A few days ago I received a mail from Vardan Kabra and Arvind Kumar, both of whom have just graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. They have started Fountainhead Schools, an entrepreneurial venture that will set up and run a school with the eventual goal of building a chain of schools across the country. They are in the process of finalising their business plan, raising finances for their venture and identifying the location of their first school.
According to Vardan and Arvind,
There is an enormous demand-supply gap for schools that can provide high quality education vis-a-vis the unimaginative and poor-quality education offered by the majority of existing Indian schools. The Fountainhead vision is to open a chain of innovative high quality schools throughout India that will bridge this gap.Fountainhead schools is the dream of two final year students of IIM, Ahmedabad. The genesis of this dream is a strong entrepreneurial urge coupled with the desire to make a significant contribution to the schooling sectors in India.
The concept of Fountainhead is built around the five pillars of
- Child-centric innovations
- Pedagogical innovations
- Methods to maximize parental involvement
- Teacher-centric management innovations, and
- Infrastructural enhancers of the learning process
This unique concept with the professional managerial capabilities of the team will be the key differentiators of the school.
It is heartening to hear of Vardan and Arvind's decision to get into the area of education, which badly needs a fresh infusion of ideas and managerial talent. For more details about their venture, please contact Vardan and Arvind.
The Times of India carried a story on Vardan about a month ago.
For Vardan Kabra, an Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) graduate, the goal is clear — to build a school with a difference. Even as his batchmates left the campus with job offers from a slew of MNCs and top Indian corporates, 24-year-old Vardan chose to stay out of the placement process that got over earlier this week, a decision that the institute rarely comes across. He has already said no to a pre-placement offer of Rs 7 lakh from Procter and Gamble."I always wanted to become an entrepreneur and wanted to do something in the field of education. I have been dreaming for a long time about setting up a primary school, where teaching methods will be unique. Three of my batchmates, who share this dream, will be joining me after some years," says Vardan, who has done his engineering from IIT-Mumbai, before joining IIM-A. He did his schooling from DPS, RK Puram. Vardan, a Delhi boy, admits it was "hard saying no to the P&G offer".
But, once he had his goal set, there was no looking back. "Initially, even my parents were unhappy. Not because they did not subscribe to my ideology, but they had a doubt whether it was the right step for me to take — a boy from a middle-class family spurning a good offer from a big corporate. But now, they have come around," says Vardan. Initial reactions from his friends were of shock. " Yeh kya pagalpan hai (this is sheer madness), they would tell me," he adds.
Vardan has his task cut out. "It would take an initial investment of about Rs 2 crore to start with about 200 to 250 students. I want to zero in on a class I city like Surat or Indore and have already begun scouting for land. But the biggest task is to find people who will invest in the project. That effort is on and the IIM-A name is helping as it lends credibility," he says.
Vardan is also studying various models and consulting with experts to give shape to a curriculum and a way of teaching that would give children a unique education. Vardan is confident that all these efforts will not go to waste. For, he knows, it will "not be yet another runof-the-mill school".
Those who know him, know he can do it. "If you are ready to invest your life in a project, it has to be different. He can stand up to what he believes in and that will make him things happen for him," says Professor Anil Gupta of IIM-A, who has observed Vardan closely over the past two years. "I remember him joining the Shodh Yatra, a course where students are taken on an arduous trek through inhospitable terrain, where they get to discover another side to their personality and their skills. Vardan picked up a lot of experience during the yatra to Ladakh," says Gupta.
