Over the past several decades and particularly since the substantial liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy in 1991, which abolished the need for corporate enterprises to obtain Central or state government licences for commencement of or diversifying into businesses, a large number of closely and widely held firms and companies have unobtrusively entered the education sector. Certainly the needs of the country’s 1.26 million schools, 31,000 colleges and 533 universities which struggle to educate 220 million children and youth are huge. But until the economic liberalisation of two decades ago, most of them were met by local MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) which fulfilled their needs for rudimentary classroom furniture, textbooks, stationery and uniforms.
However, after 1991 when the annual growth rate of the Indian economy doubled and the trained manpower needs of the IT (information technology) and BPO (business process outsourcing) industries grew by leaps and bounds, software companies such as NIIT and Aptech diversified into professional education — providing short-term IT training programmes — in a big way. Since then, NIIT and Aptech and several other clones have morphed into IT and BPO training multinationals with huge operations around the world, although they have been given scant credit for training and job-readying the great majority of professionals for these industries which employ over 2.5 million skilled personnel, and earn an aggregate annual revenue of $88 billion (Rs.437,000 crore), most of it in hard currencies.
Yet new tech corporates which have diversified into professional and skills development apart, there are several other organised sector corporates such as Educomp Solutions and Everonn Education which have also emerged as full-fledged, widely diversified education companies offering ICT (information and communications technology), skills training and even bricks-n-mortar schools and colleges. The contributions of some corporates offering innovative products and services are highlighted and acknowledged below in this celebratory 12th anniversary issue of EducationWorld.
Pearson Education
Earlier this year, the London-based Pearson Plc (aka Pearson Group) — the world’s largest and most diversified education and publishing conglomerate (aggregate revenue £5.6 billion or Rs.43,120 crore in 2010) — announced the biggest ever one-time investment in India’s education sector. In January, Pearson invested a massive $127 million (then Rs.577 crore) to acquire a 76 percent equity stake in the Bangalore-based online tutoring company Tutor Vista Pvt. Ltd. Since then, Pearson Education has rolled out its products and services — textbooks publishing, digital learning, online testing and assessments, bricks-n-mortar learning institutions and online education — across the country with great speed.
Dilip Thakore interviewed Ranu Kawatra, president and CEO of Pearson Education. Excerpts:
What would you say is the USP of Pearson Education?
Pearson has made steady progress from being a textbooks publisher to becoming a technology enabled education services business in India. In the past few years, Pearson has rolled out a vast array of education services and products that are cutting edge and world leading. We are the only company in the country with a full suite of education services ranging from publishing, assessments, and tutoring to awarding certification.
How satisfied are you with Pearson’s progress?
I believe Pearson Education India has built a solid foundation and platform from where we now want to accelerate our participation in various education verticals. We have taken it upon ourselves to “bring Pearson to India and also to take India to Pearson”.
How enabling are Central and state government policies for private education initiatives?
Government policies at the Centre and in the states are in favour of reform and upgradation of education in all segments — K-12 and higher education. The current education policy structure seems conducive for all types of educators — corporates like us, non-profits and philanthropists. There are opportunities galore for all committed to delivering high quality education products and services.
What are your future growth and development plans?
Having built a strong foundation for Pearson Education in India, we are committed to ensuring best learning outcomes, critical for future generations. To realise this goal, we will continue to introduce contemporary pedagogies and modern technology into our businesses for the benefit of students, teachers and the entire education fraternity.
iDiscoveri Education
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In 2001 Ashish Rajpal, former Paris-based global marketing manager of the French consumer goods multinational Danone, quit his job and enroled with the Harvard School of Education. In 2002 together with a team of former XLRI, Jamshedpur classmates and other highly qualified top B-schools alumni, he promoted iDiscoveri Education Pvt. Ltd with the objective of dramatically raising teaching-learning outcomes in Indian K-12 education. Today this Delhi-Gurgaon based education services company has planted its flag in 229 cities across India, and lists 650 schools with 250,000 students and 25,000 teachers among its clients. In particular the company’s XSEED teaching-learning programme — “a process innovation that equips practicing teachers with methods, tools and measurement support to teach better every day” — has established new benchmarks in K-12 education. Excerpts from an interview with Rajpal:
The USP or outstanding contribution of iDiscoveri to education in India.
While there is much talk about improving quality and millions are being spent on hardware and infrastructure in schools, there are few scaled models that actually improve methods of learning inside the classroom using existing teaching resources. iDiscoveri’s most notable contribution to the school education domain is the XSEED programme, which is making a measurable impact on teaching and learning in hundreds of mainstream schools, particularly in tier II and III towns.
How satisfied are you with the pace of growth of iDiscoveri Education?
Our team has grown to over 250 passionate people with great pedigree in education and business. This pace of growth, especially rapid in the past five years, is very satisfying. However, we have miles to go. India has close to 1 million schools and 220 million school going children. Most of them leave school without a proper grasp of fundamental concepts and skills to ready them for life ahead.
How enabling are Central and state government policies for private education initiatives?
Government education policies and recommendations especially about reforming existing school examin-ations and curriculums are well meaning. However, these policies are not backed by solid implem-entation on the ground and fail to address practical concerns faced by schools and teachers every day. Private entrepreneurs need to be encouraged to play a greater role in education delivery with govern-ment focusing on regulating quality.
What are your future growth and development plans?
First and foremost is to take XSEED far and wide to all children and teach-ers in private and government schools — rich or poor. Second, we have promoted preschools and want them to become model institutions. Third, we have a strong capability in leadership development and want to launch a full-fledged division on leadership. We are also looking at leveraging technology and the web in a significant way — not for its own sake but to disseminate our work and enhance its quality.
