Backgroup of the Group
Zee Learn Ltd owes its beginnings to a belief in the Essel Group and that of our Chairman Mr. Subhash Chandra that India’s future can be brighter only if quality education is imparted to its future generation to help prepare them to take on every challenge that tomorrow might throw at them. Started in 1994 with this belief, Zee Learn Ltd is a leading educational organisation from the group with strong brands that have delivered success, respect and immense satisfaction to all our parents, students & franchisees. It is a public listed company and addresses educational and learning requirements right from the age of 1.5 years till a child turns into a confident adult ready to take on the world of tomorrow.

Genesis of the company
The purpose of Zee Learn is to help deliver best in class education and learning to our children so that they in turn can help India achieve its true potential from its demographic dividend. However, we saw a big gap between what education needs to do to prepare leaders and visionaries of tomorrow and what is being delivered. We at Zee Learn aim to bridge this gap by improving the human capital by helping individuals realise their unique potential through quality education and development.

It is this excellence and belief that has helped us scale new heights and spread quality education across 550 cities and towns. In some of our markets we have had to go out and educate people about the importance of preschool and that of Early Childhood in the shaping of a child’s future. Our PreSchool brand, Kidzee is today Asia’s largest Pre- School network with over 1350 Centres. Over 400,000 children have been enriched with an experience called Kidzee. Global learning and research helps us stay ahead of the curve and our roots in India help us contextualize it for the Indian audience thereby creating a unique learning experience through our Trademarked Pedagogy – iLLUME.

We are also one of the leaders in the K-12 Education segment with over 80 operational schools across India by the name of Mount Litera Zee School.

ZICA & ZIMA offer vocational courses for youth. We have also recently launched Mount Litera School International (IB School) in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai as part of our commitment to offer the finest quality education across different segments and age groups.

Number of franchisees
We currently have 1350 operational Kidzee preschools which is incidentally Asia’s largest preschool network and have 150 signed up Mount Litera Zee Schools across the country.

Year of Inception: 2003

CEO: K V S Seshasai

Educational and professional background: BE, IIM

Head office: Mumbai

Address: Fun Republic, 6th Floor, Link Road, Andheri (west), Mumbai – 53

USP of the group:
While Excellence is at the core of our brands, one key aspect is that for us the “Child is the Centre of our universe”. We follow a philosophy of “What’s Right For The Child” and keeping that in mind, we have designed our curriculum and activities that go beyond the routine and make learning fun and engaging.

There is a growing global interest in the booming Indian preschool market. In conversation with ENN, K V S Seshasai, Chief Executive Officer, Zee Learn, says though VCs’ interest is no surprise, it should be seen with a prism of caution in the interest of academic excellence. Excerpts

What are the current trends in the preschool business in India?
The preschool market will reach US $1,833 million by 2014, growing fast at a CAGR of around 13 per cent during 2011-2014 and expanding as we move forward. This growth is a result of the rise in nuclear families and disposable incomes leading to higher demand for quality preschools even in small towns and non-metros. The business is expected to touch Rs 13,300 crore by 2015- 16, with branded preschools expected to contribute about Rs 4,500 crore. However, the preschool industry is still in its nascent stage in India with around 1.1 per cent enrolment as compared to France or Scotland where it is 100 per cent. Even with the strong growth of preschools in India over the last decade, less than 20 per cent of the Indian preschool market belongs to the organised sector.

What is the role of a franchise in preschool education in India?
What are the trends? When someone from the community takes up a franchise and drives early childhood education in that catchment area with local expertise and best in class tools, techniques, learning plans and training that Kidzee provides, it helps the community and the brand become one. Strong advantage of this model is knowledge sharing, experience, brand image, and technical expertise that brands like Kidzee bring to the table. The industry is also witnessing an influx of women entrepreneurs.

In view of the increasing need for preschools across the country and classes, do you think it should be regulated?
There is a need for a standardisation to ensure certain basic pre-requisites at every preschool. Some larger players have brought that to the sector and Kidzee, as a market leader, has initiated various steps to ensure that there is standardisation across tool kits, look and feel, curriculum, infrastructure and more importantly, safety for the child.

How many franchisees plan to continue in this business for a long term?
Most of our franchisees look at expansion in the long term. In fact, some of our edupreneurs have gone ahead and started a Mount Litera Zee School (our K-12 brand) over and above Kidzee. The franchisees of Kidzee realise the association is a win-win.

