Pre-school enlightenment

The Rs 50-crore group, with interests in automotive components and international trading, now wants to professionalise the disorganised pre-school sector. It set up Best Entertainment to kickstart its pre-school project with The Banyan in south Delhi. And a few months into the business, the company is already planning to expand.

"We're looking seriously at Chandigarh as it's an upcoming market," says Jain. The idea is to expand The Banyan into a chain of 50 play schools by 2007. The estimated investment in the project is approximately Rs 1 crore per school.

The Banyan is a joint venture between Best Entertainment and the US-based Magellan Academy. "Our foreign partner has 20 per cent equity in the venture. Moreover, it also provides us with technical inputs which includes lesson plans, teaching aids and training manuals for the staff," says Jain.

The Banyan has facilities to teach children from the age of nine months to four years. But isn't nine months too young an age for a child to be in school? "By that age, a child becomes observant and extremely curious," explains Jain.

His school has four programmes "" Playnest, Cuddle Bugs, Caterpillars and Butterflies "" for various age groups. The curricula range from helping tiny tots explore new things to interacting and establishing relationships to developing a child's numerical abilities and word formation.

"We feel our job is to prepare a child for a formal school as well as to develop his inherent curiosity and social skills," observes Jain. He adds that for the fees charged "" Rs 1,900 to Rs 3,500 depending upon the class "" the services provided are top of the line. The Banyan's USP, he claims, is the video cameras fitted inside each classroom.

Parents, who want to check what their ward is up to, can log on to the school's website and see live web streaming. The school fee also includes vegetarian meals provided to the children.

Jain is taking his new venture seriously. "The pre-school sector is growing at roughly 20 per cent per year. For us this is just a stepping stone. In a couple of decades we hope to grow into a full-fledged chain of mainstream schools," he adds.