Mumbai: Edtech giant Physics Wallah has addressed the controversy surrounding its former employees, who in their latest video, claimed that the startup is no longer committed to providing good, affordable education.
While responding to the questions sent by the Free Press Journal, Physics Wallah stated that "providing affordable, quality education will always be the focus for PW."
"With entrance exams around the corner, our priority is to prepare the students. We do not want distractions to impede our students’ preparations or to create confusion among our teachers," said the statement by the edtech company, founded by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari.
The controversy between Physics Wallah and Sankalp
A few days ago, a video of Physics Wallah's former employees, including Tarun Kumar, Manish Dubey, and Sarvesh Dixit, went viral in which they stated that allegations by a PW teacher, Pankaj Siriya, of them taking a bribe of Rs 5 crore from rival platform Adda247 to quit were completely baseless.
The teachers, who broke down in the video, also claimed that there have been copyright strikes on their YouTube channel by Physics Wallah.
The three teachers, who have started their own YouTube Channel called Sankalp, told the students that the PW's environment was no longer conducive to learning or teaching.
The video, which was titled 'Final Reply', received over 2.4 million views on Sankalp's YouTube channel, which has over 346,000 subscribers.
'Some teachers have indeed left,' says PW
While confirming the departure of some of their teachers from the organisation, PW highlighted its core philosophy of students being priority.
"In any organisation, individuals join and leave in due course, and PW is not immune to this natural progression. Some teachers have indeed left our organisation, and we value and respect their contributions to education and our growth journey. However, our students and their welfare remain at the core of our philosophy," said the statement by the edtech unicorn.
Considered India's 101st startup unicorn, Physics Wallah which started as a YouTube channel, now has 49 centres across India and sits on a valuation of Rs. 8,000 crores ($1.1 billion).
The Free Press Journal has reached out to the former teachers for a comment on the situation and is awaiting a response on the same.
