Aakash to expand reach, move deeper into under-served locations

Aakash Educational Services, which came out with a 2.0 strategy as part of a revamp, has identified 250+ unserved or under-served locations in the country to have its physical presence.

Deepak Mehrotra, Managing Director and CEO, said the presence of the company will be felt in these locations in the next 18-24 months which would help to increase the reach hugely from having 315 centres in 196 cities. Most of these centres would be spread in Tier 4 cities in the hinterland or in different areas within the larger metropolises. “We are hoping to go to an additional 100 cities in the next 6-8 months. We need to catch the academic cycle”, he told businessline in an interaction.

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Mehrotra, who was in Kochi to launch a Malayalam youtube channel for NEET and JEE students, said that the new centres will be a combination of owned ones or with franchise partners. “We take responsibility for the academic delivery and the partners provide the infrastructure. But we get involved in ensuring that the academic delivery meets the standards of Aakash”, Mehrotra said.

Asked about the investments envisaged for these expansions, he said “I don’t want to put a number. It is going to be significant. But not all of it is happening upfront. A big chunk of our investments is happening in AI & ML which will help to create a personalised learning path for every child”.

Aakash, he said, is now catering to 400,000 students and it is going to serve an additional 30 per cent more population by increasing its presence. “With Akash 2.0, our intention is to double the strength of students in the next 3-4 years with a combination of digital, hybrid and physical infrastructure”, he said. New centres would also mean additional manpower which would be in the range of 1500 plus new hires.

The company is also in the process of creating a hub and spoke model for children in junior classes or in the lower age group whose parents are hesitant to send them out. This will also allow the child to save extra hours from commuting. Aakash branch will be the hub, while spokes will be large residential concentrations, he said adding that the presence of more multi-storey apartments in Kerala can be ideal places for spokes.

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The company is also focussing more on creating content, pedagogy, assessments and technology to move ahead in the learning journey of students, he said adding that these pillars and the teacher make up the Aakash system.