Ignite

Education
Objective
Idea for ensuring primary
education accessible to masses

Kumar Gaurav Gupta

IIm Indore

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Snapshot: Status of Primary education

Structure Infrastructure

 87.23 % schools are located in  Of the total schools opened since

the rural areas 1994-95, about 68.28 % were primary
schools and most of these also had
 91 percent of the total primary their school building
schools are located in rural areas
 71.31% primary schools have pucca
 Uttar Pradesh with highest no. of buildings as compared to 9.47%
districts has highest no of schools having partially pucca and another
1.98 % kuchcha buildings
 65.67 % are independent primary
schools  Have an average of 2.7 instructional
rooms
 83.14 % of the total schools are
government run school  Least percentage (66.07) of good
Increase in Expenditure as % of GDP classrooms and 23.01 % classrooms
 GPI of 0.92 in Primary needed minor repairs and 10.92 %
Second Largest Education System in the World major repairs
 About 48 % (15,791 schools) of the
total schools without enrolment are  42 Students per classroom, higher
the Primary schools than other types of schools

In spite of the adoption of  1.29 % primary schools have no

'mission mode' to universalize  1.29 % primary schools have no
teacher and another 16.58 % are teacher and another 16.58 % are
elementary
single teacher schools single teacher schools
education, the dropout rate
continues to be high
 Pupil teacher ration of 76:1  81.12 % primary schools have drinking
water facility in school

Source: Based on research done by DISE in 11,24,033 schools, 2006

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Increase in Enrolment But Dropout remains high…

Poor Economic Condition

Demographic and regional disparity

Lack of
Adequate Infrastructure / Poverty problems
Facilities
Absenteeism Lot of schools lack in adequate toilet facilities
of Teachers
High Opportunity Costs in the form of lost value from child labor
and the perceived lack of any economic return
Inadequate
Supervision Lack of vocational opportunities even after 12th
of Local
Authorities

 According to official sources, the dropout rate at

the primary level (Class I to V) for girls is 33.72% and
52.79% dropout in elementary and for boys it is 35.5%
primary
 Dropout rates are even more alarming at
the elementary level (Class I to VIII) where 53.45% of
girls and 52.28% of boys drop out of school

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Hence, Key Pain Points and Possible Options…

Poor Economic Condition Make it affordable: Micro financing

could be one solution

Low awareness among Educate Parents

parents

Complement primary
Perceived Opportunity Cost is education with vocational
High training

Lack of Community Pressure Build Community Ownership,

Community based Schools

Inadequate Facilities Partner with an Entrepreneur

/Private Investor

Large disbursal of allocated

Funds without any Collaborative Partnership
supervision with Private Player

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There has been already one business model…

Case Study: Gyaana

Introduction
 Won the Social Enterprise track of the annual HBS Business Plan contest in 2003
 3 Founders:
 Harvard Business School MBA '03 students Raj De Datta, Arvind Krishnamurthy, and Meghna
Modi
 Genesis of Gyaana
 Two observations
 Critical importance of education as the building block of any initiative to empower the poor
and the equally critical importance of available credit to allow poorer families to invest in their
future
 Absence of application of concepts of microfinance to the problems of education

Business Model
 Brokering microfinance loans to families in the service of keeping schoolchildren in the classroom
 Three Phases:
 I Phase: Formal education from Classes VI – VIII
 II Phase: Two years of vocational training
 III Phase: Asking the children to pay back loans with accrued interest

Current Status: No information available on Internet

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 Proposed Solution

Objective
Solution for providing good quality primary education to the masses, at the lowest
possible price
Proposed Solution
A chain of primary schools operating on collaborative model where all the stake
holders have fractional ownership*

Entrepreneur

Government

Community

Micro-Finance
*the focus is on providing quality education and reduce
drop outs Organization

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 Proposed Solution: Key Characteristics

Fractional ownership of the trust that owns the chain of schools. Stakeholders involved:

 Brings money and operational experience

Private Players  Ensures there is transparency in operations
 Also ensures that infrastructure is well placed
 Owns majority of stakes

Through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Initiative* would ensure that following regulations are followed:
 It (society/trust) shall ensure that the school is run as a community service and not as
a business and that commercialization does not take place in the school in any shape
whatsoever.
Government  It shall ensure that the funds accruing from the school are spent for the benefit of the
school and for its expansion.
 Assists in development of school through both financial incentives such as subsidies in land
etc and other operational helps such as recruitment of teachers etc
 Performs sanity check and prevents any wrong doing

Micro Finance
 Partnership to provide education loan through community lending or SHGs
Organization

 Even the small section owns some stakes

 This could be done through performing their bit , for instance some one can
Community help in building toilets. The economic benefits from the same can be translated in
stakes.
 This would develop a feeling of belongingness and would initiate cycle of
educating a community at large about the benefits of education
Please refer to appendix slide

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Proposed Solution: Business Model

School

Development
Phase

3 Stakeholders join and Build the school

Operational
Phase Government
involvement
ensures
Education loan is used to subsidies
Microfinance organization gives education loan to pay school fees
parents of young students @ low interest rate fees and
other
Even teachers comes from facilities
Option to go
the same community hence, for vocational
income generated is going training Trust
Hence, over a back in the system that owns the
period of time school
Teacher Training school operated in
this would partnership with Govt. and private
become a self player to prepare teachers from the Trust pays salaries and
sustaining cycle same community
other expenses

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 Proposed Solutions

Target Segment

 Based on the data provided by government, rural areas should be the real beneficiary
of the proposed solution
 Community based model inline with govt. initiative of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
 The model can also be replicated in backward areas of urban regions
 The fees would be in the range of Rs. 50-150*.

Benefits
 Affordable and quality education to masses Challenges
 Adequate facilities  Managing multiple parties as
 Ownership also ensures higher participation and owners may be difficult
accountability
 Educating people to send their
 Optimum Teacher to pupil ratio kids to school taking education
 Efficient utilization of government funds loans may be difficult
 Increase in self-confidence
 Community development  Novelty of idea may result in
friction initially
Exactly a bottom of pyramid opportunity , hence high potential but would
take considerable time to materialize

*Completely based on market benchmarks and may vary on calculations

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Proposed Solution: Pilot and Roll Out

List from DISE

As per the report “Elementary education in India:

progress towards universal elementary education
2006-07 (2008), following states should be targeted:

Top Five
 Kerala, Puducherry, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, and
Chandigarh were the top five performing States

Bottom Five
 Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh
and Assam took the bottom five places

Government Support

Enrollment Ratios

Market Feasibility

Pilot should be in Kerala and then expand to MP

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Appendix

 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

 An effort to universalize elementary education by community-ownership of the
school system. It is in response to the demand for quality basic education all
over the country
 The SSA programme is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving
human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality
education in a Mission mode

Two Tier Structure

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