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Table of Contents
l. Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………..3
lV Marketing Plan……………………………………………………………………………..11
V Operational Plan…………………………………………………………………………...17
I. Executive Summary
Hope High School (Telugu Medium) is over 100 years old. Started as an elementary school, it
reached a High School status but due to economic depression it had been downgraded to a
Primary School status. Till almost, the 1960s, this was one of the two prominent schools in
Madanapalle, the other being the State owned, Zilla Parishad School. Somewhere in the 1930s,
it was an English Medium School and then was reverted back to being a Telugu Medium School.
The School came under the Grant-in-aid scheme of the Government of Andhra Pradesh wherein
the salaries of the Teachers were paid by the Government. Recently it was the policy of the
Government to stop the aid it was giving to schools supported by it. The grant-in-aid has not
been stopped, but what has been stopped is the replacement of Teachers who have retired
from service. Hope high School does not have the wherewithal to employ Teachers of its own.
At present, the School has only two Government paid Teachers on its strength. The Hope
College, Holland, Michigan, USA which had started this school in 1881 has assisted the School,
currently, paying for the salary of the Head Master. In a couple of years, when the present
Teachers retire, this School will be forced to close down due to lack of Teaching Staff.
The School belongs to the Rayalseema Diocese of the Church of South India. Knowing that Hope
High School was facing a closure the Bishop requested Rev Linn Gann, Missionary from the
Reformed Church of America on deputation with the Church of South India, to revive this iconic
Institution of Madanapalle. A Development Committee had been set up in March 2010 to
explore the various means to keep Hope school from becoming extinct. The Committee
comprises of very competent persons having vast experiences in their own fields. There are, in
this Committee, senior educationists, bankers, management qualified persons, clergy and
Church elders. After much deliberation it was concluded that to keep this School surviving and
self sustaining, it had to change into a good, English Medium School of standing, to which
parents would vie with each other to send their children.
There are a number of reasons why this line of thrust will succeed. Firstly, there is no doubt
that many parents do want their children to study in an English Medium School. There is,
therefore, a need for such a School. Secondly, the School is ideally located. It is right in the
centre of downtown Madanapalle. Parents will find it very convenient to send their children to
this School. Thirdly, being a Christian Mission School is an asset in itself. Despite commercial
institutions coming up all over town, a Christian Institution has a unique standing of its own.
The ethos is recognized by the population, which is evident by the different type of populace
that continuously visits the JCM Church, next door, throughout the week. Fourthly, Hope School
has a century old reputation backing it. The older citizenry of this town, most of whom are
alumni, know of its reputation and would be a strong force in the decision making process in
the selection of a School for their family children. Fifthly, it is intended to introduce the Rishi
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Valley Methodology of instruction to the children. This Activity Based Learning Methodology is
fast becoming the opted system of imparting education to children. A number of States,
including the home state of Andhra Pradesh, in India, have adopted this Methodology of
Instruction. When marketed properly, it will attract parents to send children to this School.
The strategy is to start with running classes from Kindergarten to Class 7, as an Upper Primary
School and gradually develop into a High School. The well thought of Marketing Plan intends to
target the Middle Class families. We are working on a premise of 35 children per class, 30 of
whom would be paying the full fees and 5 would be paying concessional amounts or no fee at
all.
The Committee did a SWOT analysis and then decided that Hope English Medium School can
create a niche for itself in Madanapalle. The process of getting good, qualified, dedicated and
determined Teaching Staff is underway. The salary structure for this staff is competitive and
should attract the type of persons we are looking for by the Search Committee set up for this
process.
Rayalseema Diocese is unable to support this School. The School, therefore, has no seed money
for startup expenses. However, it is forecasted with a fairly accurate assessment that the school
will self-sustain in the year 2011–12, itself, and will grow at around 10% from the next year
onwards. The Financial Plan indicates this theory. The seed money has to be generated through
donations or from corporate social responsibility sources.
