Our plan is to open 100 centers across India: Cruise Kim

Eye Level, a global expert in childhood education founded by Daekyo Co. Ltd. is all set to spread its footprint in the Indian content. With launching around 12 centers in the country in a span of one year and few months, the company is planning to increase to 100 in the next five years largely through franchising. Known for nurturing self-confident, self-motivated and creative problem solvers, the company offers Math and English programme to children while focusing on individualised learning pace and continuous practice of each concept. Thus, talking about the brand philosophy and global learning of childhood education industry Cruise Kim, Managing Director, Eye Level, spoke to Franchiseindia.com.

How unique is your teaching model that helps students master the learning concept?
The teaching model of Eye Level is unique as it leads to mastery of learning through continuous practice. At the beginning of Eye Level learning process, we assess the child by taking a diagnostic test and then placing the child at the most accurate level. The small step approach, individualised learning pace and continuous practice of each concept leads to mastery of learning. The reinforcement is done not only through the offline booklets, but also with the help of online learning module.

Which are the different education programs that you offer and what is the specialisation with each program?
Eye Level offers two programs Math and English. The goal of Math program is to cultivate critical thinking skills, so that the child can solve any unknown math problem. The goal of English program is to develop communication skills and content knowledge by enhancing literacy skills. It starts with the early stage of learning to read to the fluent stage of reading to learn.

How have you customised these programs for the Indian market?
The R&D Center at the head quarter studied the Indian school curriculum and it has been certified by them that Eye Level curriculum not only runs parallel to the IB school curriculum, but also it is very much parallel to other boards as well such as CBSE, ICSE etc. Eye Level follows the step by step approach hence, once a concept is mastered only then it moves to the other concepts.

How do these programs help nurture self-confident, self-motivated and creative problem solvers?
Eye Level learning centers have self-directed learning environment. When a child comes to the class twice a week he or she gets coaching from the instructor and then moves on to the self-directed learning desk. When a child does self-directed learning, he or she takes the charge of the learning which makes them self-confident and self-motivated. Also, once the child masters a concept and then moves on to the next one, he or she feels very motivated and confident. Math curriculum of Eye Level is divided into two parts: BTM and CTM. BTM helps the child to master the concepts and CTM helps them to apply those skills. When a child starts thinking critically, he or she can solve any unknown math problem. This is how we nurture problem solvers.

What is your global learning of education that you are applying in the Indian market?
The global learning of education is that children need to practice a lot on daily basis for mastery of any concept. The approach should be individualised with small steps so that they don’t feel burdened. We have applied the same learning in Indian market as well. We have self directed learning desks and we want our children to be self directed learners with individualised learning. This can be achieved through the small step approach for which our curriculum is the backbone.

So far how many students you have nurtured in India and globally?
We are very proud to share that only in span of 1 year and few month, we have been able to nurture more than 2,700 students across India. Currently globally, we have 2.5 million students getting nurtured by Eye Level method.

What is your current presence in the Indian market and what are the future plans?
We have presence in 6 cities in India and those are Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata with 12 centers. India is a very important market for us and we have entered India market after our ground research and deep study. In a span of 1 year we have opened around 12 centers in India. In next 5 years our plan is to open at least 100 centers across India. We want to open maximum centers in India through franchise network as we want to nurture as many kids as possible through Eye Level method.

With franchisees how do you keep intact the principles of Eye Level Philosophy?
The philosophy of Eye Level is to start seeing things from the child’s perspective. We at Eye Level grow and learn together with children. It is indeed our priority to keep our principles intact in each and every center. We have a standardised initial training program which is followed by on job training wherein the franchisees start to understand that our philosophy is the core and it has to be followed by them. They understand that nowadays it’s an open market and parents have a lot of options. If we are unable to maintain the standardisation and quality standards, parents will move on and business will not grow.

Also, we have follow up visits and trainings through which we keep a close check on all the franchisees.

How much of the Indian market would contribute to your global revenue?
Eye Level India is just one year old, but see’s to contribute 15 percent of total revenue of Daekyo Group in 5 Years from now.

According to you how big is the education industry in India with future potentials?
The Indian education industry is poised for growth. This sector is growing rapidly with a lot of changes happening almost every day. Indian government is also taking many measures to improve the quality of education in India. More and more people have started investing into this sector. In India, parents have also started taking education very seriously and with an increase in the average Indian household more money is being kept aside for education.