Together we can, together we will – Tamal Mukherjee

Playschools have been an integral part of the Nalanda family since 2006 when we started our foray into this exciting world. However, in 2010-11, we started expanding and started Little Laureates, once we had the nitty-gritty in place and realized that there is a huge latent demand for quality playschools, especially in the suburbs.

The Genesis
Initially, we had gone in for our own schools as we were not sure that we would be able to maintain the kind of quality offering that we wanted to provide, by taking the franchisee route. This journey from 1 to 83 schools could be traversed because the principals, teachers, and caregivers who were with us did not restrict themselves to being mere employees and were passionate about ensuring that the children get the foundational learning that they deserve. This was the primary reason why Little Laureates could become the play school of choice for the parents who had over time, reposed their complete faith in us, ensuring that we create a niche for ourselves. Something that we could, and were, genuinely proud of.

It was in the post-pandemic scenario that we had to rework our orientation. This was necessitated by the fact that during the lockdown, an overwhelming number of children were denied access to education and the resulting learning gap had to be addressed. This had called for a transformation and we took up the challenge, with Little Laureates emerging as a partner to preschools, offering them broad spectrum support gleaned from our 12-year experience – from content, through teachers’ training, to the actual running of the establishment. The idea was simple, to provide every possible support to successfully run a preschool, whether existing or new – one to which parents can confidently hand over their children for their holistic, foundational development.

The post-pandemic Challenge
The biggest challenge facing the segment was the lack of trained teachers, as many professionals had moved on during the pandemic, and the need for reskilling to transition into a digitally enabled environment was the need of the hour. Developing digital content that the children could relate to, pedagogic content that made the entire learning process fun, was the next challenge, which Nalanda took up and met. Finally, a system of continuous evaluation was built-in, ensuring that each child’s development was monitored in real time. And with this, the Holy Trinity of Nalanda Learning’s offering was ready.

2022 was the year that vindicated our work which was justified by the runaway success of preschools that had embraced the Nalanda way. As a matter of fact, we can proudly claim that Nalanda has proved its worth as an academic partner and now is the time for scaling up by replicating the model which is in fact that fruit that is the result of close to a quarter of a century’s effort of our teachers, child psychologists, and academic experts.

Nation Building above all else
Thus, it is a matter of great pride for us at Nalanda that today, when the Hon. Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modiji is making the three years of pre-schooling compulsory as an essential part of his Nation building process, we are ready with the solution to make it happen. What we have achieved is that we have brought all the stakeholders – the parents, the teachers, and the school owners – together to work toward the overall physical, mental, and spiritual development of the child.

The year 2023 will be a watershed one for Nalanda. Come, join us as we avail of this unique opportunity of contributing to the process of Nation building as we help you build your business as you help the children build their tomorrow.