Hippocampus Learning Centres (HLC) has announced plans to expand.
Established in 2011, the Bangalore-based leader of private education for rural India provides quality, low-cost kindergarten and after-school programs, and said it will seek to reach 380,000 children by 2018.
The announcement was made because HLC has just joined the Business Call to Action, a global initiative that challenges companies to develop inclusive business models offering the potential for development impact and commercial success, created to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.
HLC’s kindergarten program focuses on early learning skills while its two after-school programs called “Grow By Reading” and “MathStar” focus on fluency of the English language and strengthening the foundation for greater learning in mathematics, respectively.
The programs, which provide the fundamentals for continuous learning, are designed to improve the likelihood of future educational success.
Public education in India, although undergoing reform, is being weighed down by teacher absenteeism, lack of resources, and ineffective rote learning. And the greatest effects of low-quality education are on children in rural India. You might expect private education to be for an elite few, but not with HLC, which offers its programs for a monthly price of $2-5.
Not only that, HLC provides alternate employment opportunities for rural women, whose usual options at employment are rarely outside of agriculture and manual labour. As part of its expansion plans, HLC aims to provide 24,000 women with training for employment as teachers by 2018.
HLC plans to put its words into immediate action. Next year, it will be creating 60 new learning centres to add to its 100. The centres will offer both kindergarten and after-school programs and reach an estimated 12,000 children in the districts of Mandya and Davangere where HLC currently operates.
Photo from Business Call to Action.