Most people are no strangers to the terror of math for children; many frustrating hours spent on the same problem, while parents stand vigil through the night.
Math phobia is such a well-known phenomenon that it is a buzzword on its own.
But one Pune-based edtech startup wants to buck this trend. And it is achieving it through “one-to-one” personalised teaching with support from artificial intelligence (AI).
IIT Mumbai graduates Aseem Khare, Agam Garg, and Ajay Bhatt felt that despite the presence of numerous edtech startups that teach mathematics, the outcome was not satisfactory. The trio believed that a different approach was needed.
“Maths is a very linear subject where one topic leads to another and one cannot skip a step. The only effective way to teach is through one-to-one,” Khare Classes Founder & CEO Aseem Khare tells YourStory.
The trio founded Khare Classes in 2022.
The background of the founders was instrumental in building their edtech venture. Khare comes from a family of educationists who run a coaching institute for engineering & MBBS aspirants for the last fifty years in Indore. Besides, this is his second innings at being an entrepreneur after setting up Taskbob, a hyperlocal services startup. The other two founders have also been entrepreneurs in the past.
How it works?
The startup has its own module of teaching mathematics, where it selects the best teachers to create content which teaches various concepts of the subject in audio and video formats.
“We provide a semi-live class where the students can learn the subjects through the mobile or laptop and there is constant monitoring,” Khare says.
Khare Classes provides demo classes to the students to understand their aptitude level to narrow down the courses that are more suited to them. This is done by leveraging AI technology and training OpenAI’s API on their curriculum to respond to any doubts that students have. In addition, regular feedback reports are sent to their parents.
It also holds multiple practice sessions, as the startup believes this is the only way a student can achieve proficiency in mathematics.
The deployment of technology has not only helped the startup reach out to more students but also make its courses affordable. Khare Classes charges about Rs 6,000 annually for its course, offering six classes in a week.
Strong points
According to Khare, there is a lot of mis-selling happening in the student coaching industry from both offline and online players and this resulted in disappointing outcomes. “We need to teach the students at their level of understanding and should be done in a personalised method,” he remarks.
Even offline teaching centres are not able to produce the desired results, as even there, a single teacher is in charge of dozens of students while what they really need is individual attention.
Khare says the first challenge is to always convince the parents and assuage their doubts about the model and its efficacy. In addition, there is always the aspect of a student losing attention while studying.
“A child does not pay attention because he does not understand concepts which are not suited to their level. Once you start teaching at their level of understanding it gives them a lot of confidence,” says Khare.
Khare Classes initially started off by approaching schools in Indore; today, it has 13,000 students who are taking its courses. Khare claims there is a significant improvement in their outcomes from when they first started.
The edtech startup’s courses are available for students from third to tenth standard and focus only on mathematics.
Through technology, Khare Classes is now able to reach out to a larger number of students while also being personalised in their teaching.
The main competitor for Khare Classes comes from other private tuition players and few other edtech startups. Though, Khare says the biggest competition is actually to get the child’s attention who is distracted by various other social media platforms.
Khare Classes has a team of around 20 people and claims it is now operationally profitable entity being positive on contributory margins.
As part of its future plans, Khare Classes aims to enroll around 13,000 students each month. In addition, it plans to add more depth to the courses it offers besides being available in other languages. Today, Khare says their mode of communication is largely in “Hinglish”.
“We have to communicate with the students in the languages they think,” he says.
Khare Classes has already raised a seed round of funding led by India Quotient.
“Daily one-to-one teaching is necessary to study maths and technology now is enabling us to take it to scale,” says Khare.