The Operational Plan gives the sequence of events that will lead up to the opening of Hope
English Medium School in June 2011.
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Introduction
In the year 1881, Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, missionary from the Reformed Church in America
established Hope High School. It was started as a Primary school. Around 1910 the status of the
school was raised to that of a High school. It was the first High school in Madanapalle and third
High school in the district of Chittoor. Till around the 1930s it was an English medium school.
Due to economic depression, worldwide, the management could not meet the expenditure of
maintaining the school and it was downgraded to Higher Elementary School and the medium of
instruction was changed to Telugu, the local language.
Over the years the school had come under the Grant-in-aid policy with Government of Andhra
Pradesh. The new policy of the Government has been to reduce grant-in-aid schools gradually.
Towards that end, the retiring Teachers from the School have not been replaced by the
Government. At present, only two Teachers on the strength are being given Government aid.
When they retire in a year or two, the School will have no aid from the Government. The
school, currently, is being run by volunteers who are being paid travelling allowances from
meager, irregular, donations received from individuals who do not want to see the closure of
this Institution.
This is a charitable Mission Institution with no commercial activity and is under the overall
Management of the Rayalseema Diocese of the Church of South India. No financial support is
being given by the Diocese to run the School.
In such a grim situation a Hope High School Development Committee has been constituted, by
the Bishop, Rayalseema Diocese, to explore the possibilities of reviving the School and make it
self-sustainable. After much deliberation it was thought that the best solution was to start an
English Medium Upper Primary School. The intention is start with the support of funds from all
sources and, simultaneously, plans to evolve into a self supporting Institution are to be put into
place.
Vision Statement
A set of spiritual and moral values – honesty, integrity and good judgment.
The provision of educational opportunities for students who cannot afford higher school
fees associated with corporate schools.
We value the partnership which exists between school, parents and community and the part it
plays in realizing this vision.
Mission Statement
Our goal is to rise above the ordinary by developing education which can transform lives and
communities. Inspired by our parents and communities, our goal is for each person to reach
their full potential in body, mind, heart and spirit.
… a place of excellence where children can achieve full potential in their academic, creative,
personal, physical, moral and spiritual development.
… a caring place where children and adults feel they make a contribution and are valued as
individuals.
… a place of spiritual values where children learn respect for themselves and others.
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Business Philosophy
In a disciplined and caring environment, based on mutual respect, each student will be valued
as an individual in his/her own right and his/her moral and spiritual development encouraged
so as to achieve his/her full potential. The thrust of our ‘Business’ is to give quality education to
children and not to commercialize this venture, but at the same time aiming to become
independent and attain self sustainability at the earliest, with a positive growth element
incorporated in the whole plan.
Target Market
An in-depth explanation will be given in the Marketing Plan Section. A major part of the market
segment will be children from the upper Middle Class families. However, opportunities will also
be given to above average children whose parents cannot afford fees of corporate schools.
Parents, even illiterate ones, do realize that English is to be learnt by their children. They realize
that knowing English has better job opportunities, wider choices and the holistic growth of the
child is evident. Entrepreneurs have realized the potential of this medium and, as a result,
English Medium Schools have mushroomed, in practically, every lane of Madanapalle. Parents
are sending their children long distances to schools for getting educated in the English Medium.
Hope English Medium School intends to capture a big chunk of this market by offering this
education within the town limits itself.
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State Syllabus
Hope English Medium Schools offers to educate children in English Medium from Kindergarten
to Class 7. We have, now, obtained permission from the Government of Andhra Pradesh to run
such a school. Thus, the syllabus to be followed will be the Sate Syllabus. The reason for this
step, as startup time was a constraint, was that recognition of the School by the State
Government was an easier procedure. Also, in the event of a child’s parent moving out of
Madanapalle, it would be very simple for that child to get admission into another school having
the same State syllabus. It is generally understood that, in Madanapalle and in the Market
Segment that we are targeting, parents prefer State syllabus for their children.
Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, the options for the school adopting the CBSE or ICSC
syllabus are kept open. In such an eventuality, the higher strata of society would send their
children to us.
HR Requirement
The School has a Correspondent appointed by the Bishop, Rayalaseema Diocese who oversees
the functioning of the School at the macro level. At the micro level, a Head Master(HM) will be
responsible for the daily functioning of the school. The HM will have a team of 9 Class Teachers,
2 Subject Specialist Teachers for Maths, Sciences and/or Humanities, 1 Junior Hindi Pundit, 1
Junior Telugu Pundit and 4 non – teaching staff (2 female hands to look after the 2 Kindergarten
Classes, 1 office Clerk and I male Peon). The salaries of all these Staff are mentioned in another
subsequent section of this Plan. A Search Committee from within members of the Development
Committee has been set up who will screen, interview and select the best compliment of
Teachers for this School.
Fees
The Fee structure, mentioned in the Financial statements later, will be slightly lower to attract
the clientele but will be increased in later years so as to achieve self sufficiency.
Teaching Methodology
Government schools in the ‘Nalli Kalli’ program. The state of Chhattisgarh, in its ‘Sujna’
program, uses this Methodology in around 29,500 schools with plans of expanding further. Our
own home state of Andhra Pradesh has introduced this Methodology of teaching In 85,000
government schools in its ‘Snehabala’ program. The RIVER Methodology has been recognized
nationally and internationally. Teams from Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have been
trained by RIVER in the use of this Methodology. Currently, a development – cum – training
program is underway in Mumbai wherein thousands of Schools in the Municipal Corporation of
Greater Mumbai (MCGM) will begin using this Methodology from November 2010 onwards in
Marathi, Hindi and Urdu.
The Methodology does not use the Text Book as the main aid for Teaching but as a supplement
for activity based learning. In this Methodology the curriculum is reorganized into small
meaningful activities. Activities are clubbed together to form ‘Milestones’ and these milestones
are clubbed together to form the Ladder of Learning. Therefore, each Class will have its own
Ladder in each of the taught subject.
The uniqueness of this Methodology is that children learn by doing activities, instead of reading
from a mundane text book. The Teacher transforms into an Educator and Facilitator of learning.
Children learn at their own pace and not at the pace set by the Teacher who is interested in
covering a syllabus and not whether a child has learnt or not. In the text book Methodology the
Teacher may indicate that the Class is, for example, at Chapter 14 in a subject. It has been seen
that the learning levels of children are much less than what the Teacher indicates and, in our
example, may only be at Chapter 4 or less. In this methodology where each child has to do each
activity properly before moving onto the next one, it can be almost guaranteed that when a
child is at Milestone 14, his/her learning level is definitely Milestone 13.
Another example is given to explain the Ladder approach to learning. Let us, for example,
assume that on a particular day the whole class, in the text book system, is on Chapter 4. One
student, whose father is looking for earning some more money leaves Madanapalle to go to the
neighboring city of Bangalore to work there temporarily. The whole family, therefore, shifts
base with him. After about 5 months the family returns to Madanapalle. The little student is
sent back to join the old school. What does he/she find? The whole Class is in Chapter 12 and
the next day the Teacher moves onto Chapter 13. This young student gets absolutely de-
motivated and demoralized and develops pseudo symptoms of headache, body ache, loose
motions or fever and stops coming to school. In the Ladder approach every student is
meticulously tracked and record maintained. So if a student left at Milestone 4 on his/her
return the child restarts at Milestone 4 and continues to do the activities from there. There is
no pressure on the child to learn.
English through the Ladder approach is a new approach in the teaching of the English language.
