India’s sub-100 colleges: Why some parents love them

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On a vibrant Friday morning in February, for instance, three ladies, aged 6 to 9, had been busy making ready a puppet present, full with handmade tickets. Others had been busy with books with a facilitator in a comfortable studying room. Another group had gone on an in a single day farm go to. For Rai and Gaddam, Comini personifies this type of flexibility, the place youngsters can pursue their inventive pursuits freely by means of exploration.

In latest years, the micro college motion has taken root in India, taking inspiration from world fashions equivalent to Aspen Learning Lab and Learnlife. With extra parents in search of alternate options to mainstream and worldwide colleges, there’s a rising marketplace for extra personalised and versatile studying environments.

According to the National Microschooling Center within the US, the place this mannequin has been rising quickly, over 95,000 micro colleges cater to 1.5 million college students within the nation. While India lacks particular information on micro colleges, the marketplace for non-public schooling has been increasing, in response to experiences revealed by the Central Square Foundation. Nearly 50% of all college students in India are enrolled in non-public colleges at the moment, up from 30% in 1993. Market analysis agency IMARC estimates the Indian college market totalled $54.2 billion in 2024, with 1.55 million Ok-12 colleges serving 218 million college students.

The pandemic served as an inflection level for micro colleges, says Rai. “Many parents transformed to this mannequin as a result of they had been shocked by what they noticed throughout on-line education,” she notes.

While the time period itself continues to be evolving, a micro college is mostly characterised as a non-public studying establishment with 50 to 100 college students. Led by a mixture of professionals and neighborhood members, its distinctive promoting proposition lies in a low educator-to-student ratio—usually 1:5 to 1:10, which permits for adaptive studying. Instead of counting on textbooks, educators make the most of on-line assets, modules, and curated reference books to design their very own curriculum.

Market analysis agency IMARC estimates the Indian college market totalled $54.2 billion in 2024, with 1.55 million Ok-12 colleges serving 218 million college students.

The charge ranges from ₹2-3.5 lakh a yr. The vary is decrease than many bigger non-public colleges since micro colleges don’t supply the identical infrastructure which helps scale back their working prices; neither are they acknowledged by any authorities authority or instructional board in India. Micro colleges, thereby, fall in an unregulated space with no clear coverage.

“While we can not register as a faculty, as that requires sure infrastructural necessities, micro colleges do have to be registered entities to maintain the funds and taxes clear,” says Poornima V., co-founder of Agile Shaala, which runs micro colleges in Mysuru and Bengaluru.

Micro colleges presently function underneath completely different constructions—some are registered as non-profits; others as non-public restricted corporations. Some even put themselves underneath a homeschooling umbrella however there is no such thing as a formal certification for homeschools both. “It is a gray space. But within the US, some states have clear guidelines for homeschooling,” she provides.

Learning is tracked by means of steady assessments aligned with the Cambridge IGCSE curriculum, and progress is documented and shared with parents, with college students setting their very own studying objectives and changing into impartial learners. Students have the choice to sit down for exams at grade 10 and 12 by means of IGCSE or the National Institute of Open Schooling.

How youngsters be taught

For educationist Lina Asher, who beforehand based Kangaroo Kids and Billabong High, launching Dreamtime Learning Hub in Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills was a acutely aware choice to maneuver away from the normal college. Nestled in a bungalow with a red-sloped roof, the Hub options vibrant studying stations and wood benches dotted throughout the garden.

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The curriculum is hyper-personalized and grades are divided in a novel style: within the ‘Foundational Fantasy’ programme, for instance, youngsters aged 3-6 are grouped into classes like wanderers, magicians, explorers, and discoverers. In the elementary years, college students can select identities equivalent to adventurers, incredibles, avatars, or transformers.

“Smaller colleges provide the flexibility to experiment with transferring elements, with out the scheduling complexities of bigger colleges. So, college students can research topics from grades above or under their present stage, relying on their talents, wants and tempo,” says Asher.

“Rather than evaluating college students to one another, we encourage them to compete towards themselves, whereas additionally putting equal significance on social-emotional and bodily wellness,” she explains.

Micro colleges additionally supply educators a possibility to supply a brand new era of kids the sort of schooling they themselves lacked. In Bengaluru, the Norwegian-style The Papagoya Micro-School emerged from founder and director Helen Issar’s personal irritating education expertise. “I spotted the normal system had predefined success metrics, and for those who didn’t match into these, you had been labelled a failure. There was no center floor. I additionally seen a decline in play throughout the early years of education,” she says.

She wished to convey pleasure again into studying. “We imagine youngsters be taught in distinctive methods and have to be in a lot smaller cohorts.”

To bridge that hole, her college was designed on the ‘pedagogy of play’, with simply 50 college students from grades 1 to six and a clutch of facilitators who’re referred to as ‘playmakers’ on campus.

While micro colleges are usually small in measurement, they broaden their studying surroundings by dipping into their environment. Goa’s wealthy biodiversity and quick access to seashores and hills, for instance, present the right backdrop for The Learning Centre (TLC), housed in a 150-year-old Portuguese bungalow.

