Dr Colonel Atul Bhandari, School Management Expert

Introduction

Schools are as essential to a nation as the health care industry, or as important as providing food and water to the citizens. Regardless of the political party in power and regardless of the effects of inflation, Schools are and always will be a priority domain for the country.

Market Trends

As a natural process of evolution, the key market trends in the School Industry are enumerated below.

1. Growth: Because of demographic reasons, there is a big market for Education in India. It is the largest Education system in the world. The School Industry is likely to grow in the coming years, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of around 11 percent.
2. Focus on Tier 2 Cities: Earlier quality education was available only in the Metros and Tier 1 cites. It has now started coming to Tier 2 and even Tier 3 cities, with great success. Due to this development, a void in our Education System has started filling up. Some influential players have already stepped into this earlier neglected Sector and have even become Unicorn companies due to their success in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Hence, it is good from the business point of view and is also good for the country, since quality education is now reaching Tier 3 cities.
3. School Management Outsourced: Outsourcing of the Management of Schools is now getting more and more popular. School Management Experts run the School on behalf of the owners, who in most cases are unaware of the Best Practices in running a School. Profit sharing is done with the owners on prior agreed terms. I expect that the Outsourced Management Model of running Schools will gain more popularity, in the coming months.
4. Hybrid Schools: Online and offline (face-to-face) teaching is now here to stay. This would imply more training of teachers in delivery of online classes, greater requirements of IT Network infrastructure by Schools, larger requirements of Bandwidth and so on. This is good news for the IT industry, which should rise to the occasion and support the School Industry, in providing IT infrastructure and manpower to Schools.
5. Residential Schools: Residential Schools have a bright future. Given the high pollution levels in the metro’s and in the other big cities, plus the decreasing time available to parents as in many cases both parents are working, parents are now likely to increasingly opt for Residential Schools, in cities like Dehradun, Mussoorie, Kasauli, etc.
6. Entrepreneurship: This subject is becoming increasingly popular and is likely to grow in the coming years. Schools that claim themselves to be an ‘Entrepreneurship Schools’ have already begun operations in some cities.
7. School Fees: Schools are likely to face more difficulty in increasing fees, due to government controls and populist measures. If this happens, the first casualty would be the salary of teachers.
8. Addition of More Technology: In an attempt to show that they are not left behind in the Ed-tech blitzkrieg, Schools are now likely to opt for more technology like Virtual Reality, to augment the teaching – learning process in their School.

Summary

Like any other industry, the School Industry is continually evolving. It is a good time to develop the Outsourced Management Model of Schools. It is also a good time to invest in Schools in India.