Generally teaching of English to non English speaking people is a difficult task. From time
immemorial several attempts have been made to simplify the process of teaching English to no
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English speaking persons. In the RIVER Methodology an earnest attempt has been made to
teach English through a well-designed and developed cards and the ladder system. The process
of learning involves the four structural pillars of listening, speaking, reading and writing. This
Methodology was publicly applauded by the current Union Human Resources Minister, Mr Kapil
Sibal, when he was shown this Methodology in practice in one of the schools in Chennai,
Tamilnadu. A Class 2 child was able to read that day’s newspaper for him.
Our Teachers will be trained by Resource Persons from RIVER. It has been negotiated that the
training fee will be nominal if not waived totally. Our Teachers, using the text books decided
upon by the Management, will create the Teaching Learning Materials (TLM) required for this
Methodology. It will thus be ensured that there is ownership of the TLM and hence the
practicing Teachers will make this Methodology work in the classroom. RIVER will hand hold, at
every step, in the execution process till all teachers and students are well versed and
conversant with this Methodology.
Competitive Advantage
All schools have selected their textbooks and all schools have their own mode of imparting
teaching to their students. The RIVER Methodology is being recognized rapidly as the
Methodology that helps children learn tangibly and in a joyful environment. There is a growing
demand to change the existing traditional form of Instruction to a more activity based learning.
The RIVER Model is fast becoming the Methodology of choice amongst policy makers. It is
intended to use this advantage in the Marketing Plan to draw parents to send their children to
our School. Initially, a vigorous and aggressive marketing strategy will have to be resorted to,
but in the following year the standard of the children will speak for itself and the school would
have to think of extra infrastructural capacity.
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Market Segmentation
a. Parents who want to give good English education to their children and can pay whatever
it costs, but within Madanapalle
b. Parents who want to give good English education to their children but cannot pay the
corporate establishment fees and so send them to Average schools
c. Parents who do not know about standards but want their children to study in an English
Medium School but cannot pay high a fee
d. Parents from rural backgrounds who have money, who want their children to study in
English medium schools, but do not know to which school to send. So they are
dependent on the first advice that is given.
e. Parents who want their children to be sent to the nearest English medium school.
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We cannot be everything for everyone, but what we can be is to consider giving some features
of the above to potential parents.
Growth Potential
A School with our kind of reputation can easily grab a fairly large share of this market provided
we start right and market ourselves properly. The need to make children get an education in
English is real and needs to be capitalized on. If a reputed school offers this, with not too low a
fee (which would indicate that we cannot afford good teaching staff) or too high a fee (which
would indicate that we are on a money making spree) it will get its capacity of school children.
If quality of education is guaranteed and delivered, the second year onwards will pose no
problem as far as revenue to the school is concerned. Parents look out for quality education for
their children and we believe that we can deliver this essential component.
The first is the seed money. The Development Committee has been asked to startup a new
school without any seed money. There are Capital Costs, there are Marketing Costs etc. All
these need initial ready cash. The Committee is working on ways to raise these funds which will
be explained in the Financial Plan segment of this paper.
The first thing that will be noticed by parents will be that an iconic Institution has been revived.
There is a substantial number of alumni who will vouch for the soundness of this School. In a
recent Alumni Association formed last month the gratitude of the speakers for this school was
very evident. Once we get started and make known that we are in the business of starting an
English medium School these persons will be our Brand Ambassadors. Parents will listen to
these senior and not so senior citizens. They will research as to the Management of School.
They will then realize that the Development Committee comprises of senior, experienced
persons from Banking, Education and Management fields. They will realize that the
Management of the school is done by competent persons who desire to bring quality education
to young children. They will realize that this school is capable of giving quality learning to their
children. They will come to know that a good grounding in English will be given to their
children. They will see renovated buildings and child friendly classrooms and a school ambience
that is conducive to good learning.
