new delhi nineteenyearold nchumthung patton from nagalands wokha district a tiny speck on the map of the countrys northeastern region almost gave up his dream of becoming a doctor when he could not clear the all india medical entrance examinationthe teenager who hails from a farming family and has seven siblings had prepared for the ambitious test for one year on his own as his parents could not afford to send him to a city for medical coachingpatton is now preparing for the entrance exam again but this time through online classes that have eliminated the need for coaching centres in his village and many other rural parts of the countryseveral major platforms such as neetprep byjus ica edu skills and youth4works have started offering online programmes for medical aspirants that prepare students for entrance exams through video streamingpatton has enrolled with neetprep and was provided with all study material a pen drive and course work via email at a much lesser price than what enrolling in a coaching centre in a city would costaccording to online education providers the concept of online video programmes for medical entrance has replaced brickandmortar classrooms with virtual classes and given multiple benefits to students especially in rural areaskapil gupta ceo and cofounder of neetprep who started the platform in 2016 along with his cofounders from iitmumbai and iimahmedabad said a classroom programme for a year at a wellknown coaching institute for neet preparation would cost approximately rs 115 lakh per annum and additional expenses worth around rs 2 lakh for accommodation and food if the student is not a city dwellerthe amount charged by neetprep for its video classes for medical entrance is only rs 25000 per year he saidevery year approximately 15 lakh students including around 8 lakh from tier ii and iii cities register for the neet exam to secure admissions in medical colleges including the reputed all india institute of medical sciences aiims as per their rankingsmrinal mohit chief operating officer of byjus told pti the biggest benefit of integrating technology in education is that it makes learning highly personalized with digital learning students can learn at their own pace in their own style and focus on strengthening their conceptual understanding instead of playing catch up with rest of their batchhe said digital learning also gives students uninterrupted access to the best teachers from around the world irrespective of their geographyrachit jain ceo founder of youth4work said online classes are less expensive than conventional classes as students only have to pay for course material and not the admission fees that coaching institutes charge for operational costsciting a survey by kpmg and google manoj kumar jha director of gs score said the market for online education is expected to rise magnificently up to usd 196 billion by 2021 from from usd 247 million in 2016having expanded to almost every zone of india neetprep currently has students in far flung areas such as in nagaland mizoram andaman and