EDUCATIONAL BUSINESS

MODEL – THE INDIAN

CONTEXT

Submitted By:
AMBER DAS
 Scenario of Education Sector in India

Introduction
India holds an important place in the global education industry. India has one of the largest networks of
higher education institutions in the world. However, there is still a lot of potential for further
development in the education system.
Moreover, the aim of the government to raise its current gross enrolment ratio to 30 per cent by 2020
will also boost the growth of the distance education in India.

Market Size
India has the world’s largest population of about 500 million in the age bracket of 5-24 years and this
provides a great opportunity for the education sector. The education sector in India is estimated at US$
91.7 billion in FY18 and is expected to reach US$ 101.1 billion in FY19.
Number of colleges and universities in India reached 39,931 and 993, respectively in 2018-19. India had
37.4 million students enrolled in higher education in 2018-19. Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher
education reached 26.3 per cent in 2018-19.
The country has become the second largest market for e-learning after the US. The sector is expected to
reach US$ 1.96 billion by 2021 with around 9.5 million users.

Recent Trends
India’s education sector offers a great opportunity with approximately 29 per cent of India’s population
in the age group of 0 to 14 years. India’s higher education segment is expected to increase to Rs 2,44,824
crore (US$ 35.03 billion) by 2025. India was ranked 34 among the 100 countries in English Proficiency
Index 2019. Increasing internet penetration is expected to help in education delivery. As of September
2019, internet penetration in India reached 52.08 per cent.
India has over 250 million school going students, more than any other country. It also has one of the
largest networks of higher education institutions in the world. Number of colleges and universities in
India reached 39,931 and 993, respectively, in FY19. India had 37.4 million students enrolled in higher
education in 2018-19. Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education reached 26.3 per cent in FY19.
The Central Government plans to disburse US$ 1 billion to states for introducing skill development
initiatives. Skill India Mission 2015 is aimed at skilling 400 million Indian youths by 2022. As of
January 2020, there were 14,602 Industrial Training Institutes in the India. Skill India program has
benefitted more than one crore (10 million) youth annually. Under Union Budget 2019-20, the
Government provided Rs 400 crore (US$ 57.23 billion) for ‘World Class Institutions’. 56 institutes were
represented from India in the Times Higher Education (THE) Emerging Economies University
Rankings 2020.
Education sector in India remains to be a strategic priority for the Government. The Government has
allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the education sector through the automatic
route since 2002. Total FDI inflow in India’s education sector stood at US$ 3.24 billion between April
2000 to March 2020 according to the data released by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal
Trade (DPIIT).
The Government is working on the draft of the New Education Policy to address the changing dynamics
in the education industry of the country as per the requirement of its population. According to Mr
Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New National
Education Policy draft is ready and would be given to the central Government. According to Union
Budget 2020-21, the Government has allocated Rs 59,845 crore (US$ 8.56 billion) to the Department
of School Education and Literacy. Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022
was announced in Union Budget 2020-21 at an outlay of Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 429.55 million).
In May 2020, the Government launched PM e-VIDYA, a programme for multi-mode access to
digital/online education. Other initiatives to be launched include Manodarpan, New National
Curriculum and Pedagogical framework, National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission.
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 Snapshot Of Indian Education Industry

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 Paradigm Shift in Indian Education System

India has always been famous for gaining education since the Vedic period. In ancient times, India had
the Guru Kula system of education in which anyone who wished to study went to a teacher’s (Guru)
house and requested to be taught. If accepted as a student, the guru allows the student to stay at his place
and help in all activities at home. This not only created a strong tie between the teacher and the student
but also taught the student everything about running a house. The guru teaches the student everything
that he wants to learn, from Sanskrit to the Holy Scriptures and from Mathematics to Metaphysics. The
student stayed as long as he wished or until the guru felt that he had taught everything he could teach.
All of the learning was closely linked to nature and to life, and not just confined to memorizing some
information.
Until the 17th century, India was considered one of the richest country in the world. However, due to
the arrival of the foreign colonizers and the wrong policies of the then rulers, India lost almost all its
richness wealth wise as well as knowledge-wise. Originally, Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay brought
the modern school system to India, including the English language, in the 1830s. The educational
program was restricted to the so-called modern subjects such as science and mathematics, and subjects
like metaphysics and philosophy were considered unnecessary. The teaching was confined only to
classrooms and the link with nature and the close relationship between the teacher and the student was
broken.
The modern education system has been supported by one formula: ‘cheap, required and customary
education to all’. Even people are able to decide by their conscience that what means of education are
going to be best suited to them. Still, many people are ignoramus regarding words and literacy.
Therefore, they are within the necessity to urge a correct education. It is required to supply education to
all, as other nations are so much ahead within the field of education. It is all in the hand of the
government that what ought to be the exact type of system in which education for all is secured.
Moreover, even the government has taken nice measures to extend the level of education.