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Learning right here extends past the classroom: a math lesson may take college students on a neighbourhood stroll to discover ideas like addition, subtraction, and negotiation in outlets. Swinging on a banyan tree close to the centre may develop into a hands-on lesson in pendulums. Life abilities equivalent to first assist, waste administration, dealing with reptiles, and cooking for the neighborhood are integral to the in-house curriculum.

To offset the dearth of infrastructure, like massive on-site sports activities services, micro colleges typically faucet into neighborhood assets equivalent to parks, and tie up with sports activities centres and swimming pools. This strategy makes it cost-effective and sustainable.

Enter the funders

While some micro college fashions are intentionally small-scale and non-profit, their rising potential is now attracting traders. This month, Dreamtime Learning secured a Pre-Series A funding from Gruhas, the funding agency co-founded by Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai, to help the enlargement of its community of micro colleges. Sudipta Saha, the founding chief enterprise officer of Dreamtime Learning, attributes this rising curiosity to the essential hole such colleges are filling.

“Schools and faculties have develop into like factories, transferring college students from one grade to the following with success measured solely by marks and entrance examination outcomes. Yet, at the moment’s era is among the many least employable. The root trigger is the emphasis colleges place on {qualifications} fairly than fostering a real love for studying. Our imaginative and prescient was to advertise studying for the sake of studying, not only for marks,” Saha explains.

“The whole value to construct a faculty like ours is ₹3-4 crore, and we plan to open one to 2 micro colleges annually, with a brand new one set to open in Pune this July,” he provides.

Schools and faculties have develop into like factories, transferring college students from one grade to the following with success measured solely by marks
—Sudipta Saha

Driven by an analogous concern to handle India’s “damaged schooling system,” Dr Aniruddha Malpani, a Mumbai-based IVF specialist, has been funding progressive instructional initiatives to help micro colleges like Comini and a community of digital studying pods underneath the platform Apni Pathshala.

“This is the way forward for schooling. Traditional education will finally attain a breaking level. While homeschooling and unschooling (self-driven casual studying) are nice, they are usually boutique and elitist. Micro colleges and studying pods present that schooling might be each frugal and efficient,” he says. “AI and technology have made smaller learning models possible, making education more democratic, affordable, and accessible. Pods can be set up anywhere, from Dharavi to gated communities,” he provides.

Parents make the leap

Parents throughout the nation are recognizing the advantages of micro colleges too. For some, different fashions like Waldorf and Montessori, as soon as widespread, now not supply the pliability they want.

At Dreamtime Learning Hub, Asher notes that her micro college attracts parents who’re well-travelled and in search of a community-driven, globally-aware instructional expertise. “These parents, drawing on their various experience, are concerned within the college’s actions,” she provides.

Some micro colleges additionally supply parents a possibility to flee the hustle of metropolis life. TLC in Goa is an instance—its parenting neighborhood contains many households who’ve relocated to reconnect with nature and luxuriate in a slower tempo of life. “It’s a collaborative house, with parents additionally stepping in as part-time facilitators,” says a TLC mother or father who helps out with admissions and selected to stay nameless.

Since such colleges should not accredited, it might really feel like of venture for some parents. But handholding and permitting them to be part of the expertise has been useful.

Says Aben Andrew, whose youngsters attend Comini, “The worldwide college our son beforehand attended was overwhelming with its tutorial calls for. Before enrolling in an alternate college although, we puzzled if we’d be elevating ‘tree huggers’ with out a stable basis and what sort of professions they might select. But becoming a member of Comini has been life-changing—I see my youngsters greedy ideas past their grade stage. We have additionally related with like-minded parents, who every convey one thing helpful.”

The thought of involving parents within the studying course of and facilitating periods at Papagoya is designed to assist youngsters acknowledge the strengths inside their very own neighborhood, explains Issar.

What’s in it for academics?

For academics transitioning to micro colleges, the enchantment is analogous: the chance to have interaction with college students extra personally, with out the overwhelming numbers usually seen in conventional colleges.

Teachers who beforehand labored with formal colleges bear coaching in-house. Some are specialists in numerous fields, equivalent to performing arts, and be part of as part-time facilitators.

Aruna Rao, principal at Dreamtime Learning Hub, identified to college students as a ‘Hub Champion’, says that in morning meeting, they talk about thought-provoking questions like, ‘Is there such a thing as a perfect human being?’ or ‘What qualities should a person have?’ “The solutions I get typically amaze me.”

Many micro colleges lend themselves effectively to being inclusive, providing a soothing surroundings for youngsters who struggled in mainstream colleges because of neurodivergence, nervousness, or bullying. Agile Shaala is one such college. It follows a hybrid mannequin of studying, with college students free to decide on in the event that they want to attend a session on-line.

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Initially, Agile Shaala was bootstrapped, elevating ₹70 lakh from household, associates and advisors. “We make certain to pay our academics corporate-scale salaries. Our objective is to develop globally, with studying centres each 5-6 kilometres, and to make the most of the franchise mannequin to collaborate with like-minded folks, guiding them in organising their very own centres,” she says.

As micro colleges proceed to spring up throughout India, one issue may additional help their development—India’s schooling coverage formally recognizing different studying networks.