Mexus Education
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Promoted by the Vapi (Gujarat)-based Bilakhia Brothers as a new age digital solutions, education products and services company in 2008, the Mumbai-based Mexus Education Pvt. Ltd (ME) has rapidly grown into one of India’s largest corporates in the education space with 1,200 client schools, 205 franchisees and 2,500 retailers countrywide vending the company’s self-learning products directly to students. Managed by a small group of IIT-Bombay graduates, ME currently has 1,100 employees and a presence in 50 cities across India.
Excerpts from an interview with Rohit Jain, managing director of the company:
What is the USP of ME?
Mexus offers the most diversified range of education products and services of any company in India. This combination of school solutions, self-learning products and co-curricular learning centres gives us the maximum time to interact with students, leaving a higher quanta of positive impact on their interest in learning. With our wide range of stimulating products and services, I think we have been able to make parents and teachers aware that education can be enjoyable for teachers and learners.
How satisfied are you with the pace of growth of ME?
Mexus is one of the fastest growing companies in the education space in India. However this is just the beginning for this three-year-old company. Beyond this good start, the sky is the limit.
How enabling are government policies for private education initiatives? Any suggestions?
I don’t have much to say about government policies. But I have a few suggestions that may be helpful.
• There should be more public- private partnerships to increase the utilisation of education infrastr-ucture built by government. For example, government can lease public schools to private players.
• There should be a grading/points system for schools, and government should invest in technology to continuously generate data from schools to write a monthly report for each school which should be placed in the public domain.
• Transparent and lucrative incentives need to be given to private educators for starting vocational centres for primary and secondary school students.
What are your future growth and development plans?
We are targeting a growth of 500 percent annually and impacting the learning styles of at least 10 million students. Our strong R&D team has developed several innovative products/solutions, which are in the offing.
Everonn Education
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After the watershed liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy and abolition of industrial licensing in 1991, several well-funded and professionally managed corporates entered the K-12 education space. The country’s avant garde schools and private deemed univ-ersities offered a ready-to-go market for the new genre of ICT (information and communications technology) corporates.
One of the first of these new hi-tech companies to get off the block was the Chennai-based Everonn Systems India Ltd (renamed Everonn Education Ltd in 2009). Started in 1987 as a computer education firm by former IT consultant P. Kishore, Everonn Education has morphed into a publicly listed company with nine wholly-owned subsidiaries (annual revenue: Rs.425 core), 6,000 employees and 8 million students studying in the company’s 10,139 learning centres in 17 states of the Indian Union.
Excerpts of an interview with Susha John, chief executive of Everonn Education.
What is the USP of Everonn?
Our USP is that we have introduced new ICT technologies into Indian education to vastly improve the learning and education delivery process. With our cutting-edge VSAT technology, Everonn has been able to overcome barriers of distance, lack of faculty in tier III locations, and made learning options available to students in remote areas.
How satisfied are you with the pace of growth of Everonn Education?
The company has grown by leaps since 1987. Currently we touch over 8 million students in 10,139 learning centres across the country and work with 17 state governments. Since our IPO in 2007, we have fortified our position of being a solutions provider across the educ-ation spectrum. Today, Everonn hosts the largest VSAT education network worldwide. Moreover, our subsidiary, Everonn Skill Development is all set to train 15 million people by 2022.
How enabling are Central and state government policies for the ICT business and establishing new education institutions?
Central and state government policies to encourage PPPs (public-private partnerships) have become increasingly clear and enabling. For instance the Central government’s policy on ICT implementation in K-12 schools is clear. The Right to Education Act 2009 and the intent of government to allow foreign universities to set shop in India are also steps in the right direction.
What are your future growth and development plans?
We intend to address the quantity and quality gap in educational institutions across primary, higher and vocational learning, and our Educating India initiative will revolutionise the educational landscape of India.
Educational Initiatives
Within an education system with a tradition of investing resources in expectation of learning outcomes, Educational Intitatives Pvt. Ltd (EI), an Ahmedabad-based company promoted by IIM-Ahmedabad alumni, has made a major contribution by providing learning out-comes measurement servi-ces in K-12 education. Launched in 2001, the company’s flagship product ASSET (assessment of scholastic skills through educational testing) has proved a runaway success, and has been administered to 1.5 million students coun-trywide. Moreover, EI also provides teacher training and curriculum develop-ment services. Excerpts of an interview with Sridhar Rajagopalan, the company’s promoter-managing director:
In your opinion what is the outstanding contribution of EI to Indian education?
Bringing about a mindset change which prompts the shift from rote learning to learning with understanding. We pioneered the use of assessment tools and systems to measure learning improvements in schools.
How satisfied are you with the pace of growth of EI?
We have prompted some very signi-ficant and exemplary changes in examination reforms and the introduction of com-prehensive and conti-nuous evaluation. We want more companies and organisations to do research-oriented work that focuses on different areas of education to bring about social change.
How enabling are government policies for private education initiatives?
EI has no complaints and has been working for a decade without any negative impact of policies. Indeed in recent years, the Central and state governments have been encouraging private companies like ours to become involved with public education.
What are your future plans?
EI will be investing hugely in research. We will continue to focus on our assessment products like ASSET and Detailed Assessment while striving to better the quality and time of assess-ment. We will also develop technology driven products like Mindspark, that work on adaptive logic and help children learn while they answer questions.
