Jaspal Sidhu (Jaspal’s Substack)

On September 16, 2024, the global leadership of Cambridge University Press from the University of Cambridge convened in Bangkok to discuss their future strategies. The two-day conference kicked off with a series of talks under the theme: On A Mission: The Power of Purpose and the Role of Profit in a 21st Century Organization.

Ben Schmidt, the Global Director of Cambridge University Press & Assessment introduced me.

My presentation, modelled in a TED-talk style, was titled Code Cracked: Affordable Education, Impact, and Profit.

There were two reasons why I felt deeply honored to be on stage. First, we were the only school group (SIS Group of Schools and Inspirasi Schools) invited to share our success story with Cambridge’s global leadership, illustrating how we systematically established quality schools across the tuition spectrum in a developing country like Indonesia, which ranks low on the OECD’s PISA scale.

But even more significantly, I was given a powerful platform to address an audience of experts, educators, and changemakers, highlighting that affordable education can indeed be profitable if managed effectively with out-of-the box innovative solutions.

Throughout the address, I stressed the urgent need for quality, low-cost schools in smaller and emerging cities throughout developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, and regions in Africa. There are proven, systematic approaches to make this a reality. We’ve done it, and it’s replicable.

While I’m unable to share the video of my talk, here is a summary of what I presented.

Code Cracked: Quality Education, Impact, and Profit

In my 30-year journey across Indonesia, a country that, despite being the fourth most populous in the world, consistently ranks near the bottom in OECD’s PISA rankings, I believe we’ve unlocked the secret to making quality education affordable and profitable. The key to this success lies in a simple yet transformative concept: our international award-winning Half-Fees Model.

The Half-Fees Model: A Scalable Solution

The Half-Fees Model is built on the principle of reducing tuition fees by half for each new K-12 school we open, depending on the economic realities of the city. In large Tier A cities, we set the fees at one level; in mid-sized Tier B cities, we cut those fees by 50%. In smaller Tier C cities, the fees are halved once again. This tiered system allows us to provide education to a wider range of communities while maintaining profitability.

However, affordability is only part of the equation. Our schools are connected through a highly collaborative ecosystem powered by technology, where pedagogical and operational insights are shared. This ensures that no school operates in isolation, creating a network of collective innovation and support.

Today, we operate 15 schools across 11 cities and four countries. Each one is profitable, all while performing above international benchmark standards.

The Half-Fees Model didn’t emerge overnight—it was born from my personal experience. As the son of a humble doorman in Singapore, I found myself working as an engineer in a remote coal mine in West Sumatra after a recession left me jobless. A near-death experience during this time was a turning point. While recovering in a small hospital, I saw a rundown school nearby with eager students and dedicated teachers.

Years later, after my company discovered one of the largest coal mines in the region, I could afford to send my children to an expensive international school in Jakarta. The disparity between this affluent school and the one I had seen earlier compelled me to act. I decided to equalize the odds.

Back in the 1990s, the tuition fees for the school my children attended were around USD 32,000 per year. This was out of reach for most Indonesian families. So, I refurbished an abandoned building, slashed the tuition by half—down to USD 16,000—and adapted Singapore’s top-ranked education system to the local context. The school quickly filled, and the academic results were exceptional.

Even at USD 16,000, the cost remained high for many. So, I halved the fees again and opened a smaller school with a blend of local and foreign teachers, integrating it into our collaborative ecosystem. Once again, the results were outstanding.

The success of our model is rooted in another simple concept around collaboration. Teachers are naturally generous with their knowledge and dedicated to student success. By creating a supportive environment where best practices are shared, teachers feel a strong sense of purpose and belonging. We inter-connected all our schools, up and down the tuition fee pyramid with a highly collaborative eco-system powered by technology.

In this collaborative ecosystem, even the smallest, most remote schools benefit from the collective wisdom of larger, better-resourced institutions. No school operates in isolation. Our local teachers—who understand the unique challenges of their communities—embrace best practices, driving the success of schools in smaller, emerging cities.

Our achievements drew the attention of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank. With their support, we scaled our schools around various price points—USD 8,000, USD 4,000, and USD 2,000 per year—all while plugging them into our collaborative ecosystem. In 2019, our efforts earned us the Global Education Award from IFC (World Bank) and the Financial Times (UK).

As we expanded into smaller cities, we faced a significant challenge: recruiting high-quality teachers. We looked outside the education industry for solutions and partnered with Deloitte Singapore. Inspired by companies like Google and Starbucks, and many relevant findings, we adopted the philosophy that many top corporations do – Hire for attitude and train for skills.

This approach led us to develop the EFFECTOR Model for teacher recruitment, which prioritizes qualities such as Earnestness, Funny (Humor), Firmness, Enthusiasm, Consistency, Timeliness, Open-mindedness, and a Researcher’s mindset. This model ensures that our teachers connect meaningfully with students, driving engagement and academic success.

Our schools have become hubs of connectivity for public schools as well. In a recent initiative, we trained 100 public-school principals in a mid-sized city, impacting tens of thousands of students in just one weekend. Imagine the potential if public schools could collaborate through our ecosystem year-round.

Our schools are thriving, with 100% of our graduates this year accepted into the top 50 universities worldwide. But for me, this journey is about more than just success—it’s about equalizing the odds for children everywhere.

To investors, funders, and stakeholders: schools at every level—whether in big cities or small towns—can achieve profitability while delivering world-class education if they are run efficiently and connected through a collaborative ecosystem. This model is particularly suited for the developing world, where quality education is desperately needed.

We’ve done it, and it can be done again.

We invite you to join us on this journey to transform education in the developing world. Let’s bring quality education to every child, everywhere, and prove that profitability and impact can go hand in hand.

Source:

https://educationonthebrain.substack.com/p/code-cracked-quality-education-impact