Features of Modern Education System in India:

 A system of obligatory education to all or any children up to the year of fourteen. Under this age, all
children must be given education in any government or private school.
 If any child is forced to do any other job excluding from being educated the person concerned in such
activities will be treated as per law.
 After gaining primary education, a child can be given secondary education.
 For providing this level of education each, the central and state governments are involved through their
boards, which are created for this purpose.
 There are also private boards who conduct a high school or intermediate exams.
 After their 10+2 (secondary schooling), a person can pursue bachelor, master and an alternative
specialization degree in several fields of their selection

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 Advantages Lying with India Pertaining to Education Industry

Country with the Best Education System – A Case from Finland

considering some factors like developed education system for the public, quality of basic and higher
education and rate of students attending university and according to a survey made recently, Finland
has the world’s best education system. The country has been in the limelight since the year 2000 and
successfully made into the year 2020.

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 In fact, when five new parameters were added in the year 2017 for the categorization of best education
systems worldwide, Finland managed to perform well and gave a strong competition to South Korea
and Japan. The country ranked higher on indicators, like;
 Teachers to student ratio
 Number of passing students in primary schools
 Number of passing students in secondary schools

Why does Finland rank as the Top Education System in the World?
 Finland offers free education to citizens with no dead ends.
 The country has been a top performer on every program for International Student Assessment Survey.
 Finland follows American education research and philosophers.(Ex: John Dewey), and are inspired by
them
The education system of Finland is celebrated in great esteem and is considered as one of the best
education systems in the world. For years, this country outperformed the United States in science, math,
and reading.

What are the Major Principles outlaying Finland’s Education System?

There are a couple of facts behind this:
 They have shorter school days(190 days per year)
 There are certain core principles underlying the education system of Finland
 Students are free to choose their educative path
Let’s see how the Education System works in Finland
Finland’s early education system is laid around the concept of learning through play. Until the age of
6, students aren’t required to attend schools. They provide basic education when the child turns 7. For
the next nine years, they follow a single structure education. They take special steps to revise and revamp
their curriculum to meet the needs of each individual. The Finnish National Agency for
Education promotes self-evaluation for both teachers and schools to help them improve them. Also,
Finland does not incorporate national standardized testing but they do evaluations for testing learning
outcomes. One of the other striking features is the free meals.The upper secondary education is split
into two- General and Vocational.
In general education, students have all the freedom to choose their study schedules and in the end, they
need to attend a matriculation exam. And these scores are counted for their college applications.
Vocational education is job focused whereas school learning and apprenticeships go hand in hand.
Students achieve competence-based qualifications after this.
Higher secondary education is also completely free. Students need to pay only for their books,
transportation, and other school supplies. The colleges of Finland are divided into two- Universities and
Universities of applied sciences. The Universities in Finland, focus on applied sciences, whereas, the
Universities of applied sciences stress on practical applications.
How is Finland able to provide universal and comprehensive education to all
citizens?
The Finnish people value education and put their time to build a system that adheres to the best
education research.

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 Interventions that can improve the quality of education in Developing
Countries
Policy Interventions that can act as the main drivers of change to improve education quality and student
learning in developing countries are:
Supply-Side Interventions:
These aim to raise student achievements by targeting infrastructure or organizational deficiencies
through, for example, improving physical infrastructure, providing teaching materials, and training and
hiring extra teachers.
Financial resources provided by governments and/or aid-funded programmes can take the form of
directed or generalized financial allocations to improve physical conditions of existing schools, or
involve the construction of new schools. Teaching materials can include computers, flip-charts, and
textbooks. Hiring extra teachers aims to decrease the prevailing high teacher–pupil ratios in many
developing countries, and also complement permanent teachers with younger, often more motivated,
temporary teachers.
Behavioural Interventions:
These interventions use incentives to influence behaviour and intertemporal preferences of teachers,
households, and students. Incentives for teachers seek to improve the quality of teaching, whereas
incentives for students and parents are concerned more with behaviours and preferences that affect the
demand for and utilization of education services.
Participatory and Community Management Interventions:
These are usually implemented through decentralization reforms, knowledge diffusion, and increased
community participation in the management of education systems.

