 I'm working back to why in the morning, and if it's Tuesday most definitely, it's entrepreneurship Tuesday. The White Offer for Channel is where you can find us. Across all our social media handles that Michelle is where you can find me across all my social. In this particular session, we dive into an interview that looks at operating an education based franchise, a student joint with none other than Jasper Ondemo, who is the director of Psych Highway Academy and also an educational expert. Good morning. How are you? Thank you so much. How is your morning coming along? Fine. I'm happy to be here for the first time. All right. We are glad to have you over. Thank you so much. All right. For someone who is meeting you for the first time, which I know most people have met Jasper through mainstream media, of course. So tell us what, if I've missed out anything on your bio that is, probably you can mention also your educational background as well. Thank you so much. I said, I appreciate for you hosting me here. I think it is a bit difficult for me to describe myself for I am, unless a man does it on my behalf, but you already hinted it out that I'm basically an education expert, I'm more into education of fair issues. Yeah. I also commentate on a range of education matters. And I also do some sole proprietorship, I do have a school that I'm running. So basically that is all about me. All right. So the reason why you are here, it's because in matters of entrepreneurship, you run a sole proprietorship. So tell us, what is your entrepreneurship journey? When it is that... Yes. I can say that it has been an easy one. It has been a tough one. I mean, diving from employment, you entering into a new entity that you're not used to. It is uncharted waters. It has been really tough. But the hope is that when you look at the future, you see how the future is brightened. You have the resilience that it takes and you keep on, you keep moving. For me, mine started during the COVID time. I was a teacher and, you know, for teachers during the COVID season, it was an opportunity to do something new for those who could have decided to utilize that particular opportunity because then I wasn't attached to my place of employment. So I could do a lot. And that is when an idea of starting a school came about. And then I shared with some of my friends whom I knew were interested in starting a school. So I got one of my friends and then we pulled resources and then we began. And the journey begins with first looking at what are some of the statutory requirements. For example, you don't just wake up today and say, I'm starting a school. And if that was the case, then everybody could be owning a school. So first of all, you must look at what are the requirements that you're supposed to meet before you start a school because the Minister of Education outlines those particular requirements. Before we even get to the requirements that are needed to start a school, let's look at the transition. How is it transitioning from employment to now whereby you're expecting a check every single month? You're sure, right? Now you're in a space whereby you are your own boss, but literally you have a lot that goes around it. So how was that transition for you? I can say it's really tough, but somehow I had my savings and then I also had an opportunity to take some coins from here, my friends here, and they are at least for a start to get going. I can say that it was a bit tough, but also there is some contentment that you as a person you can have, that you're doing something that is going to benefit you, that sometime in the future you'll not be in employment, I can call it begging. So that particular motivation will enable you to move on. But I do not necessarily advocate against employment because everyone in employment always wishes to start a business, but then you look at how tough the C is getting out and trying to move on. So I think some do not have that particular courage and also the issue about resources. You cannot just leave employment and say, I want to start my own business. You're likely to fail. So I can say it was a bit tough, but I think I was well prepared and I had some cash here and there. Speaking about being prepared, was there a business plan? Was there like a budget for this? What are a couple of requirements that are needed when it's starting a school that is? First of it, I said you look at the statutory requirements, the Ministry of Education, what requirements are there for you to start a school? First of all, they must look at the size of the land that you have. Then the issues about teachers, do you have qualified teachers who are registered with the teacher service commission? Is there a playing ground for those particular children? Have you complied with the health requirements? So the first thing you do is you start, then you will invite the regulatory body, that is the Ministry of Education, they'll come and assess, they'll give you a provisional certificate and then now you'll start running. So especially for us, for example, I think where it was a bit tough is sometimes when you're starting, you do not have the pupils, they're not as much as you wish to have them. And here you have the teachers that you love to pay, at the end of the month you cannot tell them, you know, these are startups, so please, can you be patient with us? At least they are expecting something for themselves. And what really helped us to begin well is during that time of COVID, you know, the school is in an estate and we accommodated a lot of children, we were teaching them while observing the COVID-19 protocols and we really ensured that these particular children that we teach them, because that time the schools were close and we really ensured that these children that we have here, that we're doing our tuition to, let us retain them by all means. So we put a lot