Running a School to Challenge the Education Satraps – An Experiment and Experience

Across the country, private schools charge heavily but do not necessarily produce the promised outcomes. But the issue has some specific nuances in Bengaluru, as the education space in the city expanded dramatically over the last two decades.

?While the Technology industry started growing in the mid-90s, the pace scale accelerated in early 2000. Thousands of young professionals got recruited, who soon married and had children – the demand for schools grew.

?Like any other city in India, Bengaluru had its share of heritage schools – NPS, Bishop Cotton, Baldwin, St Joseph’s, etc. But the young immigrants to the city, with a high disposable income, and global exposure wanted schools that in a way reflect the academic institutions they saw when being abroad. And that kickstarted a new wave of schools in Bengaluru, which focused significantly beyond the core academics.

?Schools are now no more known for the building and the teachers and the curriculum, but also for the tennis court, auditorium, swimming pool, AC buses, astroturf, and a plethora of options for additional skills (like coaching by the Manchester United franchisee in the school grounds in the afterschool hours).

The International School Bangalore (TISB) was the pioneer in this space, targeting the NRI and global diaspora. This was followed by others like VIBGYOR, Greenwood High, Deens Academy, and many more.

?While they offered ICSE, CBSE, IB, or another curriculum, two things are everyday for all of them – high fees, and low transparency. The results were expected, of parents who were unhappy with the schools, but had limited alternatives.

?Things came in 2016 when significant protests broke outside some of the new age “Global/ International” schools. Parents showed placards, shouted slogans, or simply refused to pay the fees on time before the start of the academic year.

?In 2017, fourteen of us in the Whitefield area, who felt the same way about the high cost of suboptimal private education, came together to provide an alternative to willing parents. And Citizen Gurukul Trust was established, which started the Citizen Gurukul Playschool with the following guiding principles.

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1.??????The school will be run along with the parents.

2.??????All details of the school will be transparently discussed with the parents and staff. This includes financial details.

3.??????The Trustees will be encouraged to admit their kids into the school if they are of the age group.

4.??????Parents will be encouraged to participate in every way – in planning, as teachers, as staff, and as volunteers.

5.??????The school will be run will a zero-based budget – with target spending restricted to the target collection of the year. Apart from the fees, donations will be solicited, and if there is a gap the Trustees will backfill.

6.??????The fee for the year will be determined at the beginning of the year in discussions with all the stakeholders (trustees, parents, staff, and even the service providers if they are willing). Given the zero base budget, the fees will change yearly based on the plans, and can even vary across the months.

7.??????The capital expenditure will be zero in the initial years, and everything will be outsourced.

8.??????All stationery will be bought by the parents directly. School merchandise will be on an absolute need basis.

9.??????The details of all the staff members (experience and qualifications) will be available on the website, also that of the Trustees. The Trustees will be volunteers and neither they nor their families will have any commercial interest in running the school.

10.??All activities will be done with integrity and fairness, and if need be school will be closed rather than compromising them.

?We took up the first floor of a house near Hope Farm junction in Whitefield and started the school. We recruited teachers (one of the parents of a student who joined), found a postgraduate in microbiology as the coordinator, or, set up the playing arena (with rented furniture and accessories as much as possible). We set up the CCTV, gave advance to a driver to buy an old Maruti Omni to be used as a school bus, and secured the space for the kids.

?We stuck to our principles, but could not scale. We could get only seven students, including three from the trustees. And after a year, we had to close it down, with each of the remaining trustees (two resigned) paying around INR 85,000 each to cover the costs.

?Could you let me know why it didn't work? Why did fourteen well-meaning professionals fail to make the school a going concern? Well we as trustees identified the following reasons, and possibly that can be of some guidance for so many of us who feel that social problems are easy to solve – so long we are ready to invest time and money with sincerity. Here they are:

1.??????Many parents look for alternatives to the schools, and in principle agree with what we proposed. But when the moment of truth came, there were doubts about the reputation of the school, the delivery of the promises, and specifically the absence of classes beyond the Playschool.

2.??????The school selected to send the kid is a family decision, and often people beyond the parents are involved in the decision. It needs the conviction and concurrence of a large ecosystem to be the preferred school.

3.??????While many people agreed with the moral and ethical stance we took when it comes to a job everyone wants stability. It is very difficult to translate the trustee’s enthusiasm for an uncertain future to the staff members, given that the trustees have a profession beyond the school. Talent is a challenge, exacerbated by the absence of any premium in the compensation for the risk.

4.??????Running a school is no part-time job. It needs tremendous effort to build a brand, do outreach, convince the parents, recruit the staff, create the curriculum, manage the fracture, cater to regulatory authorities, and keep up the records. Unfortunately, none of the trustees could devote enough time, and funds were limited for onboarding full-time support.

5.??????The ecosystem is not geared to any reformist agenda. The approval for the school takes time, the bureaucracy is lethargic, and there is always the threat of rent-seekers. The service providers are keen to ensure that their interests are protected (though we were lucky to have some understanding partners).?