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 Therefore, interventions are more effective at improving student performance and learning when social
norms and intertemporal choices are factored in the design of education policies, and when two or more
drivers of change are combined. Thus, supply-side interventions alone are less effective than when
complemented by community participation or incentives that shift preferences and behaviours.

Developing An Educational Programme – The Indian Context

Problem
Every year, 440,000 low-income high school seniors who are qualified to go to college do not enroll;
85% of them never even fill out a college application (Hahn and Price, 2008). This is in large part
because low-income students face a college application information gap: they have limited access to
information about which colleges to apply to, how to complete a college application, what a good
application essay looks like, and how to navigate the complicated financial aid process. Low-income
high schools are drastically understaffed: one college counselor may serve as many as 740 students.
Moreover, less than half of low-income high school students report receiving help from an adult in
preparing for college (Ad Council 2006).
Attending college is one of the best ways to advance economically; without the information and
guidance necessary to apply to college, many low-income students are deprived of the opportunity to
escape poverty.

Concept
Our Idea is to bridge this information and knowledge gap so that low-income students who want to
apply to college have the same opportunities as their high-income peers.
Our idea is to develop a web-based platform where low-income high school seniors (“Applicants”) are
matched with undergraduate students at top universities (“Mentors”) who serve as volunteer college
counselors throughout the course of the student’s application process. Using an in-depth curriculum,
Mentors will work one-on-one with Applicants on the website to navigate the college application
process: where and when to apply, how to write a compelling admissions statement, how to fill out
scholarship forms—providing the same services for free that currently only privileged students can
afford. The entire guidance relationship takes place online, allowing us to overcome geographic and
logistical barriers that have impeded the effectiveness of other volunteer guidance organizations

Mission
Idea is to provide low-income students who are qualified to go to college with the means to get there.
We eliminate the college application information gap by matching our Applicants with students from
top colleges who guide them through the college application and financial aid process via our interactive
online platform.

Theory of Change
If we provide low-income students with personalized college application assistance, then they will get
into better colleges and have improved life options and opportunities.

Market Analysis
We plans to target the 440,000 low-income students who are qualified to go to college but do not enroll.
We will recruit students from schools, which have the largest concentration of low-income students, by
reaching out to teachers and staff at those schools. In our first year, we will serve 90 Applicants, and
grow to serve over 6,000 by our sixth year.
While there are many organizations that offer college counseling, We will be the first to provide free,
personalized college assistance to low-income students anywhere in the country. This gives us a first-
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 mover advantage, establishing our plan as the main source for college counseling to low-income
students.

Financial Plan
Our model projects that we will be cash-flow positive by our third year of operation. Our expenses will
be driven mainly by web-development and personnel costs, and will gradually grow from $325,000 in
year one to $650,000 in year six as we double our headcount to accommodate increased web traffic and
recruitment efforts. We will be financed mainly by grants and individual donations, and will slowly
introduce additional revenue streams including advertising and corporate partnership.

Operations
In our first year, we will draw Mentors from three universities, and expand to work with the top 200
colleges by our fifth year. In each university that we work with, we will recruit a Campus Leader—a
student leader who will serve to recruit Mentors and serve as a liaison between Mentor and our
organization.
Our organization’s headquarters will be based in Patna, Bihar. Employees will be based out of our
headquarters, though employees will have the option of working remotely.

Key Elements for Success

There are four key elements that we need in order to be successful: qualified Applicants, dedicated
Mentors, effective Campus Leaders, and a user-friendly and functional web-based platform

Qualified Applicants
For a high school student to be eligible for our platform they must meet two criteria: 1) they must be
enrolled at a Tire I school and 2) they must be college qualified. Applicants sign up on our platform for
a Mentor during September of their senior year. They will supply basic information about their
academics, interests, and career goals, so they can be matched with a Mentor with a similar profile.
Before being matched with a Mentor, Applicants will have to watch a series of video tutorials about the
basics of applying to and attending college. This is both to give the Applicant some foundational
information as well as to ensure that they are willing to put in the necessary effort to persist throughout
the application process. There will be information on the website specifically for parents, so that they
can be involved and understand the process that their child will be guided through-out on our platform.