What are the criteria for selecting teachers in your school?
All preschool teachers are to be at least certified in early childhood care and education. Exposure to managing, being active with the kids, command on English language are other parameters.

Global preschool chains are eyeing India for opportunities to set up their franchisee.
India is a vast country which has multiple ethnicities, languages, cultures and different parental mindsets. It is against this context that we need to look at preschool chains entering into India. There is no particular profile of a preschool franchisee and we have seen a mix ranging from fresh graduates looking to start their own venture to retired teachers/professors wanting to put their experience to use and even businessmen who have left their existing businesses to enter into this category.

Venture capital funds have evinced keen interest in the preschool sector. How do you view this?
Seeing the huge potential in preschool segment and the large number of entrepreneurs rushing into pre-school segment, the keen interest by VCs is no surprise but it should be seen with a prism of caution to ensure that academic excellence does not get overrun..n

Backgroup of the Group: Genesis of the company
Little Elly is a noble initiative of Learning Edge India Pvt Ltd. started back in 2000 in the name of Salmiya Play School in Kuwait with a goal to provide the highest quality care and education for children and to ensure that parents are valued and respected.

In the year 2004, we ventured into preschool business in India on the same line of Salmiya playschool with new ideas suitable to Indian conditions in the name of Little Elly – Little world of joy.
We believe that every child is unique and special. Learning is a lifelong process and so each child needs to be guided at his or her own pace in an environment which demonstrates love and acceptance. Our aim is to be a global leader in the field of Early Childhood Education by providing a nurturing and stimulating environment responsive to the changing needs of children, parents, faculty, staff and the neighborhood.

School’s Philosophy: Our Philosophy is about making TEACHING a JOY and LEARNING a PLEASURE.

Year of Inception: 2004

CEO: Mr. Vittal Bhandary

Age: 48

Educational and professional background: Commerce and Economics

Mr. Vittal Bhandary, Founder and Managing Director, conceptualized the Little Elly chain of preschools with the vision of nurturing great values in children, combining them harmoniously with early childhood education.

It has taken twenty five years of single-minded focus, great passion, concerted effort and deep understanding about the dynamics of childcare, for him to lead an accomplished team of professionals, in developing an organization whose prime focus is early childhood care, with the successfully run preschool and childcare environments being testament to that fact.

His innovation, dedication and phenomenal belief in this venture, has led to a successful diversification of the business, into the areas of children’s publications, learning aids, pedagogy support, early schooling, daycare and corporate affiliate programs.

Head office: Bangalore

Address:
Learning Edge India Pvt. Ltd. No. 2, Honeydew Mansion, Above Pizza Hut, Near BDA Complex, HSR Layout, Sector VII, Bangalore 560102

USP of the group:
We provide a nurturing and stimulating environment responsive to the changing needs of children, parents, faculty, staff and the neighborhood. LE program provides something special for each age group, with a multitude of activities and experiences encouraging children’s natural curiosity and sense of learning.

In Little Elly we instill and encourage passion in teachers because building relationships with the children and teachers, has allowed us to continuously improve ourselves and influence a positive change in the school culture.

Funding source: No

Has any vc or private equity involved: No

How many franchisee are under them? 110 franchisees

Expansion programme:
After gaining momentum and growth on the rapidly expanding educational industry, we are yet exploring opportunities to break into new zones. In future, we are expanding to 15 prime cities with 500 centers and also targeting a minimum of 3 International markets to expand overseas.

Genesis of the company:
The Maple Bear™ programme is owned by Maple Bear™ Global Schools Ltd. Maple Bear™ Global Schools Ltd. was established by the Canadian Education Centre Network (CECN), a private not-for-profit organisation set up in 1995 with the support of Government of Canada dedicated to marketing Canada as a destination for international students. In March 2007, the Maple Bear Education System (TM) became part of Maple Bear™ Global Schools Ltd with Mr. Rodney Briggs as the President and Chairman and Mr. Gerald Macleod as the Vice President of Maple Bear™ Global Schools Ltd.

In April 2011, Maple Bear™ in India entered into a joint venture with Modi Edutech. The promoters of Modi Edutech and Maple Bear™ form part of Modi Group of India. Under the leadership of Mr. Alok Modi, the main focus is education.

Rai Bahadur Gujarmal Modi (August 9, 1902–January 22, 1976) was a noted Indian industrialist and philanthropist, who co-established the Modi Group of companies and the industrial city of Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh in 1933. Later he established a chain of schools and colleges at Modinagar. He also contributed a lot in the field of higher education by giving grants to established institutions such as Banaras Hindu University and different colleges in Meerut and other places. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 1968.