of incentives, buying them sweets here, they are talking to their parents and all that and out of 30, we were able to retain about 21 and that was a good thing. You'll get someone to transfer from his school or the parent to transfer the child from the school that the child was to a new school, so I think that was a good start-up for us. And in the quest of just retaining your clients in this situation, Yankees, the parents who are actually also involved, so what is your marketing strategy because I feel it's quite different when it comes to an educational based kind of a business compared to whereby I'm selling a product, which is a moving product really quick. So what has been your strategy? As we began during that particular period, around one month, we ensured that the teachers were doing a nice job, such that when the child goes home, the parent will be able to look at the excise book, then the parent will be amazed by what the teacher has written there and how the teachers were very nice to these particular children. You know, young kids are very easy to manipulate and to buy them. So we really ensured that the teachers were very friendly to them, very kind to them, playing with them, marking the excise books on a regular basis. We organized even taking them for swimming classes. We also did things like horse riding. We brought horses there, the pupils who are riding. So we really did quite different from the traditional schools they do. And most people were just amazed at how we were doing that particular marketing. So we really pumped a lot of resources. We did the road shows as well. So that particular time it was really a period of doing marketing, although we've scaled it down a bit, but I think 90% of the success we can attribute it to marketing because no person is going to just come to a new school. As we say, even there are some people who are telling me, or you can hear some side talk, so you are already disadvantaged, it is a new school. So you must do everything to ensure that you get this particular parents, you get this particular children and there is no shortcut about it. Otherwise it is going to be ordinary and you are going to take a very long time to pick up. Why? And there are so many schools that are out there like when it comes to Kedagatens and just what is so different about you guys, what problems are you solving and what is your niche in the market that makes you stand out? One weakness that most schools have, and it is an advantage especially for me, when a parent comes he is meeting a teacher or the director is a teacher, there are some schools you will find maybe it is someone who has a background in agriculture, someone who has a background in economics, even journalism or even issues to do with entrepreneurship and all that. So someone decided to say I am starting a school, at least for me I know like if I have employed a teacher I know what are some of the issues that I will be checking. So you have an advantage that this particular school is run by a professional, compared to other schools where you can find maybe someone has just started a business. At least for me it is not really a business, of course you are going to gain but then as you gain are you transforming the lives of this particular children. So that is the first advantage that someone who is heading this school is well versed with matters of education. So I mean of course education is also like what we call, what we say it is a calling that not everybody can offer education and education is also a whole thing in its own that it is not about cramming and all that but changing the lives of these particular children. Even you Michel I know there is a teacher at some point you remember maybe in primary school in high school apart from content delivery that teacher was doing something unique. Impactful. Yeah impactful so to speak. That's very true I remember my business teacher in high school she was very impactful in my life. Yeah even me I remember a certain teacher of Fasihi who was so good and used to give us some life lessons you know sometimes as much as content is necessary advising these children is also key. Absolutely speaking about advising people out here someone who is watching this conversation and they have heard that of course you mentioned something which is very critical that for you what is the niche when people come to probably your school based franchise is the fact that your background is in teaching how important is it for if anyone wants to venture into any sort of business that they should be passionate how fundamental is it. First you must understand what it takes to run that particular business for example even to start a school what does it take having a school what are some of the requirements they should be on your fingertips and then the most critical one is have experts in that field do for you that job if you're not an expert for example if you're starting a school and you are not vast with education you're not vast with with teaching you can get a good manager who is a teacher who is going to manage for you that particular school and also try to give these particular people you have employed some space it should not be like you know it is like a religious routine but let them be happy coming to that place of work. So most importantly it is all about resources so can you first have those resources at place of course you might not have everything but you can start from somewhere so know how much money do you need for example if you're starting a school you look you look at land issues the structure the facilities you need the issues about desks the teachers so just know what it is required for you to to run it and it is always good to talk to people who have already done it for example I believe for me if I did not have someone who is already having a school I could not have managed if I just went