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 Dedicated Mentors
Each Applicant will be matched with a Mentor who has recently gone through the college application
process and has successfully gained admission to a top-tier school. Unlike the Applicants, who
automatically qualify to be a participant as long as they meet the eligibility requirements, the Mentors
will be subject to a rigorous application process. Specifically, we are looking for Mentors who exemplify
our three criteria: responsible for their work, respectful of others, and relentless in their commitment to
help others.
Mentors will fill out a questionnaire which will gauge their interests and background, similar to the
questionnaire that the Applicants complete, in order to facilitate the matching process. They will also
go through a series of training videos to ensure that they learn 1) how to navigate the website, 2) the
timeline and their responsibilities as Mentors, and 3) the process for helping the Applicants. Mentors
will also be trained on the ethics behind helping Applicants, including the difference between helping
the Applicant and doing the work for them.
Once recruited and trained, Mentors will be responsible for several tasks, including:
Helping their Applicant think through which colleges to apply to;
Advising their Applicant on who to seek out for recommendations;
Reviewing application essays;
Navigating the financial aid process;
Ensuring that their Applicant completes requirements, meets our milestones, and submits applications
on time; and
Answering questions, offering general advice, and providing strong encouragement throughout the
process.
In total, Mentors will devote 30-40 hours to working with their Applicant during the course of the year.

Effective Campus Leaders

Campus Leaders are college students that we will select to run our chapter at each university in which
we operate. Rather than directly recruiting large numbers of Mentors in each college, we will recruit
one or two Campus Leaders, and the Campus Leaders will be responsible for recruiting Mentors at their
respective universities.
The ability to recruit effective Campus Leaders will be a top priority for us, as the strength of Campus
Leaders will drive our supply of Mentors. We will look for four criteria in Campus Leaders: drive,
responsibility, ability to motivate others, and dedication to our mission. Potential leaders will be required
to go through a rigorous selection process, which will include a written application and a phone
interview.
In addition to recruitment of Mentors, Campus Leaders will also be in charge of communicating
regularly with Mentors to ensure that they are on track, communicating with our staff members to ensure
alignment with our curricula, and maintaining a community of Mentors at their university through social
events and meet-ups.
Web-Based Platform
The interactions between the Applicant and Mentor will take place through our web- based platform.
The website will have several important features:
Applications for both Applicants and Mentor, and a matching algorithm which will pair up the Mentors
and Applicants based on their background, interests and hobbies, and career goals;
Foundational videos for Applicants and their parents;
Tutorial and training videos for Mentors, which will prepare Mentors to guide their Applicants through
the application process, as well as a series of assessments to ensure that Mentors have learned the
training materials;
An interactive platform where Applicants and Mentors can edit simultaneously, chat, and video chat.

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 Value Proposition
Our product creates value both to the Applicant and to society.
Value for Applicant
Our primary value proposition is to reduce the cost of achieving education to the Applicant. We do this
in three ways:
Reducing information costs: By making information that is relevant for college applications free and
accessible for all high school students, we will allow both students and their parents to learn about the
details of applying to, attending, and paying for college;
Reducing application support costs: By providing low-income students with free college counseling
services, we provide them an opportunity to compete with their high-income peers who often have adult
support and assistance with their applications; and
Reducing dollar costs: By assisting Applicants to identify and apply for college fee waivers,
scholarships, and grants, we will work to save each Applicant hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to
make college affordable.
In addition, because the end goal of our organization is to get its Applicants into college, we offer our
“customers” the added value that comes with a post-secondary education. Studies over the last decade
have confirmed that college graduates reap significant benefits over those that stop at high school
(College Board). Compared to high school graduates, college graduates:
Earn nearly $1 million more over a lifetime;
Have half the unemployment rate;
Have one-third the incarceration rate;
Require $800-$2,700 less in social programs each year; and
Have more educated children.

Value for Society

The financial return to society for a program like ours’s is substantial. Not only does it provide intangible
benefits to the Applicant in the form of increased exposure to diversity of ideas and cultures, but also to
society in the form of economic benefit. A first-pass analysis suggests that the net present return on
investment in an Applicant is over $45,000, the bulk of which is derived from the increased income
open to college graduates and graduates of higher tier institutions. We expect this sort of return to attract
strong foundation investment, especially after proof-of-concept.

