Calorx Foundation is planning investments to the tune of Rs 400 crore over the next four years to increase the number of quality education providing schools from 35 to 100 across Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan through the franchisee and joint venture routes.
The Foundation has also tied up with Bangalore-based Ace Creative Learning Pvt Ltd to coach students for the joint entrance examinations (JEE) for professional courses in the new State Board-affiliated schools, which would also have separate 11th and 12th classes for CBSE students. “The State Boards are okay with our arrangement with Ace,” Manjula Pooja Shroff, Chairperson, Calorx Foundation, told Business Line .
With the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) making it mandatory for students to obtain at least 55 per cent marks in the 12th standard to be eligible for JEE, many students now prefer to migrate to State Board courses to prepare for entrance examination for professional courses, such as engineering and medical streams.
Sensing the success of the Foundation’s business model of joint ventures and franchisees at different places, the Mumbai-based Kaizen Equity Fund had picked up 22 per cent stake in Calorx’s group company Altus in 2013, investing Rs 25 crore on a valuation of nearly Rs 100 crore, she said. Altus manages the schools’ infrastructure and non-academic requirements.
Integrated education The first Gujarat Board-affiliated school of Calorx to run Ace tutorials will open this year in Ahmedabad. It will offer integrated education in higher secondary classes and career placement plans as well. However, students of both the CBSE and State Boards will have common courses until the 10th standards.
Over the next five years, the Foundation will also open 25 CBSE-affiliated public schools.
As part of its expansion plans, Calorx will open the first school in Jaipur this year and at Kalyan, Maharashtra, in 2015.