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Byju-Aakash's Plans for Test Learning

September 09, 2021 09:29 IST

'Hybrid learning is the future, and test prep is a big segment within the entire education space in India.'

Peerzada Abrar reports.

Illustration: Dominic
Xavier/Rediff.com
After getting
acquired by Byju's
for $1 billion early this
year, Aakash
Educational Services
(AESL) is
transforming into a
hybrid edtech firm
and is expanding
rapidly across the
country.
AESL will launch 106
new centres across
the country in the
next 5 months. These
will be a mix of
extension centres and
standalone centres.
In 1988, J C
Chaudhry founded
AESL as a tiny
private coaching
institute out of a room
in West Delhi's
Ganesh Nagar.

From 12 students in
1988, Aakash grew to
215 centres, with a
student count of more
than 250,000. The
aim now is to have
about 5 lakh students
by the end of this
year.
"Hybrid learning is the future, and test prep is a big segment within the entire education space in India. The answer going forward is going to be a
combination of both (physical and digital) classrooms," says Abhishek Maheshwari, CEO. AESL.
"We had all the basics in place and it was about accelerating that journey. Post-Byju's coming in, it is further accelerating that," Maheshwari adds.
AESL provides test preparatory services to students preparing for medical and engineering entrance exams, school and board exams, KVPY, NTSE,
Olympiads, and other foundation-level exams.
The institute clocks an annual turnover of about Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion), according to sources.
With a workforce of over 5,000 employees, AESL is looking at bringing in more than 2,000 people this year.
This is part of its offline or physical centre expansion strategy as well as to service the growth it is experiencing in the existing centres.

It is hiring talent across the spectrum, including academics, technology, sales, marketing, operations and other enabling functions.
"We are transforming ourselves as an organisation on three dimensions including getting closer to the customers, leveraging technology and physical
centres, and hiring talent. Our expansion plan is largely based on that," says Maheshwari.

Leveraging Byju's tech expertise, AESL has created engaging and personalised learning programmes bringing the best of hybrid learning for the
medical and engineering aspirants.
AESL is also increasing its presence and foraying into Bharat by opening centres in Tier 3 and 4 cities.
This is enabling it to get closer to its customers so that students do not have to travel to bigger cities to study.

"Earlier students would go to destinations such as Delhi, Kota and Hyderabad. Our need and aggression to go down to Tier-3 and Tier-4 markets with
physical centres have gone up," says Aakash Chaudhry, managing director, AESL.
 "We are adding over
100 centres and more
than 50 per cent of
them are actually
coming up in Tier 3
and Tier 4 cities. We
are also bringing a lot
of technology there,"
Chaudhry adds.
An alumnus of the
Harvard Business
School, Chaudhry
says physical
classroom education
will continue to
operate as they have
been, in the future as
well.
This is because after
having spent more
than a year studying
online, students are
coming back to the
physical classrooms.
"I think this really
validates the decision for us to continue to expand both sides, the physical as well as the online."
The new centres will enable the company to further the teacher-student experience to take it to unexplored markets.
This would also help the firm set the bar higher for the test prep sector.
This includes the adoption of new technologies to make learning student-friendly in a digital and physical setting.
AESL is witnessing demand across the country as the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the adoption of online education.
Students and professionals are looking to upgrade their skills, while schools and offices remain shut.
It is competing with new and traditional education institutes to tap the country's $180-billion education sector that has gone online to adapt to the new
reality.
Maheshwari, who joined AESL last year in November as CEO, is leading the omnichannel offerings of the company to help students achieve their
aspirations and drive profitable growth for the group.
Prior to this, Maheshwari led international business for Byju's where he was responsible for driving Byju's growth globally.
He also served as head of Disney in India for several years where he was responsible for P&L, strategy formulation and execution across all of
Disney's brands, businesses and functions.
At AESL, Maheshwari is witnessing a lot of demand from students to attend physical classes.
"There is some level of fatigue (learning) online. So people want a good mix of both wherever classrooms are open. We have done it following all the
Covid protocols," says Maheshwari.
"If you want to come to the classroom two days a week and study from home two days a week, we are enabling that also."

Peerzada Abrar

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