School’s Philosophy: The programme is based upon Immersion language learning and modern education methods which stress direct sensory experience and structured approach to learning concepts. Maple Bear focuses on inquiry-based teaching and learning: learning through questioning, observing, investigating and doing.

Year of Inception: 2004

Managing Director: Hazel Siromoni

Age: 45

Head office: Maple Bear Education Pvt. Ltd. 4-7 C DDA Shopping Centre, New Friends Colony, New Delhi- 110025

USP of the group:
While the Canadian side of the partnership brings rich content and research- backed educational programmes starting from the early years going to Grade 5, the Indian side brings the expertise and understanding of the franchising business in India as well as the local market intelligence.

Expansion programme: 30 more schools in 2014-2015 Requirements for taking up franchisee with your group

Area: Min. 3,000 sq. ft. (5-6 rooms of size around 300 sq.ft.)

Investment: The initial investments is Rs. 15-20* lakh (approx)

Deliverables for the Franchisee owner:
Training:
• Initial Academic and non-academic training during start up.
• In-person training, observation and coaching and on-line support as needs dictate.
• Access to the best Canadian expert-led workshop locally once a year.

Marketing:
Maple Bear helps its franchisees in media planning; provide creatives of all promotional materials like flyers, standees, canopy, posters, newspaper ads etc. A franchisee gets a wide reach through our online social media marketing.

Ongoing: Ongoing Maple Bear trainings are provided to the franchisees through technology platforms. Business advising and all the operational support is given throughout the year.

Branding: Maple Bear helps in branding through its website, monthly newsletter and social media etc.

ERP: Maple Bear will be providing Fee Management System to the franchisees which will ease off and automate their administrative work.

Launch: Maple Bear helps in planning and executing the pre-launch and launch through various promotional activities.

Others: Maple Bear assures the quality of program delivered by its annual quality assurance check.

Contact details for Franchisee enquiry:
Email: info@maplebear.in
Website: www.maplebear.in

Preschool is one of the most lucrative segments of the Indian education market and is flourishing, unfortunately, sans regulation. Stakeholders are almost unanimous in calling for proper guidelines and procedures to regulate this segment. Nidhi Sharma of ENN reads the tea leaves

Jaya, Ekta and Abha (names changed) were housewives in the middle class locality of Mayur Vihar in East Delhi till a few years ago. Not any more. The trio is laughing their way to the bank every month. There are no bounds to their joy. The reason for their joy? The three of them have started preschools for tiny tots in DDA flats at their ground floor residence, with the verandah converted into a playground. Interestingly, the three schools started by these new enterpreneuers are closely located within 200 meters of each other!

This phenomenon is not limited to Mayur Vihar or Delhi. Preschools continue to mushroom across the metros, tier II and tier III cities. It can also be started in the house one lives and can manage to keep clean and decorated. The factors driving such an unprecedented growth can be attributed to rapid urbanisation, parents’ rising aspirations for quality education (English Convent education), improved affordability and more women joining the workforce.

For the uninitiated, preschools are a part of the non-formal education system. Emerging as a lucrative business for everybody, it is known by various names such as creche, nursery, kindergarten, home-based child care system, preparatory schools and nursery schools. The age for admission to these schools typically ranges between two and six years – the most crucial stage of for a child’s development.

Regardless of its spread and rising demand, the preschool sector operates without any formal guidelines. This means there are no rules on minimum age for admission, teacher-child ratio, curriculum, trained staff, sanitation and safety and security measures. As a consequence, monitoring of these schools has become difficult. This has placed the kids at the receiving end with maltreatment and even sexual assault.

Sample the following:
January 2014: Srinivas, 25, a bus driver at a preschool in Bangalore was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a two-and-a-half year old girl.

September 2014: A two-and-a-half year old child was repeatedly abused by Amit Kumar (22), a security guard-cum-help, who looked after the children in the absence of women staff at a playschool in Rohini, New Delhi.

October 2014: A 3-year old nursery student was allegedly sexually abused by office assistant Gundappa, 45, inside her class in Bangalore.

Low entry barriers, minimal investment and absence of regulations to oversee the preschool segment have attracted huge interest in this segment. No prior permission or licensing is needed and there is full freedom for promoters to design and develop learning programmes.