like oh now I'm to start a school and then now let me follow these things no just look at a person who has already done it for example a person like me can be able to tell someone here you can do this you can do that so have someone who has already gone ahead of you to avoid mistakes which could have a couple of absolutely absolutely end up like ruining you so let's look at couple of things that challenges that comes with running a school at the initial stage when just starting off the first one is the staff and you know in education just get immediate feedback so if you don't have a good teacher and sometimes it might take you time to realize this person is not a good teacher and by the time you realize this person is not a good teacher you've already lost about five children maybe the children have gone home they have said teacher teacher and some parents might not even want to know okay let me go and inquire from the management so some will develop a negative attitude and some of these preschools it is very easy to lose children because you know some of the parents are quite young they've gone meeting the estate and that will spread in the entire estate by the time you want to redeem yourself or you might not actually redeem yourself I have a friend of mine who told me that he sucked he's a director he sucked one of the PP1 teachers and then the teacher went with some pupils so it has taken several years for that particular school to be where it was especially the PP1 section so sometimes there could be those issues of human resource if you don't get good teachers they can easily ruin your school and sometimes other issues can include I mean steady can call it you know the schools rely on school fees so you'll find maybe some parents who have come to school they'll say if you think maybe it is the end of the term so sometimes you'll just say okay you lose that particular school fees and all that then payment of salary is there but it needs a lot of strategizing and planning so that you don't get yourself into unnecessary trouble in the initial stages okay looking back do you regret it and would you say running a school franchise is a profitable business I don't regret starting it off because we've we've been on progress and I yeah and we've made really great strides if it is profitable venture yes of course if you put in the right energy the right human resource if you do the right thing then it is going to be profitable for you I mean even some of these big names you hear right now a good example is a Lekood schools they began with three rented rooms and right now you're talking about a multi-million school so it is profitable so long as you be patient and also as I'm emphasizing that do not focus more on money because this is something that can bring you money if you change the lives of those particular children if they pass then you'll automatically have those particular children come and then the school is going to be eventually profitable so if you prioritize more on impacting the children then money will just come directly to you all right it's inevitable so let's look at the competence-based curriculum and most people have so many questions about the CBC right so first of all like I would like to find out how does it look on the level like at the university level of course right now CBC is at grade five and there is hope some people have hope that it is going to go all the way to the university you don't think so for me I do have my reservations perhaps I'll be able to share why I do have those particular reservations at the university level it is focusing more on the skills of these particular learners those who are well-endowed in arts and languages they'll go that particular path those ones for sciences will go to the path of sciences but right now CBC is facing a lot of challenges number one some people believe that it was a rushed process I mean in a country where most parents 90% of the parents do not understand what CBC is all about if you just go to the streets and ask a parent can you tell me for example how many grades do we have for instance or at junior secondary which grade are we talking about at senior secondary which grade are we talking about the parents are do not know about this particular curriculum and you have cases where children are coming home to do homework you can imagine I mean you've been busy here throughout the day then you go home and you are expected to help your daughter or your son to do some assignment which is okay but you find that some of these assignments are technical in nature or they require some form of learning I mean according to data about 10% of Kenyans are the ones that are educated so what happens to these other children who go home and the parent does not understand anything about education of course as much as interacting with your child is okay doing homework together is a good thing but we are burdening parents we are also disadvantaged children who do not have a good background academic backgrounds and then you look at even the transition how it is supposed to be for example in 2023 we are supposed to have the first the first CBC cohort joining junior secondary and that is when we shall have the last 844 candidates so we shall have what we call a double transition of about two million learners so the question is do we have capacity to host two million learners in secondary school the answer is no is the government constructing schools to accommodate these particular children the answer is in the negative and as a someone who has seen the government constructing schools somewhere so for me I believe CBC of course is a good curriculum no doubt about it it has worked in other countries that are well resourced but in the Kenyan context we have we are in a situation where we cannot be able to fund properly these competence-based curriculum but if we're resourced it can