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Target Customers
b. Christian Families
c. Educated parents
Competition
a. Golden valley School. 16 kms from Madanapalle. Busses ferry children to and from
school. It is a partly residential school.
c. Vashishta School around 10 kms from Madanapalle. Residential. The only school that
has both State and ICSC syllabus.
d. Ratnam School . Started only in 2010. Locally situated. It has a Corporate backing and is
part of a network of Schools in the State of Andhra Pradesh
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
Niche
The decision to start an English medium school is the correct one. There are well established
schools in Madanapalle who have created a brand name for themselves. Schools with corporate
backing have opened and have grabbed their share of the market. Hope English Medium School
has a century old reputation backing it. Its location is an added advantage. With the
introduction of the RIVER Methodology which is not practiced in any English medium school,
Hope can create a niche for itself. Creating awareness will be the major task. RIVER
Methodology is a time tested proven method of learning. This is a major advantage.
Strategy
Hope English Medium Upper Primary School is being started to give education, in the State
Syllabus, in English medium of instruction, to children of classes 1 to 7 and to 2 kindergarten
classes. For those who are not near to the school, our school buses will go and fetch them and
then drop them back at the end of the school timing. We will use all types of Media to
articulate our heritage, our expertise and our Management capabilities to establish, prima
facie, that we are capable of delivering quality education to all children who enroll with us.
Using all available promotional tools we must create awareness amongst parents that they
have an English medium school, of historical repute, using a proven method of
teaching/learning process, next door to them and they need not send their children long
distances to learn in an expensive corporate English medium school. This aggressive, market
penetration will be required only in the first year. Subsequent years will see overwhelming rush
for admissions based on successful word of mouth promotion by satisfied parents.
Promotion
The ways to get the word out to potential parents are the following:-
d. Place pamphlets in local newspapers so that they get distributed with the newspaper
e. Put up Billboards
i. Use auto rickshaws with loudspeakers to go into residential lanes and create awareness
j. Contact local bottled water distributors and task them to leave a pamphlet when they
deliver a can of water in households.
Pricing
A survey has been done of the High end schools and some of the average standard ones. Based
on the assessment of our Target customers our pricing is based on certain established facts. To
quote a guideline, ”For most small businesses, having the lowest price is not a good policy. It
robs you of needed profit margin; customers may not care as much about price as you think;
and large competitors can under price you anyway. Usually you will do better to have average
prices and compete on quality and service.” Using that tenet, it is considered a good price to
quote Rs 6000/- per year per child of Class 1 and increase in an ascending scale for higher
classes which is the norm in schools here. This pricing policy would be lower than an average
type school, in Madanapalle, which has been in existence for around 10 years which has a
pricing policy of Rs 8000/- per year, per child. It is assumed that every class will have a
maximum of 35 children. We are assuming that 30 Children will be the paying children and 5
per class may not be able to pay or pay only concessional rates. On the assumption of 30
children per class from LKG to Class 7 an income of Rs 19,80,000 in the first year is forecasted.
This would meet all administrative expenses of the school.
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V. Operational Plan
The following are the steps being taken to start Hope English Medium School.
November 2010
Advertisements have been given in the local newspapers. We will await applications. A Search
Committee of three senior members of the Development Committee have been constituted to
vet all applications and select suitable candidates. Once selected the panel of names will be put
up to the Development Committee members to decide on the final selection. This process could
go on into the month of December 2010.
December 2010
The HM and Teachers selected will first be given an orientation on the Organizational culture
and what is required of them to deliver. They will then be sent for a 5 – 7 day induction course
at Rishi Valley to be trained in the new proposed methodology to be used in the school. They
will be placed in Rishi Valley schools to get hands on experience in running these types of
classrooms. They will also be taken to Chennai to observe and learn how Schools using this
methodology are being conducted. Once conversant and confident the Team will get down to
the business of creating the relevant TLMs for each Class.
The renovations of classrooms outside and inside will also commence at this time. This will
carry on and must get completed by April 2011.
January 2011
Teachers keep working on creating the TLMs and should have classroom ready materials by end
of March.
February 2011
March 2011
The creation of classrooms fit for the RIVER Methodology is commenced. Requirements are a
little different to the standard classroom layout.
April 2011
The Marketing process is commenced. All methods as enumerated earlier are put into place.
