People

Edupreneur extraordinaire

The blue chip New Delhi-based e-learning company Educomp Solutions Ltd (ESL) plans to invest Rs.2,000 crore over the next four-five years to start up 150 primary-cum-secondary schools countrywide. Branded the Millennium Schools they will be promoted at an average cost of Rs.12-14 crore each.

"Even though India needs schools and a majority of parents have the capacity to pay, there is a dearth of good quality schools, since existing top schools lack scale. Also there is no proper intellectual property and infrastructure management in the existing school system. This is where we intend to step in to provide standardised high quality schools on a nationwide scale. With over 40 percent of Educomp’s business and efforts directed towards working with government schools, we understand the importance of equity and social responsibility in school education," says Shantanu Prakash, promoter managing director of ESL.

An alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi and IIM-Ahmedabad, Prakash promoted ESL in 1994. Since then it has grown into India’s largest technology-driven K-XII education company with an employee base of 2,790 professionals. Currently ESL serves over 4 million learners and educators in India, the US and Singapore, delivering innovative technology-aided pedagogies and content to enhance student learning.

To be registered in cities across India by independent trusts and societies, the Millennium Schools will provide a unique blend of global best practices combined with the best traditions of the Indian education system with the added advantage of freedom to utilise the Millennium Learning System (MLS), Educomp’s proprietary learning system developed for schools.

Unlike most IIM graduates who opt for plum jobs in the corporate sector, Prakash was determined to take the entrepreneurial path ab initio. Starting his career in a "quasi-entrepreneurial education venture" he quit soon after to promote ESL in 1994, with the corporate objective of establishing computer labs in schools. With most school managements baulking at the prospect of investing in expensive computer labs, Prakash devised ESL’s unique BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) model under which the company installs the required computer lab, builds the networking infrastructure, and offers content in exchange for a monthly fee of Rs.80-100 per student. "Within three years we recover our capital and opportunity costs after which we transfer the lab to the school," he explains.

Quite obviously financial wizards and pundits approve of the ESL business model. Currently the equity share of ESL (Rs.10 paid up) is quoted at Rs.3,968.75 (January 24) on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Looking ahead, Prakash intends to expand his operations to give ESL global reach. "We believe our products and services are globally scaleable, especially since the education that students get in the first 16 years is fairly similar around the world, particularly in maths and science. Moreover as an India-based company, we have the added advantage of access to huge intellectual capital including the largest number of teachers in the world who can generate content and provide distance tuition at very cost effective prices," says Prakash.

To this end ESL recently acquired Ask and Learn, a heavyweight education company in Singapore with a market share of over 60 percent. "This will serve as our gateway into the Asia Pacific region. Simultaneously, we are looking at acquiring other companies in countries such as Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Thailand. Our aim is to become the dominant player in the K-XII education space," says Prakash.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Gubernatorial educationist

Sited in the foothills of Mussoorie, in the village of Dandanoori Wala in Uttarakhand, Him Jyoti School, a free residential institution for girls from underprivileged backgrounds, is receiving rich encomiums for providing much-needed impetus to education of rural girl children. Promoted in 2005 by Sudarshan Agarwal, former governor of Uttarakhand and currently governor of Sikkim, this CBSE-affiliated class V-VIII school offers quality education, board and lodging to 92 girl students from across the Doon valley.

"I strongly believe the best way to empower women is through proper education. In village India, there is pervasive gender bias against girl children, with male children given priority in school enrollment. Through Him Jyoti we hope to provide girls quality education which will enable them to break the cycle of education deprivation and poverty to become productive citizens in their own right," says Agarwal.

Constructed at a cost of Rs.5 crore and spread across 10 verdant acres, 5 km from Dehradun, arguably the schools capital of India, Him Jyoti admits 30 young girls into class V every year for completely free education. Selection is based on academic ability and a minimum average of 60 percent in class IV is the cut-off. Moreover the parents’ income should not exceed Rs.8,000 per month and only one girl child per family is admitted. Most of Him Jyoti’s girl students come from nearby government primary schools. Once admitted, the school provides for all requirements — tuition fees, uniforms, books, stationery, toiletries, board and lodging.

A legal luminary, Agarwal has had a long and distinguished innings in the Indian judicial service beginning as a judicial magistrate in Punjab in 1956 and retiring as the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission in 2001. In 2003, he was appointed the second governor of the state of Uttarakhand which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000. While resident in Dehradun’s Raj Bhavan, he set up the Him Jyoti Foundation to promote the eponymous school and to offer scholarships to meritorious students pursuing professional study programmes. Agarwal has raised over Rs.8 crore for the Him Jyoti Foundation.

Two years on, Him Jyoti School boasts contemporary classrooms, games facilities and a state-of-the-art boarding facility. Academic instruction apart, girl students are imparted training in knitting, craft, embroidery, drama and elocution. "We place special emphasis on equipping students with maths, English and computational abilities. Once they finish schooling, I plan to give some of the Him Jyoti scholarships to our school girls to pursue higher education. This will help them transform into role models and community leaders," says Agarwal.

With the success of his maiden education venture, which has taken off and is coasting, this fund-raiser extraordinaire is all set to roll out a new project. "I want to set up a school in Sikkim where girl students will be taught vocations such as tankha making and cloth and carpet weaving," he says.

Wind in your sails !

Natasha Pathak (Dehradun)

Aswasa angels

One of the numerous cruelties of the country’s crumbling law, order and justice systems, is that young and vulnerable children of convicted felons are left to fend for themselves and deprived of education — a deprivation which forces them into crime. This is a social problem which Joseph Mathew, founder of Corrections India (estb.1987), set out to address. Since then this Kottayam-based NGO not only provides counselling and de-addiction programmes in prisons in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, it has also established Aswasa Bhavan, a home for the children of prisoners serving sentences in various jails in Kerala. Currently it houses 50 children aged between five-14 years.

Aswasa Bhavan is the dream fulfilled of Mathew, a qualified chartered accountant who promoted it in 1987 after winning a personal battle with alcoholism. Hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol, Mathew survived hospitalisation with chronic liver damage in 1982. "I was in a coma for 17 days, but miraculously returned from death’s doorstep. It was a turning point and I resolved to dedicate my life to humanitarian activities. In 1983, I started visiting jails in Kerala to counsel prisoners and realised that most of them feared for the future of their children. In 1987, Aswasa Bhavan became a reality," says Mathew who put all his personal savings into the project.

The following year he had a fortuitous meeting with Aneena, a postgraduate from the Udaipur School of Sociology. They were married in 1989 and Aneena joined forces with her husband to manage Aswasa Bhavan. In its 20 year history the home has helped rehabilitate 500 children. Currently its 50 resident children attend the neighbouring Corpus Christi English School. Spread across a ten acre campus, Aswasa Bhavan offers its wards a modest library, a debating club and sports facilities. "We also finance the higher education of our children. Some of them are pursuing MBA and nursing courses," says Aneena.

Given its excellent credentials, Aswasa Bhavan has been honoured by the Central government and several socio-cultural organisations. Among the honours: the Rajiv Gandhi Manav Seva Award for Service to Children (2003); the Sadguru Gnannanda National Award for excellence in social work (2007); and citations from the US-based World Malayali Conference and Illinois Malayali Association.

Encouraged by the success of their activism, the Mathews plan to expand the capacity of Aswasa Bhavan. "We want to build a spacious dormitory building at an estimated cost of Rs.20 lakh to accommodate 100 children. A proposal to start an English medium school in the premises of Aswasa Bhavan is also on the cards," says Joseph.

The force be with you!

Sanjay Pandey (Kottayam)