work but Kenya being a third-world country as much as we as much as the nation was the Kenyan budget most of it goes to education but still it might not work and I'm premonitioning a scenario where like the one you remember CSA Mina Muhammad at some point saying that CBC is not going to continue going to revert back to it for four yes I see a similar situation come 2023 where we shall just say okay let's put this thing on hold okay would you do you feel like or rather do you believe that stood up sorry teachers are well equipped and informed in matters and trained matters about the curriculum yeah in a normal scenario what could have happened is first you train the teachers before you roll out the curriculum you first train the teachers it is like a new machine being brought here and then you have she told me her name is Gloria you bring a new machine and then you tell Gloria now Gloria this machine you will be able to learn it as as time progresses and maybe the machine is quite complicated so at least the training could have started in teacher training colleges and universities there's no university right now which is teaching CBC and then you wonder now how are these particular children going to be taught for example there is a there is a subject called science and technology it is all about computers the teachers the children in colleges have not been teaching computer so who is going to teach this particular matters of computer so the curriculum was rushed and I believe perhaps it was for leaving a legacy legacy for the for those in leadership at the moment so as much as curriculum review was inevitable I think it was rushed and we might have to pay some time in the future if we do not take an objective there's so many questions that's around the new curriculum the CBC just as we wind up I think one of the outstanding questions for most parents will be how do you rate a pass from a failing considering there's no positions I like the fact that it focuses more about on the skills of a student that is most definitely amazing but now how do you how are you going to wait yeah firstly that is the problem is focusing on skill because when you talk about when you talk to a Pp1 a Pp1 child is about three years Pp2 is about four years then you have grade one grade one is a class five so when you teach competence what are you what are you telling a Pp1 child that it should be competent in what I mean at Pp1 or Pp2 what is supposed to learn issues of number work learning how to say hello how to greet someone learning about hygiene there's nothing about competence you can teach to a young child competence comes at the higher levels maybe from in high school from about from one from two that is when you start learning about careers yeah you are aware about yourself so that is the first the first mistake then on the second question that you ask come up again please the second question I was asking on the aspect of rating because there's no part of it yes I think initially Kenyans were used to even announcement of KCSE results where you're told this particular student is number one and then this particular school is the top in the country and there was some form of unfair competition that one we agree but then it was wrong to completely eradicate ranking because I mean how are you going to measure this particular students as much as you're saying that you're focusing on competence but the reality of life is that life is always about competition you can imagine if in the English Premier League teams will just be playing and there is no ranking of those particular those particular teams so what ought to have been done is to check on this particular ranking maybe we have ranking of academics ranking of co-curricular that those who are good in singing ranking in these drama festivals these particular actors they be awarded so it was it was supposed to widen the scope of these people are being awarded such that and then there is that particular as a society we worshipped grades grades more such that a child who has an a even the way you greet that child with a lot of respect but this one who scores an e the child is being demeaned and then you take away the human dignity that this child is supposed to have so as a start yes it reached a point where it became as people say toxic relations it became toxic this particular ranking such that we started worshipping it and principles were doing all manner of a crooked strategies to have children cheating in exams and all that so it was time that you had to be to be to be on the top there are some schools even right now where you you'll part with 200,000 shillings to get admission especially this particular national schools as much as we know that the placement of home one has been left to the Ministry of Education right now there are some schools still that are charging to have learners in that particular school they extra extra learn some of these national schools it's a lot and I feel like we cannot actually you know just finish on this conversation in matters pertaining to the city is a lot that is involved and you can have you over and just shed more light on this issues so how can people find you on social media if they want to keep this conversation going that questions on matters pertaining running a school-based franchise yeah I am on Facebook Jasper on demo and then on Twitter is Jasper underscore on demo all right thank you very much for creating time to be with us today yeah thank you for having me as well all right so that's just for on demo and we were talking about operating an education-based franchise make sure you keep the conversation going at Y254 channel as you can find me across almost across also social media handles at Michelle she does or you can find me across all my social media and also drama Google submission stay tuned we have so much coming right here on why in the morning