Social Return of Investment

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 Measuring Performance
To ensure high-quality, high-efficiency delivery of our services, we expect to track our progress in four
critical target areas of performance:

Driving Operational Success for Our Applicants

Getting students accepted into colleges that match their qualifications is the fundamental goal of our
organization. Leading indicators that will allow us to measure this success include the percentage of
Applicants “on-track” with curriculum and the portion of available Mentor capacity being used in a
given reporting period. Lagging indicators include the percentage of Applicants accepted to at least one
college, the percentage of applications that result in acceptances, the number of dollars saved (e.g., via
scholarship or application waivers) per Applicant, and the Applicant attrition rate. In addition, we will
track growth indicators such as year-on-year growth in number of applications. With time, we will build
the capacity to track Applicants post- application, measuring enrollment and matriculation rates, as well
as conducting fit surveys to measure the effectiveness of our Mentors to help match Applicants with
good fit schools.
Providing High-Performing Platform Functionality
To provide Mentor services, we must have an operational platform that can handle high levels of
Applicant/Mentor traffic. Metrics include the number of unique site hits by our Applicants, results of
Quality Control audits, and feedback from Applicants and Mentors.

Ensuring High Levels of Customer Service

Our services are only effective if all of our stakeholders are satisfied with how our processes work. To
this end, we will regularly survey Applicants, Mentors, and Campus Leaders to gauge satisfaction and
solicit their suggestions for continuous improvement.

Sustaining Success While Maintaining Cost-Efficiency

We believe we can deliver superior service at lower costs than private counselors by leveraging
volunteers and consolidating the disparate information available on the college process into a concise
and navigable framework. To ensure this cost-efficiency, we will measure the number of dollars spent
per Applicant (expecting huge scale advantages over time) and our fundraising ratio.

Together, these four categories of performance will comprise our executive scorecard that will
holistically guide our operational, financial, and growth decisions.
Sample Scorecard

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 Performance Metrics

Metric Description Leading/Laggin

g
% Applicants on or
Applicant “on track” rate Lead
past timeline
milestones
% of Mentors with
Mentor utilization rate Lead
an assigned
Drive Applicant
operational Average number of
success for our Active applications / Applicant Lead
applications /
Applicants Applicant
% Applicants accepted to
% Applicants accepted Lag
at least one college

% of applications
Acceptances / application Lag
accepted by the college

Average $ saved via

Tuition saved per Applicant Lag
financial aid assistance

Provide # unique site hits in

Non-Applicant traffic level Lead
high- last reporting cycle
performing
Monthly count of
platform Instances of downage Lag
reported websites
functionality
downages
Satisfaction level of
Ensure high Mentor approval rate Lag
existing Mentors
levels of
customer Satisfaction level of
Applicant approval rate Lag
service existing Applicants

Average total
Dollars spent / Applicant Lag
expenditure per
Sustain success Applicant
while % of donations devoted
maintaining Fundraising ratio Lag
to fundraising activity
cost- efficiency
% of revenue from
% non-donation non- donation sources Lag
(e.g. advertising)

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 Potential Grants

Type Organization Website

Braitmeyer Foundation http://www.braitmayerfoundation.org/

Seed Funding http://www.citigroup.com/citi/foundation/gran

Citi Foundation
t_us.htm

http://www.darden.com/commitment/commu
Darden Foundation
nity/grants.asp

1675 Foundation www.1675foundation.org

Operational http://www.citigroup.com/citi/foundation/gran
Funding Citi Foundation
t_us.htm

http://www.usbank.com/cgi_w/cfm/about/co
US Bancorp Foundation
mmunity_relations/grant_guidelines.cfm

Echoing Green www.echoinggreen.org

Fellowships
Mind Trust www.mindtrust.org

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_U
3M Community Giving
S/CommunityAffairs/CommunityGiving/

Ambrose Monell http://www.monellvetlesen.org/monell/default

Foundation .htm

http://www.att.com/gen/corporate-
AT&T Foundation
Non-Specific citizenship?pid=17884

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Abou
Deloitte Future Fund t/Community-Involvement/signature-
issues/future-fund/index.htm

http://www.freddiemacfoundation.org/grants/
Freddie Mac Foundation
applprocess.html

http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Cor
J.P. Morgan Chase porate-Responsibility/corporate-
philanthropy.htm

Michael and Susan Dell http://www.msdf.org/Grants/Grant_Applicatio

Foundation n/Online_Grant_Proposal.aspx

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 References

Indian Brand Equity

Sociologygroup.com
Edsys.in
International Journal of Educational Development
Wider.unu.edu
hbs.edu

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