190 Countries & 13 Crore Students: How Khan Academy is Reinventing Education, One Lesson At a Time

Sal Khan's globally-acclaimed online academy offers free tutorials to millions of students around the globe.

Khan Academy: Needless to say, Khan Academy, the US-based non-profit organization and learning portal, has truly revolutionized and redefined education. For the unversed, the online academy helmed by Salman Amin Khan, has around 137 million registered users from 190 countries, with tutorials on subjects from basic math through economics, art history, computer science, health, medicine and more. It offers thousands of free video tutorials and exercises to anybody with an internet connection. It operates in 51 languages.

So, how did the journey begin?

It all began in 2004 when Salman Khan’s 12-year-old cousin Nadia from New Orleans asked him for some help with Math. As she was struggling in her class, he started tutoring her over the telephone. Thanks to his continued efforts, she went from the remedial class to being the top math student in the school. Soon, he started giving remote lessons about algebra and calculus to 15 cousins in Louisiana. He even set up a website and wrote some software that would generate practice questions. That’s when a friend adviced him to record videos too and put them on YouTube. Initially, he laughed at the idea, but took a chance.

”But I took a shot at it anyway. My cousins told me they liked me better on YouTube than in person because they could watch a repeat and there was no judgment,” he told The Times UK.

He shot to limelight after Microsoft founder Bill Gates told a conference that he had been using Khan’s videos to teach his children Math. Soon, his lessons went viral and Google offered Khan $2m to expand his dream of a “free world-class education for anyone, anywhere”. In 2014, he also founded Khan Lab School, the physical campus to trial a radical new approach to education, based at his headquarters.

Global Acclaim and funds poured in

Bill Gates, who’s already a fan of Khan described him as a “true pioneer” and says his impact on education might be “incalculable”. As the news of his expertise spread, many billionaires poured millions into his company. Not just Gates, his backers include Eric Schmidt, Elon Musk and Carlos Slim.

He says education has always been his passion. “I used to tell my friends when I was working at the hedge fund, ‘I’m going to work here until I’m rich enough to start my own school and be Dumbledore.” In 2021, Khan Academy’s videos on YouTube had been viewed over 1.8 billion times.