Amazon to shut down edtech service Academy in India from Aug 2023

Amazon said on Thursday that its edtech offering, Amazon Academy, will cease operations in India in August 2023 and that those enrolled in the current academic batch will receive a full refund.

The e-commerce behemoth officially launched Academy (previously called JEE Ready), last year.

"At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers. We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products and services to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments," a company spokesperson told.

"Following an assessment we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Academy. We are winding down this programme in a phased manner to take care of current customers," the spokesperson added.

Amazon Academy's operations will discontinue starting August 2023, when the existing batch completes its test preparation module.

Customers will have access to full course material online for extended period of an year, until October 2024.

The company said that it remains committed to its customers in the country and the decision will have no impact on its services.

In January last year during the pandemic, the company launched Amazon Academy to help students preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for entrance to engineering colleges.

The online preparation offered practice routines required for the JEE, through curated learning material, live lectures and comprehensive assessments in Math, Physics and Chemistry.

The service enables active learning through live lessons, helping students to strengthen their JEE preparation efforts as they can engage with expert faculty, learn concepts, and clarify doubts in real-time.

Bringing further discipline and rigour to their study methodology, it will offer scheduled lessons, daily practice problems and regular tests, starting with a crash course for the upcoming JEE Main.