Early age education is pivotal for a child’s comprehensive growth and development. The education that a child receives at a preschool can enhance its understanding on a plethora of things, thus augmenting its mental and physical development.
Having understood the process of this development, preschools across the world have devised novel approaches of delivering the right educational content and stimulus to achieve the best outcomes for the children under their care. And one prominent name among such innovative and contemporary early age education providers is Pebbles Preschool.
“Pebbles Pre-School was founded in the year 2000, when Chennai was still contemplating about the need of preschools in the society. Even though Chennai had bunch of day care centers, a typical preschool that caters to the overall development of kids below five years was a distant dream,” says Mr. Kennedy Nesamoney, the CEO of Pebbles Pre-School. Currently Pebbles has outlets in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
In the following interview with Insights Success, Mr. Kennedy shares brief insights about his preschool and how it has gained a stronghold within the early age education market. Below are the highlights of the interview:
What aspect and offerings make Pebbles Pre-School stand apart from your competitors?
The city of Chennai is known for its hot and humid weather. To cope up with such tough conditions and make the students feel comfortable inside the playschool, the management had airconditioned all the classrooms in the establishment way back in 2000. By doing so, Pebbles became the first preschool in Chennai, with airconditioned classrooms.
At Pebbles, the classrooms are fitted out with everything to the child’s scale, allowing them to be independent of adults. They have also maintained a healthy child–teacher ratio, thereby ensuring more care and individual attention to the child.
Teachers’ skills play a strong role in influencing the child’s power to grasp and learn concepts. At Pebbles Preschool, teachers are trained in the best possible way and ensure that they are completely prepared for their responsibilities.
However, handling the kids in real scenarios is much tougher than earning educational qualifications and attending trainings. Kids need more caring and warm approach. In the classrooms of Pebbles, one can clearly see that magical approach with massive assistance from the highly experienced support staff.
Along with that, the management regularly conducts in-service trainings and information about the latest trends in early childhood education and care as well. Even though, Pebbles Preschools have adequate infrastructure and teachers, everything is built upon their extra-ordinary curriculum. It helps children to achieve complete school readiness in all areas of academic and social learning.
What are the key attributes that helped Pebbles to overcome the challenges in its initial phase?
The preschool concept being in its initial stage of development in 2000 was a bit challenging for us unlike how it is today. Joint families were the order of the day. There used to be people at home to take care of the little ones like grandparents, uncles and aunts, and mothers who did not have a career to take care of.
We were able to overcome this by educating parents on the importance of preschool education for kids. We were also able to instill confidence in the parents by providing a safe and hygienic environment and qualified trained staff to take care of the child. Today things are different, there are many nuclear families where both parents work and nobody at home to take care of the little ones and hence there is a dire need for quality preschools.
What are the benefits gained by parents and franchisees while choosing to be a part of the Pebbles family?
Parents benefit by enrolling their kids in a school that has a proven track record of catering to little ones for almost 2 decades. Our teaching methods and curriculum imparts attention, advanced language skills forming the basis for reading and writing, getting accustomed to structure and scheduled activities and social skills.
Franchisees benefit by partnering with a renowned brand that has an experience of almost 2 decades. We have a very well-prepared in-house curriculum that focuses on all facets of a child’s growth, manuals to assist them in day-to-day operation and complete training and support to run the outlet at very affordable rates.
What are the key points that you consider while choosing or getting in talks with a potential franchisee?
- Passion to run a playschool, willingness to invest and sustain till it becomes profitable.
- Understanding the advantage of taking up a franchise over setting up one on their own.
- Looking for long term association for mutual benefits.
What would be your advice for the budding startups and entrepreneurs in the industry?
The Playschool industry is not a bed of roses as most people would think. It needs a lot of passion and dedication. It is also not like a restaurant where one can put in money today and expect results tomorrow. Playschools usually flourish over a period of time and most of the business happens through word of mouth. It is also a very sensitive industry as we have to take up the responsibility of handling little ones.
Brief us about what are going to be Pebbles’ future prospective.
Pebbles is a 20-year-old brand. Very few players in this industry have a foundation that dates back 20 years. With this strong base we would be moving forward in a phased manner by extending our franchise across India as an affordable high-quality brand.