The preschool business operates in both the unorganised sector and by corporate. Some of the big businesses in India include Tree House, Bachpan, Euro Kids, Shemrock, Kangaroo Kids, Podar Jumbo Kids, Jumbo, Little Millenium, Apple Kids, Time Kids etc.

According to a Crisil research report, the preschool business is expected to touch Rs. 13,300 crore by 2015-16, out of which branded preschools are expected to contribute about Rs 4,500 crore. Similarly, another report estimates that the number of preschools in India will reach the 33,000 mark by the end of 2015, reporting a growth of 26 per cent annually.

Key Risks
• Increasing incidents of child abuse
• Exhorbitant fees
• No prior permission or licensing required to start these schools
• Quality of education or activities varies from institute to institute
• Curriculum needs to be streamlined
• Maintaining a proper teacher-child ratio, engagement of trained staff

Yet, the preschool industry is in its nascent stage in India with around 1.1 per cent enrolment as compared to France or Scotland where enrolment is 100 per cent.

According to leading research firm Gyan Research and Analytics Pvt. Ltd., the organised sector comprises 17 per cent of the industry, with the penetration rate expected to rise to 25 per cent by 2015, due to the rapid growth of preschools in Tier-III and Tier-IV cities. In this background, exercising any control over the preschools for quality assessment to regulate the standards of preschool education is a huge challenge.

Time and again, whenever stories of sexual assult are flashed by 24X7 electronic media, it manges to momentarily stir the nation’s collective conscience. Stakeholders equally voice their concern for the need for formulating guidelines focusing on minimum age for admission, teacher-child ratio, curriculum, trained staff, safety and security measures and monitoring of these schools. At all other times, it is seldom taken seriously.

Experts also estimate that the organised sector comprises 17 per cent of the industry, with the penetration rate expected to rise to 25 per cent by 2015, due to the rapid growth of preschools in Tier-III and Tier-IV cities. In this background, exercising any control over preschools for quality assessment to regulate the standards of preschool education is a huge challenge.

Of course, regulation is needed but it should not create Inspector raj and an avenue for extra income for those monitoring the sector. Raman Bajaj, Managing Director – Educomp Childcare Pvt. Ltd says, “Regulation is not necessarily a bad thing, but what we need is correct, meaningful and easily implementable regulation”.

“Regulations should not act as a disincentive…” he adds.

A S Ganesh, Founder & Managing Director, SMARTKiDZ Educare India Pvt Ltd. also believes that preschools should be regulated. “Running a preschool business in India provides the freedom to design and adapt the curriculum and has resulted in a lot of variation in the learning programmes.”

However, Ganesh acknowledges, there has been no system designed to measure the quality and output of the education programmes that have been designed for these tiny tots. Similarly, there are no parameters for the admission criteria for these schools. Thus, kids enter schools from various socio-economic backgrounds, study in varied education patterns and enter primary schools with a variation in knowledge and understanding.”

Parameters that measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the early education imparted in preschools should be in place, he argues. “This quality assessment helps safeguard early education and helps in regulating the standards of preschool education. By doing so, the unbranded schools which follow little or no norms will be stopped, he says.”

Even as educators debate over what should govern the preschool business-government regulations or peer assessment or self-governance, the business of preschools will only grow in coming years. Vittal Bhandary, Managing Director, Learning Edge India, has a different take on the issue of regulation. “Branded preschools have their own way of regulating safety, hygiene, sanitation, curriculum delivery and teachers training. These are part of our policies and we have a robust team to audit this from time to time,” he says. His fear is somewhat different. “The moment these regulations go to a government body, it can lead to a lot of corruption,” he argues.

To say that the preschool market in India is flourishing and rapidly expanding would be to stress the obvious. Fuelled by increased investments by existing companies and expansion into smaller towns and cities of India, the preschool segment is expected to generate revenues of US $3.24 billion by 2017. No wonder, several global preschool chains are eyeing business opportunities in the country. Latest in the list is UK-based Modern Montessori International (MMI) Group which is in plans to expand its reach in India by doubling preschool teacher training centres and franchisees for running kindergarten classes through major corporations. Having first forayed into the Indian market in early 2003, the group estimates a demand for 1,00,000 such educationists over the next 10 years.

Even as preschool businesses helps its owners and franchisee owners fulfil their own entrepreneurial aspirations, achieve higher profits every year, it would serve all the stakeholders better if the sector is regulated.

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Product Categories
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• A part of $6 Bn HCL group
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DigiSchool USPs
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Power to User
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