Reflecting over my two-decade stint in the Indian education sector leaves me with an immense sense of satisfaction and eagerness - satisfaction, looking at the sea change in the industry and in KKEL being acknowledged as one of the key catalysts of that change. From being a fairly unorganised sector, the pre-school and schooling sectors have become organised, to the extent of the Central government finally giving it its due.

We do have a long way to go though and realise our potential in becoming a powerful education hub and am extremely eager to continue contributing to the sector to achieve that distinction.

To work towards a change, is wrought with challenges and yet we must strive at it on a continuous basis; personally, this is the most constant endeavor I have focused on! It was in the early 1990s when I realised the serious limitations of the school education system compared to those followed internationally. Classes were cramped with students, leaving out any chance of giving personalised attention to the child; the entire education model was archaic and based on rote learning. This model, unfortunately still employed in majority of schools even today, fails to achieve the basic objective of education – to enable application of knowledge and building of life skills.

KKEL was thus founded with an aim to introduce an empowering system of education which would enable learners to seamlessly integrate the derived knowledge with different areas of application, across learning environments.  Looking back, I believe that it was indeed the turning point of my life. It seemed just right and the decision to start off on my own rather than be a part of my father’s Australian business legacy came very easy.

Starting with only a thirty lakh rupee loan from my father in 1989, I embarked on setting up our first preschool. We started off with a Kangaroo Kids center in Bandra, which took almost three years to setup, largely due to difficulty in finding a place for the school. Our innovative approach and methodology were immediately acknowledged by parents and soon led to the establishment of Billabong High International Schools, as an extension of our vision and commitment to the parents and students. From there on it has been a roller coaster ride to reach where we are today – evolving as a fully integrated education service provider including teacher training institutes, spanning 80 centers across 17 locations. We have also expanded to Maldives and Dubai and are looking at more centers internationally.