Values hold a very sacred place in everyone’s life, and it helps everyone choose what is right and what should be done. Even though experience plays a commendable role in setting their own beliefs and values, there should be a base that sets the whole learning plan in action.

The education system is well-curated in such a manner that every aspect of child development is taken under consideration. Working on these essential growing aspects of young minds like emotional development, setting up the learning base of schooling, and stating the importance of values in this world.

Mothers are usually involved in monitoring a child’s academic growth; however, as the world got busier, the responsibility of nurturing these elementary growth aspects was taken up by pre-schools. Pre-school plays a very crucial role in the overall development of children.

Every child needs to grow as per their nature. It helps them stay true to their character and allows them to grow significantly well. That is the reason mothers used to take up the responsibility of nurturing their children before their schooling actually began.

Caring, nurturing, and helping young minds grow requires persistence, dedication, and patience. For children attending the pre-school at Hello Kids, the role of a mother and a teacher is beautifully taken up by Mrs. Sunita Agarwal. After successful career as an engineer in 2006, she took up the CEO – Operations with Hello Kids in 2007 and helped the brand to become a pan-India pre-school.

Penning an Erudite Career

Ms. Sunita Agarwal, studied BE in Information and Technology from KIIT Bhubaneshwar. After working with two leading IT firms, namely Infosys (2004) and Huawei (2006), she decided to join Hello Kids in 2007.

Under her able guidance, effective development strategies, and futuristic vision, Hello Kids is now the fourth largest pre-school chain in India, with around 725+ Hello Kids pre-schools spread across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

The Supporting Pillar

Starting her educator’s journey to prepare children for their later education endeavors, Mrs. Sunita Agarwal’s husband, Mr. Pritam Agarwal, acted as a guiding lamp on her journey as an educator. “I used to be aware of the importance of early childhood education for the budding generations from him. He gave insights into the possibilities of doing a business out of this sector, simultaneously catering to the needs of younger kids, thus promising better generations. I could analyse that pre-school comes under an unorganised sector in India and I was pretty sure about taking up this responsibility of CEO position in Hello Kids. As we foresee, I could utilise my expertise from the previous career,” explains Mrs. Sunita Agarwal. 

Setting the Foundation of Quality Education and Values

Hello Kids, have the vision to provide the future generation with a strong foundation of good values and readiness. So that the upcoming generation would contribute effectively to the society, and this strong foundation will act as an asset to them, their families, and the whole community.

“Our institution aspires to educate the young kids and thus make the foundation of the kids strong enough in all aspects and make them able enough to carry forward in future developing them each moment every day. It is important to water at the roots for the firm stature and thus seemingly more neglected or carelessly treated initial years of a child are no longer left like that. We nourish them with values, basics of education, and all kinds of skills like that of social, motor, cognitive, etc.,” added Mrs. Sunita Agarwal.

Uplifting the Pre-School Educational Standards

As a young child who is just leaving the comfort zone of their houses, Hello Kids ensures that the child is groomed in a friendly environment. Apart from that, the pre-school also focuses on giving an equal impetus to academics, extracurricular skills, and the child’s value system, effectively uplifting the educational standards.

“We look forward to seeing better cognitive, social, communicative, motor, emotional development of the kids along with better academics and values in them.” Mrs. Sunita Agarwal commented on children’s emotional wellbeing throughout the learning process.

Adapting to the Modern Modes of Education with Grace

The COVID-19 pandemic and rapid development in EdTech have put the entire education sector through a quite uncertain and challenging time. Keeping the health threats, on the one hand, it is also important to emphasize students’ education and skill development equally on the other. Though this threat was posed by the lockdowns imposed because of the pandemic, the solution came through EdTech, the troublemaker to the traditional educational means.

“Through technology & live interactive sessions, it is now possible for students to constantly be in touch with their teachers, classmates, and friends simultaneous to not skipping their learning process,” says Mrs. Sunita Agarwal.

Students and parents positively accept animation, videos, pictures, and other interactive content created by Hello Kids. The students are beneficial and happy through the entire socially accepted digital learning ecosystem through such interactive means.

Explaining further about the pre-school’s acceptance of modern ways of learning, Mrs. Sunita Agarwal says, “It is actually redefining the ways of learning. Now the blackboards and traditional benches and desks have been replaced with digital screens and zoom classrooms. PTA meetings are mostly confined to WhatsApp groups or Google meets.”

Since most of the major educational activities are happening online, the pre-school also introduced online assessments with interactions, allowing the children to attend them from the comfort of their home. “This will reduce the pressure or pleasure of being physically present at schools in either way you can consider. However, unlike before, children get engaged in learning even at home and have found some learning atmosphere at home too, which might continue in a completely post-pandemic time when offline classes resume,” Mrs. Sunita Agarwal added.

Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions

As the school started to adapt to modern means of education, finding an appropriate time holding into account the screen timing of the kids was the next challenge. Despite adjusting to the convenient timing for both students and teachers, the threat of excessive screen timing affecting the kids’ health and wellbeing is still a threat.

Emphasising the school’s problems as an effective educator, Mrs. Sunita Agarwal explains, “the reluctance of many parents in letting kids attend online sessions, admitting them to online schooling all turned out as big hurdles. Sending kids study materials, online attendance was all initially very difficult as kids are very young.”

Also, not all parents are comfortable with technology, making it even more difficult to adapt to the change. “I must say teachers also went through difficult times of switching on to unfamiliar online teaching using zoom, digital methods, sending notes to kids, and attending to parents’ concerns through WhatsApp chats and calls. Administering all of these, including arranging the necessary online infrastructure to deliver classes from school, was really challenging for us as education leaders,” explained Mrs. Sunita Agarwal.

Empowering India with Education

Mrs. Sunita Agarwal believes that education empowers an individual. Further elaborating education as a tool of empowerment, she explains, “At the beginning, it is acquiring knowledge and later it is gaining wisdom. The latter part is the goal of learning. However, most learners don’t achieve that. And most educators don’t ever focus on this part. Proper nourishment of values, in addition to giving conceptual clarity and providing insights into the applicability of anything you learn into life without harming the environment and fellow beings, helps in achieving this goal. All these require a proper beginning, and this starting point is at the pre-schools. We strive to provide kids our best to attain this eventually in their lives.”

Hello Kids intends to provide education to those who needs are been executed through franchising in different categories. Since Hello Kids is not just limited to the metro cities but is covering a major part of urban and rural areas. Through franchising semi-rural and rural areas, the school not only mains to expand the business but also impart quality education to kids where others can’t reach.

Vision for the Future – Hello Kids Global

Mrs. Sunita Agarwal and her team is making constant efforts to provide quality education to young minds. Under the able guidance of Mrs. Agarwal, her team has been improving daily. Starting from one pre-school in a small room to spreading all across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, Hello Kids now wishes to say hello to kids all around the world.