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May 2011
The School buses will be purchased at this time. All previously listed tasks would get completed
in this month
June 2011
School opens.
The Bishop Rayalseema Diocese has constituted a Development Committee for the creation of
the Hope English Medium School. The Committee has been given discretionary powers and
authority to take independent decisions, within the framework of the Diocesan Rules and
Regulations, in the furtherance of this aim. The following are the Committee Members:-
b. Wg Cdr Raju Asirvadam – Chair & Temporary Convener – An ex-IAF Officer with
vast administrative experience. Was
10 years as a Director of Mission
Hospital. Currently the Administrative
Officer in an Educational institution.
The following is the Financial Plan and the justification for each item. A detailed working of the
Financial Plan is attached as Appendix A.
Startup Plan
a. Recognition Fees. A amount of Rs 10,000 was paid as fee and Rs 25,000 as Corpus was
also paid at the time of submitting papers for recognition of the school.
c. Incidentals & Administrative Charges. There are number of incidental expenses that will
be incurred in the process of getting certifications. Expenses like advertisements,
outstation travel, food etc. The estimate for this is Rs 50,000.
e. Renovations. An estimate for renovations of the dilapidated rooms that are going to be
used as classrooms for the new school was made. To get all rooms ready, it will cost us
Rs 3,15,000.
f. School Buses. To get children to our school will involve picking up children from central
locations and then dropping them back at the end of school timing. Two buses will be
needed to carry out this work. This will cost Rs 2,400,000.
g. Training of Teachers. The Teachers will be trained at Rishi Valley in the RIVER
Methodology. A standard training module at Rishi Valley is for 7 days and the training
fee is Rs 133,000 at Rs 19,000 per day. This can be negotiated down to an estimate of Rs
75,000.
i. Cost of Developing Materials. Materials are designed by the designing Teachers. They
are then given for artwork by professional artists. The next step in the process is the
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layout of this material on A3 sheets keeping in mind the optimum and economical use of
the full sheet. Once the sheets are ready in all aspects they are approved by the
Designer Teachers. The sheets are then printed on Thick 3 thickness paper. The printed
cards are then laminated and cut to size before delivering to the Classes. The budget for
this is estimated at Rs 175,000. This includs payment to Artists, DTP professionals and
Printers and Laminators. It is a initial, expenditure as these cards will last for 3 – 4 years.
j. Purchase of School Equipment and Furniture. Equipment will have to be purchased for
the Science Lab, play material for the Kindergarten Classes, Furniture for all the
Classrooms and Audio Visual equipment for the School. The budgeted amount for all
these purchases is Rs 160,000.
k. Personnel Costs. The detailed breakdown of Personnel Costs is given in the appendix. A
survey of what Teachers are being paid in Schools was done. It is our opinion that to get
good quality Teachers we need to pay slightly higher than normal rates. With that
feature in mind the Salaries have been fixed. For the year 2010 – 11 the Personnel Cost
will be Rs 314,000.
The Total Start up Budget is Rs 3,639,000. This is inclusive of the Rs 2,400,000 for the two buses
which need to be procured only in May 2011.
Sources of Income
The School does not have any funds of its own nor does it have seed money to launch this
venture. Through local fund raising a small amount has been raised. Salaries for the staff for
2010 – 2011 have been received through individual donations from abroad. The rest of the
funding has to be raised from donors or from corporate social responsibility sources.
Right from the second year onwards (2011 – 12) it is expected that the School will become self
sustainable and in the third year will have a growth element also.
Till now we have received donations of Rs 13,500 from local sources in Madanapalle and
Rs 387,645 from a donor abroad.
Bank Details
All Demand Drafts or online transfers are to be made into the Diocesan Bank Account as that is
the Account legally permitted to receive foreign donations. Details can be had when a mail is
addressed to rajuasirvadam@gmail.com
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VIII. Appendices
Appendix B
Appendix C