International play schools eye bigger India play
NEW DELHI: Teaching is no more only about chalk and duster. Chances are your child is likely to learn colours, numbers and shapes while playing soccer as well.
With the number of children going for play schools expected to increase to over 10 lakh by 2020 from the current 3.5 lakh, three international play school chains — Little Kickers, The City and Sherpa Kids — are set to enter the Indian market.
Target audience? Children aged between 1.5 years to 8 years.
Canada-based Little Kickers uses soccer-based programmes to help in the early development of the child Another Singapore-based play school, The City, creates small-scale, real-life locations, including supermarket, cafe and hospitals, to stimulate child’s imagination and learning.
New-zealand based
Sherpa Kids, on the other hand, will introduce the new concept of out of school care (OOSC) provider in India. Such play schools, in global markets, allow parents to leave children after schooltime and engage them in activities tailored to fit in with their study needs.
“Our fees would be around ₹5,000 per month and we plan to create a strong presence in all major cities in India within the next three years,” Dawn Engelbrecht, managing director Sherpa Kids International, told HT.
India currently has 65,000odd play schools.
“Early learning concepts such as colour and number recognition, sharing and taking turns are taught to kids through a variety of games, which fire their imaginations,” said Christine Stanschus, CEO, Little Kickers.
According to credit rating agency Crisil, the overall pre-school market is expected grow at 20% between 2013 and 2018 to ₹16,500 crore by 2018.
“We are in talks with several other international play school formats ,who are interested to start their operations in India,” said Venus Barak, Venus Barak, vicepresident, Franglobal, a company which assists businesses across sectors looking for expansion in the Indian market, including the three schools mentioned above