Announces Prep Schools to secondary schools of international standards in Bangalore, Belgaum, Hubli, by June 2008

Announces the setting up of Centre for Excellence – the first of its kind comprehensive holistic development platform for teachers

Pupil Tree, the education arm of the 500 million USD global company Future Tree Holdings today announced the expansion of Pupil Tree Learning Centres across Karnataka with the five centres coming up at Bangalore and two more in  Belgaum and Hubli.  The Pupil Tree has been successfully running an international quality school in Bellary for the last six years, and has three other prep schools in Bellary.  The Bangalore-based educational group is also introducing a “Centre for Excellence” at Bangalore, a first of its kind comprehensive holistic development platform to equip the teacher with the best practices of the industry, with access to educationists and thought leaders across the world. 

With a vision of providing quality and affordable education to one and all, Pupil Tree has been targeting students from varied backgrounds including children of plumbers, small farmers, autorickshaw drivers and masons along with the children of bank employees, college lecturers, and local government officials. 

Speaking about the need for quality education in rural areas, Mr. Prabhu Jahagirdar, Director, Future Tree Learning Services Pvt Ltd. “In our assessment of the smaller cities, we learned that almost all parents, no matter what background they come from, are interested to give the best of the education to their children if the education imparted is not very expensive and the method of teaching is accountable.  They felt that there were not enough options available to them.” 

As per the assessment, it was found that a plumber or a small farmer, in a small town with an annual income of over Rs. 1.5 Lakh, does not mind spending about Rs. 600/- to 1000/- per month on the education of his children, provided he is assured the education given is of the highest Quality. And he decides this aspect by the interest the child takes in his or her studies and the confidence she or he exudes.  “It is this attitude that Pupil Tree have been able to successfully bring about in the children in their school in Bellary during the last six years. And we plan to replicate this model in other smaller towns and cities by establishing comprehensive educational institutions across the state, and later expand our operations to other states and eventually go global. It is our firm belief that we can bring about a paradigm change if we change our approach to education,” added Mr. Jahagirdar.
 

“If we have to grow to the next stage of development in the world order we have to address the issue of How we impart education to our students”. 

Addressing the press conference, Mr. Jahagirdar said, “Our education system, as it exists today is struggling to meet this demand. Though many alternate forms of education have been followed by some educational institutions, they have been isolated drops, and at some stage have succumbed to the existing system. The question is, is there a way in which we can address the problem from within the existing framework, by bringing in a different approach to information access, knowledge dissemination and skill development.  The Pupil Tree approach basically answers this question.” 

The Pupil Tree is launching prep schools to secondary schools, with world-class facilities where teachers and mentors are supported by a series of programs to constantly upskill,  to drive the best practices and methodologies to the children in the schools at all locations. 

The Pupil Tree Schools are initially funded by the Future Tree Learning Services Trust, an international organization that is devoted to promoting Education to All Children Across the Board. Although the aim is to make each school self-sustaining, all schools are currently being funded by the Trust. Optimum costing is achieved by keeping the running costs low using local infrastructure and material for the building and extensively leveraging technology in teaching and upskilling the teaching staff. 

Speaking on the fee structure for the rural students, Mr. Jahagirdar added, “Although education is not completely free, over 25% of our students are on hundred percent scholarship. A highly subsidized amount is charged as tuition fee to ensure commitment to schooling and education from the parents and students.”

About Pupil Tree “Centre of Excellence”:               

As a part of `Training the Trainers Programs, ’ Pupil Tree today also announced the launch of a `Centre for Excellence’ in Bangalore, which will act as a comprehensive source of high quality induction and continuing education that includes modern best practices and techniques of learning and development, even while being embedded in the roots of India’s cultural heritage. 

Announcing the launch of the “Centre of Excellence,” Mr. Jahagirdar said, “Training the Trainers is another area we lay great emphasis on. Our Belief is `If a good teacher can reach a about a 1000 students in her life time, with technology we can ensure she touches millions. If the one who imparts education or teaches a subject is skilled enough so as to make the information he/she is giving interesting enough, even a drab subject like civics can be made exciting. This has been our philosophy and we have seen it happen at the class room level in Bellary.”
 

“Our approach since inception in 2001, when we set up our first international quality school targeted at the smaller cities, has been to develop a program with a clear focus on skill development that is accountable, track-able and traceable for both students and staff alike,” added Mr. Jahagirdar. 

The Competency Center will provide comprehensive, holistic training and development in all areas of learning, teaching, and school management to all stakeholders including the teachers, principals, administrators, counselors and parents. This includes career development for teachers, mentoring, developing domain expertise all within the existing framework. 

“This enabling and empowering ecosystem will, in turn, help us create an environment that nurtures the creativity of our children, celebrates their individuality, and enhances their confidence and competence, within the framework of academic skills and abilities,’’ remarks Mr. Jahagirdar emphatically.

The Competency Center will leverage technology extensively to ensure reach, efficiency and effectiveness of learning and development to teachers irrespective of geographical location.  The Competency Center which has been started primarily to create a pool of trained teachers, principals, counselors and administrators to meet the internal needs of the Pupil Tree group of schools, plans to expand its target segment and offer its successful programs to other educational institutions as well.

In addition to the more traditional methods of teacher re-skilling, Pupil Tree plans to use e-learning and other blends of new media to offer teachers rich and continuous learning experiences. The school’s collaborative platform will allow teachers to share experiences, learn student specific communication skills, develop work groups and networking platforms 

About Pupil Tree:

Established in 2001, Pupil Tree is into the business of Child Care and Education. It has expertise in child care, pre-school, primary and secondary education. It is supported and backed by Future Tree Holdings (FTH), a 500 million USD global company based in Singapore with interests in trading, manufacturing and mining; and a presence in Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Currently over 1500 students study in various institutes under the umbrella of The Pupil Tree schools. Over the next few years, The Pupil Tree team plans to set up pre-schools and mainstream schools across India and eventually go global.

The Pupil Tree offers comprehensive end-to-end educational services, called cradle to career services. These services encompass all educational needs such as Leadership development for principals and center heads, Teacher training and development, Parental learning, Curriculum planning and design, E-learning services, Vocational services, E-tutoring and Management services.

For more information on Pupil Tree, visit www.pupiltree.org

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