The Business of Schools in India

Since, franchising is so very prevalent in education and training business, with english learning institutes, schools, preschools, colleges, vocational education, preparatory entrance examination coaching, after school programs, grooming institutes and so on. I visited India International Premier Schools exhibition at Nehru Centre last week. It seemed like the first, in its respective category. 

The schools business in India is fragmented, you have a few good schools in every town that are govt. aided / subsidised, it is quite competitive to get admissions, However since 2008,  the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has allowed allowed companies registered under the Companies Act to start private unaided schools In the primary and secondary education space, as a non-profit entity under Sec. 25. Since 2008, a lot of new fancy schools have come up, offering different curriculums, beyond the SSC (Maharashtra Pune board), CBSE, ICSE to IB and IGCSE. There are more than 200 Plus New Private International schools in India

At the India International Premier Schools The entry was restricted for parents only, there were about 20 to 30 companies participating, very few people visited the exhibition, although the exhibition was in its 6th edition. Not many new about the exhibition. Interestingly, none of the large corporate brands that are looking at aggressive expansion by franchising, were participating at the show, that includes Delhi Public School, Educomp, Eurokids and others. For specific business opportunities in education, it is better to attend smaller workshops, then to attend these large format exhibitions like the one in Mumbai

Today's children are tomorrow's future. That's why parents are investing in their children with educational activities along with supplement in-school learning. This exhibition also raised some pertinent issues as they arise in this time and era. Its the debate between residential school and 

Since, a lot of people are still to be aware of residential schools, here is some brief information. A residential school is one where students stay in the hostels and pursue their studies. They live in with fellow students. Some schools offer residence as an option for outstation students while in some others, availing the residence facilities of the school is compulsory. Residential schools essentially provide food and lodging for a specific fee. Varied number of students share rooms or dormitories and remain under the guidance of house master or house mistress or matron. 

In traditional convention schools, kids stay with their parents. Parents regularly take the time to teach and groom them about kids, life and religion. In a residential or a boarding school, parents cannot teach the kids about religion, since otherwise they would loose the secularity badge and students. Students also speak to teachers and counsellors, instead of parents, when they are confused or in dilemma. They will always stay away from their mother's home cooked food and parental love.

However, despite that, these residential schools have anything between 50 to 500 students as there are several parents with a nuclear family, working parents, busy schedules and no time, in some cases, single parents, divorced families. Hence, it does make sense for them to enrol their kids in residential schools and therefore these residential schools are doing good business, as for the schools business opportunity, they charge anything between, Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 13 Lakhs per student. 

India is one of the largest markets for the education business, thanks to the recent liberalisation, there will be more schools and to leverage that business opportunity, as an entrepreneur you can consider taking up a franchise.