Cherish a dream to expand your established pre school brand in Middle East, an emerging destination for international brands pre school specially catering to expat Indians. Read on to know more.
It is believed that those who go through play school continue in school longer, accomplish more, develop better and experience enhanced growth. With Middle East Government, various regional agencies and international organisations like UNESCO putting in lot of efforts and resources to provide better pre-school education facilities to kids, the region is actually emerging as a hot destination for pre-school education providers across the globe.
Preschool education scenario in Middle East
While unorganised schools are simple affairs often operating out of a single room with no fixed curriculum, those operated by the chains are well equipped. The organised players have everything from outdoor play areas and separate classrooms to security alarm systems. Their curriculum, too, is of a higher standard. During the past few years there has been a considerable increase in the number of Indian pre-school education brands expanding in Middle East. The factors responsible for the increased emergence of Indian pre-school brands in Middle East are:
Expensive local pre-school brands: Most of the pre-school educational facilities are run by the private sector in Middle East. All these are fairly expensive and do not contribute much in terms of educational development. Indian brands acknowledged this and embarked upon their entry in Middle East.
Fragmented pre-school environment: The early childhood education which is primarily managed by the private sector, with other local government institutions also involved in it, resulted into a fragmented environment. There in an uneven set of administrative, rules, regulations, requirements, standards, pay structures, curriculum and goals for monitoring of nurseries and KGs.
Recognising the importance of pre -school education: The slow pace of development in pre-school in Middle East is due to the attitude of the parents and educationalists, who are not much informed about the growing importance of early education.
Rising population: A rapid rise in population in the Middle East has also led to a considerable increase in the investment in education. Presently UAE offers a comprehensive education to all male and female students from kindergarten to university.
Expatriate population: Middle East has emerged over the years as the one of the fastest growing international education sectors in the world. This is due to an expatriate population in the region which accounts for almost 40 per cent of the host nation population.
Indians in pre-school education in Middle East
Considering the growth potential in Middle East lot of organised brands from India have already marked their presence felt in the region. The prominent among these are: Kidzee, Shemrock Schools, Euro Kids International, and Kangaroo Kids.
Highlighting the presence of Eurokids in Middle East, Prajodh Rajan, Vice President, EuroKids International Limited says: “Eurokids had a great appeal among Indian expatriates and one thing that we want to bank upon is the equity that Eurokids enjoys in India among Indian expatriates. Our first reason for expansion in UAE and especially Dubai is the presence of large number of Indian expatriates there. We want to work with Indian expatriates’ population and wish to target them. It is a great opportunity for Indian expatriates aiming to start their own venture. So this opportunity is open for locals as well as Indian expatriate.”
‘Kangaroo kids’ has two centres in Dubai and the company is looking at a lot of offers from Kuwait, Qatar in UAE as well as Sri Lanka and is exploring all of those.
It shows the Middle East pre-school industry holds bright future for Indian brands as there is huge potential.
Franchising paves
Most of the Indian pre-school education brands enter the region via with owned centre and once that centre is a success they opt for franchise route for expansion because of low upfront investment by the franchisee.
Rajan informs: “We started off with our first pre-school in Jumeirah area in Dubai. It is a wonderful 10,000 sq.ft independent villa where Eurokids playschool is set up. This is our first pre-school in UAE. However, now, we have started getting lot of enquires from whole of Dubai and other parts of Middle East.”
Eurokids’ first school in UAE at Dubai is a company owned company operated one. In about year’s time from now the company will franchise out on larger scale though the company has already started getting queries from Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia. So the company is taking one step at a time by opening our first play school. Once everything is in place the company will franchise its brand there.
As per Lina Ashar, Founder, Kangaroo Kids Education Limited (KKEL): “The franchisee takes care of aligning himself with finding the local partner, and all statutory compliances are taken care of by him. We actually are the software of the company in sense of plugging the curriculum, teacher training etc. So we would not have real knowledge what challenges a franchisee actually faces. As far as the difference between the systems is concerned, obviously, I mean we are the curriculum provider. In terms of curriculum there are certain laws that govern us. We have to be careful of depicting certain things to suit the local culture. Therefore, we have to make those alterations and changes to be compliant with laws governing that country but those are more in terms of content management. Apart from that as I already said all of the compliance responsibilities belong to the franchisee.”
Investors’ appeal
Unlike schools, colleges and higher educational institutions, which are barred by law from becoming for-profit ventures, pre-schools are allowed to make profits. Besides, there are no real regulations governing them and just about anybody can start one. Moreover, the investment required to set up a pre-school is comparatively low. The fact that pre-schools are a for-profit business makes them very attractive. They can be corporatised in a way other schools can not. The low entry barriers mean it is easy for new players to come into the segment. But given the size of the market there should be enough room for everyone.
Legal aspect
Unlike India the business of pre-schools is regulated at other places especially UAE. There are certain implications that need to be followed in Middle East.
Space constraints: One can not open a playschool in any villa. The Municipal Corporation has to approve of the site for starting a kindergarten.
Fee structure: There are certain strict regulations for fee structure also. According to these regulations one cannot charge very high fee and cannot have an ambience below specified standards.
Franchise laws: As far as franchise laws are concerned there are no specific franchise laws in Middle East.
Company owned outlet is must before franchising: There are franchise laws in certain parts of the country like Saudi Arabia, where players who want to franchise have to make sure that they have at least one company owned and operated outlet
Conclusion
Having studied the entire Middle East pre-school education industry, it would not be wrong to conclude that Middle East offers a lucrative opportunity to brands looking for expansion in the region. So get set ready to explore new prospects for your pre-school brand in the region.
