Gems Education plans to start 50 schools over the next five years in India

Updated on: Tuesday, March 19, 2013

City-based Gems Education plans to start 50 schools over the next five years, and is setting up an exclusive education fund for the country, betting big on the private education market in India.

Gems Education Group Chief Operating Officer and board member Dino Varkey, who hails from Kerala, told at the Global Education and Skills Forum here, "India is a very important market for us. We have plans to launch about 50 schools over the next five years."

The three-day conference on education started here on Friday and is being attended by around 500 delegates from 50 countries.

Most of the planned schools are expected to come up in small cities and towns and will be managed and operated by
Gems Education, Varkey said, adding, "We are re-invigorating our strategy for India, which will also be the focus for our going forward.

"The Indian market offers immense opportunities as far as the private education segment is concerned. So, we are also exploring if we can provide schooling with yearly fee as low as Rs 8,000-12,000," Varkey said.

The global school chain at present has 1.3 lakh students enrolled in its schools, spanning 11 geographies, including India. It also claims to have been providing the largest number of Indian-origin English teachers away from home.

Varkey said the company is in the process of setting up an exclusive education fund for India to finance its projects.

"We are in talks with all stakeholders the real estate companies, bankers and others. We are quite hopeful that funds would be in place by September," he said, without disclosing the investment the company intends to make.

"Globally, we have plans to deploy USD 650 million to fuel our growth in other markets over the next 2-3 years."

The group has set a target of 5 million enrollments by 2024.

Advocating a larger private sector participation in the education sector, Varkey said Gems Education is currently working with five to seven governments, including US, Britain, Kenya and the Philippines.

"We believe in the PPP model as it allows the private sector to invest in teachers and leadership development," Varkey said.

Gems Education plans to start 50 schools over the next five years in India

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