, resulting in the compression of off-campus time. Will this affect the scheduling and revenue of teaching and training institutions? These policies may have an impact on education and training institutions, and will they affect the market for science and education products? These issues need to be considered.

Another concern is that there are still pain points in the science and education product market. "Taking robots as an example, the 7 directions that need to be paid attention to are appearance, hearing ability, visual ability, recognition ability, speaking ability, empathy and emotion, and long-term interaction. Among them, appearance is an important issue in robot design, which requires a lot of attention. Strong software and hardware combination ability and industrial design ability. For children, the appearance will affect the child's judgment of the robot's likes and dislikes, and the bad appearance may even make the child feel fear and nightmare, which is directly reflected in the teaching effect." Zhang Jianjun mentioned The research on hearing, vision, recognition, speaking and other abilities has benefited from the rapid development of artificial intelligence. It has made breakthroughs in recent years, but the research on empathy and emotion and long-term interaction is still at a relatively preliminary stage. The stage is the focus of future technological breakthroughs.

"The current phenomenon is that toys are becoming more and more intelligent, and the equipment used in scientific and technological competitions is becoming more and more toy." Zhang Jianjun said that the toyization of competition equipment means increased production and lower prices, and more beneficiaries. In the future, products that can integrate intelligence and toy features should have more markets. "The ‘GET MAKER’ sponsored by the new factory is dedicated to creating an ‘Apple Experience Store’ in the toy field, so that more consumers can experience high-end intelligent toys."

Zhang Hu, the founder and chief design officer of Beijing Aiqi Technology Co., Ltd., said that many science and education products that respond to the call of the country are gaining momentum. They called on all institutions to follow their own advantages and actively explore product routes suitable for their own development. Aiqi Technology believes that as long as good products are designed with conscience, they will be recognized by the market.