ROI in Education Business is Really High: Neeraj Sharma

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indian School Finance Corporation, Neeraj Sharma, said that the returns on education business are really high, in a panel discussion-Education Brand Investment- in an event of BW Education, Top Education Brands of India 2017, in Le Meridien, New Delhi, today.

He explained that ROI depends on various factors including the strength of students in an institution and the ROI is more than 50 per cent in some of the cases depending on the enablers which contribute towards the business of education.  Elaborating he said, “It is a lucrative business but returns highly depend on your selection. I would invest in infrastructure and then fund technology.”

When asked to explain himself, by the moderator of the panel, Sunil Kumar, President of BW Businessworld, Sharma replied that technology is a forced-enabler and it could not replace teachers at least in India for a long time. On the other hand, returns based on brick and mortar concept is comparatively much higher than technology-based ROI.

Slightly disagreeing with Sharma was the other panellist, the CEO and Co-founder of Frankinvest, Bobby Bhatia, who was of the opinion that although short-term investments in the education business could be profitable, on a long-term basis, one should not invest in education.

Echoing the same opinion was the COO of Geneva School of Public Policy and Governance, Billa Bhandari. He said, “Education is a lucrative business, however, I would not want to invest in Indian education but, learning.” He emphasized on the current loopholes in Indian education system like lack of quality teachers in schools and colleges and said that we need to work more on learning and less on education.

Another panellist, Dilip Puri, the Founder and CEO of Indian School of Hospitality, concluding the panel discussion said that we need to give prominence to life-skills in higher level education. He said, “Business of education is important because a school or an institution performing well financially would only be able to pay its teachers and other staff members well. And only then it would become easier to introduce technology-based enablers and other devices to improve the education quality in India.”