Pramod Maheshwari happened to be a part of the IIT coaching industry quite accidentally. When he went back to Kota, the city where he was born and brought up, after graduating from IIT Delhi in 1993, he was faced with a difficult choice?would he head to the US like his peers for higher education or a job or would he stay back? When his mother asked him if he would also go away for 20-25 years like others, his decision was made and he stayed back. ?I am very attached to my parents and I wanted to stay with them,? he says.
Faced with very few choices in a small town like Kota, he thought of teaching. He also realised that when he got into IIT in 1989, there were no coaching institutes in Kota. An aspirant had to take tuitions for individual subjects from separate teachers?in most cases there would be three teachers, one for physics, another for math and yet another for chemistry. Maheshwari was quick to realise the need and turn it into a business proposition. That was the genesis of Career Point and Maheshwari started his first batch with 51 students-?all locals.
?Teaching was not such a lucrative deal earlier. It was later that I realised that teaching is a very good profession. You are paid handsomely and you are respected by the students and parents,? says Maheshwari, now chairman, MD and CEO of Career Point.
?It was possibly my degree that attracted them. Back then, IITians never opted for a career in teaching,? he reasons. The students had the opportunity of getting guidance from an IITian himself. The venture has paid off handsomely and Career Point clocked a Rs 45-crore turnover last year. Today, its IIT coaching batch in Kota alone has over 4,000 students. Approximately an equal number take coaching across its branches in India. There are 117 faculty members to make the IIT dream come true by keeping a close tab on the latest trends of the competitive exam. The math hereon is simple. The average duration of a course is 10 months, costing the student about Rs 60,000. The outstation students end up shelling out another Rs 45,000 for food and lodging. Most students coming to Kota either stay in hostels or as PGs. And that?s another avenue for growth. ?We are building a residential campus with a capacity for 3,000 students in Kota,? shares Maheshwari.
When you as him about the competition, he says, ?Competition is pretty much the same. In the early ?90s, about 60,000 students used to appear for the IIT entrance and were mostly school toppers. Today, there are over four lakh candidates appearing each year. Almost the entire class prepares and appears for the entrance. The real competition, however, still remains amongst the top 60,000 students,? he explains. Finally, just about 10,000 students make it to the premier institutes each year.
?It?s more an exam of rejection than selection. There are at least 20,000 more students equally capable of getting into the institute but who can?t make it,? he says. Keeping in mind how tough it may be for the students to survive the fiery competition, Maheshwari decided to open a dedicated counselling session to tackle the academic, non-academic and personal problems that the students may have.
Motivational seminars are also held throughout the semester. The parents are also counselled, keeping in mind that the main pressure on the students comes from them. ?We want to convey to our students that IIT is just an exam; it is not the end of life. We tell them that while all IITians may be successful, not all successful people are IITians,? he adds. Point taken.
From a batch of 51, Career Point today spans distance learning courses, as well as interactive courses conducted through the satellite. There is a web portal to help students prepare for competitive exams and even foundation courses for students of classes VIII, IX and X to prepare them for competitive exams. What?s next? Well, CP has already filed the DRHP with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and if all works out as intended, it will hit the market around May.