Educomp Solutions, a well-known education service provider, through its subsidiary, Learning Hour, is planning to set up state-of-the-art 500 tutorial centres by 2010 with an investment about Rs.125 crore. The phase-by-phase growth as conveyed by the company is 50 centres by the end of 2008, followed by 150 centres in 2009 and 500 centres by 2010. These centres will cover the syllabi of the all the major boards including CBSE, ISC/ICSE and the state education boards. These centres will be equipped with the live video, two-way audio and shared whiteboards, instant messaging, application sharing, biometric attendance systems in addition to online assignment access. The teaching sessions will be video recorded and will be made available on the website. A strong research team has been formed to provide the best education programme. Riju Gupta, Director, Learning Hour, informed that the first centre was opened in Pitampura. There are six centres operational till now with two more to open very soon. Till now all the centres are company-owned. However, they plan to have a mixture of franchised and company-owned. The franchise model will be a revenue sharing model where the company would support the franchisee in the area of marketing, promotional activities; training, etc., and the franchisee will provide the land and the investment as well as try to develop the business in the local market. The required carpet area of the centre will differ from city to city. The centres in Delhi will have a carpet area of 1500-2500 sq ft. The required investment will also vary from city to city. Among the next upcoming projects, Educomp Solutions is coming up with higher secondary schools. They already have two schools in the name of Millenium. Their future plans include opening schools that will cater to different strata of the society in three different formats. The company did not divulge any more detail about the project.
