“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world” – Nelson Mandela

The quote above shows us how important education stands in every individual’s life. As we all know, the three main phases of education—primary, secondary, and high School – make a massive impact on children’s future endeavors. The zeal to change the world and bring innovation is the most powerful tool one can get through education. Usually, pre-primary schooling is not considered very important, but it is the most efficient aspect of children’s brain development.

The things children learn in pre-primary schools give them an upper edge to face secondary and high school brilliantly. One such school taking care of pre-primary education with its innovative concepts is Maple Bear. Its franchising option has bridged the gap for many people looking to enter the education sector.

“The Maple Bear Program is designed to educate the whole child – physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially.”

Maple Bear is one of the top pre-primary schools and tries to make an impact globally. In an interview with Insights Success, the CEO of the Maple Bear, Mr. Sumit Taxali, shares his creative thoughts and how they handle the operations at Maples. Below are the highlights of the interview.

Please walk us through Maple Bear and its journey.

Part of one of the fastest-growing international educational brands with 550+ schools in 30+ countries, Maple Bear South Asia brings the very best of globally reckoned Canadian early childhood and elementary school practices to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. We offer Preschool, Elementary, and Infant Care programs, delivered in a safe, secure, and stimulating environment that instils in students a passion for lifelong learning.

Today, more than 8000 students in 130+ Maple Bear schools across South Asia are benefitting from the methodology and curriculum developed by our Canadian faculty of expert educators, and this number is steadily growing.

Maple Bear South Asia is a joint venture between Maple Bear Global Schools Ltd, Canada, and Modi Edutech (Modi Group).

Why do you think Canada is the place for education?

According to the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), Canada consistently outranks the United States and the United Kingdom, often by significant margins.

Canada’s education system consistently ranks among the best in the world. In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked Canada #1 in the English-speaking world in science, math, and reading. As of 2012, 2015, and again in 2018, Canada maintained strong performance and outperformed other English-speaking countries in all three evaluations. In fact, Canada ranks ahead of the US and the UK systems because the OECD measures an entire country’s system, not just hot spots of excellence that are not accessible to all due to geography or cost.

What unique offerings does Maple Bear provide that make it apart from others?

We use a specially designed and proprietary curriculum, with specific lesson plans and learning outcomes, based on Canadian best education practices that place Canada in the top tier of international educational rankings such as PISA from the OECD. Unlike international schools, we conform to local education regulations so children can move between systems and are prepared for post-secondary in their country as well as abroad. Our program is a living, breathing curriculum that is constantly being updated.

We have a distinguished Canadian faculty of trainers, curriculum writers, and quality assurance people who travel the world to ensure the program is delivered correctly and that schools conform to all Maple Bear standards. We look after our staff’s professional development with regular training and offerings of continuing education courses at Canadian institutions. We see Maple Bear and Canadian education as mediators of social change through a targeted Community Investment Program and integrated themes of social/global citizenship in the MB curriculum.

Our goal is to deliver a student-focused learning system in a safe, secure, and stimulating environment. This will prepare students for success at the high school and post-secondary level, instilling a passion for lifelong learning.

How was Maple Bear affected in these pandemic times, and what were the steps you took to curb the damages while helping your clients and maintaining the safety of your employees?

In the last two years, the preschool sector has been impacted the most by the pandemic. Most parents had financial difficulties, and the lack of interest in early childhood education led to low demand for preschools; moreover, it was found that many parents were more concerned about the transition from offline to online.

Since India experienced the lockdown later than many countries, our team helped the South Asia territory to be prepared to retain and attain new students. To ease the transition, we started training teachers for the online format on time. We conducted multiple webinars for academic and non-academic staff. Several training elements delivered by Canadian trainers have been critical. Regular digital marketing support from Maple Bear Head Office helped spread the message among the parent fraternity about online learning effectiveness.

What would you like to advise the young generation of education enthusiasts who want to venture into the field of an educational franchise business?

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has forced many businesses to close their doors. There has been a significant impact on the education sector, particularly the preschool sector. Lack of expertise may account for this situation.

The year 2020 was a tough time for all preschools in terms of new enrolments, retention of existing students and staff. But with continued support to all our schools, we observed over 45% growth in the enrolments in 2021.

Our advice to all the young generation of education enthusiasts who want to venture into the educational franchise business is to partner with brands that provide high standards of global education and continue to support their schools to prepare them for an unprecedented situation in the future.

Brands that will focus on delivering a safe, secure, and stimulating learning environment for children, staff development, offering high standards of global education, and providing regular support to their schools will rise to new heights.

Where do you envision Maple Bear to be in the long run, and what are your future goals? How do you plan to embrace the changes happening in the preschool education franchising space?

Maple Bear is one of the world’s leading Preschool brands with a presence in more than 30 countries, over 550 schools (Preschool, Elementary, and High School), and over 40,000 students. We aim to cover more territories worldwide, increasing the number of schools in each territory and growing vertically.

Maple Bear South Asia manages more than 120 schools in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and we have observed a high number of franchise inquiries post-COVID. We have signed new franchised agreements in the COVID-19 period as well across the world. We aim to reach 500 schools (Preschools, Elementary, and daycare) in the South Asia market alone in the next five years. All of our schools are franchised schools, and we seek to partner with people who care about being in the education sector, believe that high standards of global education should be provided to young children, are financially sustainable to invest in the project, and are prepared to adopt one of the best education methodologies in the world designed by Maple Bear.

We offer a scalable business model to our franchisee with multiple programs offering to enhance the ROI and an opportunity to upgrade preschool. All our franchisees get the leverage of our unique training process that is threefold; online, on-site, and with our Canadian team of experts.

Our curriculum and business model empower our franchise and ensure our schools are able to shift to any unprecedented change or situation in the near future.

What is the current industrial scenario of the education space?

As per various reports, the size of the preschool market was approximately 334.5 ($ million) in 2019-20 and is expected to reach approximately 416.23 ($ million) by 2024. The last two years have been difficult for the preschool sector, wherein we have seen hundreds of preschools have shut down their businesses, and the schools that have survived have seen a lot of dropouts. With the decline in the number of COVID cases, offices are open; the demand for preschool services that can handle such situations in the future is increasing.

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