| Teaching American students has always been a great challenge for tutors in India. Following the success of its K-12 program in North America, tcyonline.com is now going full blast with one-on-one Live tutoring for competitive exams like GRE and GMAT. Quality teaching being the bedrock of the company policy, its CEO Kamal Wadhera lays out some vital facets of its success story in an interview. |  |
1 Q. It’s been close to three years now since tcyonline.com launched e-tutoring in North America. How do you see its growth since then?
Ans: All these three years have been a great experience for us. We spent the entire first 18-24 months in understanding the user (the student), his motivational factors and in figuring out the US education system. Since we were in no rush enrolling more students, we spent this period in personally meeting the academic fraternity and the people who matter in that country. Our patience has paid off; the student satisfaction has brought us rich dividends. It is our students who are recommending us to their friends and siblings. The word of mouth has worked great for us as we got all this success without any aggressive marketing. Interestingly, now ‘unsatisfied’ students from other tutoring companies are coming to us. After comparing us with them they have found our services highly useful.
Secondly, that country’s education system is very different from ours; every geographical area in the US needs a customized approach. So, without giving one size-fits-all kind of treatment to the (education) market, we soon found right affiliates in different zones. Same is the case with the students. Their educational needs differ from coast to coast. Our ten years experience has taught us that a learner is a learner and his motivational needs have to be looked into. Unless our delivery is tailor-made according to the learner, he will not learn. So, we need to have local people, who have been educationists themselves. They are the one who tell us how a student has to be taught in any particular geographical area. Now we have brought in their inputs into our system, and our academic counselors are delivering the services accordingly.
2 Q. So, what were the initial challenges in the US?
Ans: Whenever one starts something, one has to be prepared. Initially, we taught scores of students free to prove ourselves through our quality teaching standards. We always believe that that if a student is paying and we do a lousy job he is permanently gone. Then we took the local associates into confidence and told them to take the major share of the earnings. So, the first two years were very critical for us because that research taught us that all fifty states have fifty standards. We did a lot of research on those standards and our technology for imparting education. We did a lot of brainstorming with our tech-partners to choose a right technology for our students. The third factor was the content. It took us couple of years to develop a content (course-ware, questions, explanations) conforming to US cultural standards. So, these were the teething troubles in a nutshell.
3 Q. An average American feels today that the public education in that country is in a shambles. What role a company like yours is playing in addressing this national education crisis?
Ans: Yes, year after year stats tell us that the K-12 education system is in a shambles. I guess, focus and lack of accountability are the reasons. If you compare it with our (Indian) education system, you would find that it is the same story. Do you think our Government schools are doing the right job? So, public money is public money. Since the accountability was also missing, the problem is there. On top of that, the teachers in those schools are not paid as well as the people in other sectors. So, teaching is not their first choice. Secondly, most of them are the products of the same school system, which is compounding the problem. No wonder, a law NCLB (No Child Left Behind) had to come in. Now many schools fear that if they are tagged as failing school districts they may lose funding. Consequently, the teachers may go out of job.
4. Q. Can we say TCYonline is coming to their rescue, in at least improving the Math education in that country?
Ans: Yes, it is very obvious. For example, the US may be good at making big cars but when it comes to fuel-efficient ones, Japan is the leaders. No wonder, most of the Americans prefer Japanese cars. Similarly, where mass-produced items are concerned one can’t beat the Chinese. They would give you the same product at a low cost. Thinking on the same lines, if you have great teachers for Math and Science sitting in India, you have to accept the fact. Now when the Internet is there, you cannot artificially stop your children to be taught by the best teachers (in the world). That would be doing injustice to this generation. Just imagine, five years from now when they pass out from their 10 or `12 grade, and they find themselves no good for either vocational training or college or university degree, it would be too late. The US has to open the doors because that country has always been a proponent of free economy.
5. Q. So, can we say it’s a fitting reply to the people talking against education outsourcing?
Ans: There is nothing called ‘outsourcing’. The point is, who can give you the best product or the service at a price that a customer can afford. If India does not do it, these jobs will go to some other countries like Malaysia, Pakistan, and Japan or in Africa. Today, these job opportunities are coming to India because the Indian teachers are doing well in comparison to their (US) teachers. Similarly, if tomorrow our teachers are found to be wanting, these jobs would go elsewhere.
6. Q. Now, we have heard that TCYonline is graduating from K-12 to such competitive exams like GRE and GMAT. So, can we say the company is all set to take this new challenge?
Ans: Since we have been teaching GRE, GMAT and SAT for the last seven-eight years over here (India) with good results, we are pretty sure to give even better results to the American students. We have already done a lot of work on content, teachers and their teaching skills. After doing some good pilot projects with the American students, we are now going full-fledged. As we are doing with K-12 students, we would restrict ourselves with Math coaching as that is the one area where we are very comfortable. It is a huge opportunity in itself for us.
7 Q. But how would you convince an average American student, putting aside cost-effectiveness?
Ans: Look, cost is the secondary factor over here. An aspirant won’t mind 300-400 dollars more when it comes to scoring high or getting a chance of scholarship in a university or a college. The question is, are you able to give the same or the best service to the students being delivered by the tutoring players over there. Our answer is yes. He would come to us because we are more affordable, more customer-friendly and we empathize more with them. We have good infrastructure too. Yes, we can do a better job than the American trainers.
8 Q. How are your business affiliates doing in the US?
Ans: They are doing great. First of all, all of them have an academic background. It means they fully understand the American education and its students. They have all our backing from India. You can say an affiliate is also indirectly a part of your organization. These people spend a lot of time in pre-tutoring and post-tutoring, pre-sessions and post-sessions every time they meet the students. That brings a lot of confidence in the team.
9 Q. Can a person sitting in a country like Singapore tutor student in the US, on your company’s behalf?
Ans: Yes, we can do that. But so far there are a few things a tutor has to go through. Tutor training, behavioral training and a few other areas, like some standardized training modules one has to go through. That demands that we must have tutors in our facility. But later on, if it makes sense, we are open to that too. If we find a great teacher in Singapore and we find he can do a great job for us for the US students, we are open to such a suggestion.
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About TCYonline.comAn online initiative of Top Careers & You (TCY), the company specializes in school programs and standardized test preparation; provides LIVE online home work help through one-on-one tutoring. One of the leading educational organizations, TCYonline.com is gaining a foot hold in North America with its unique online tutoring budgeted plans and free content. The company is mapping out top US cities through its prospective affiliates with the attractive ‘zero-investment’ model plan.
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