Business Today Net Special

Tete-A-Tete
"We try to localise content to make it more meaningful to children"

The Fourth R Inc. is an international leader in computer education for children between three and 17. Currently, Fourth R India has a nationwide network of 45 centres and 20,000 students. The company's Worldwide Chief Executive Robert McCauley spoke to BT's Vinod Mahanta about his plans for India and global trends in children's computer education.

Fourth R's Robert McCauley

Q What is your company Fourth R Inc. all about?

A. We started in 1991 in Seattle. The concept was simple--that computer education for children would be the next literacy, just as in the 19th century we used to measure language literacy. Computer literacy in the 21st century is very similar. We find a country partner to work with before we go into a country; they get exclusive rights with us. The partner has the knowledge of the local culture, language and connections, which can be very important sometimes. We are very careful while choosing partners. In November 1998, we started the business in India. Basically, we have two phases--one is where we open the franchisee learning centres for children, they hit the premium market. In Bangalore, we have four. In all, we have sold about 30 franchisees in South. In the past 15 months, new investors have come in and started investing in the company, so we have also ventured in the northern region. We have a few franchisees in Mumbai. We have hired a new managing director to take the business in the next phase. The investors have done a great job in building up a foundation, now we have 47 franchisees in India. We started another phase six months ago, though we were a little late in starting our school programme. Basically, we aim to take our course and curriculum into the schools and help schools to deliver computer education skills to children. We provide and train staff as well as provide curriculum to the schools.

How are your courses different from the other children's education courses set up here?

Nowadays, a lot of businesses are also getting into the children's education system. They open up a centre with computers, buy tutorials software with the idea of letting the students have a certain amount of time on maths, history, science etc. Their focus is not on computer skills, but on learning tutorials that are software driven. We are not necessarily teaching maths, English, history, although it is a part of what we do. The core skill we are working on is the computer skill. The activity we do does not rely on software, like other players in the marketplace. For us, what's more important is the curriculum, which defines the computer skills that are important at different age levels, so that we can empower the children to use computers as tools to get things done.

How is the Indian market different from the western market? What have you done to localise the content?

One of the reasons it is difficult to get the school market right away is that the learning environment is very different from franchisee learning centres. Franchisees are very intimate, personalised, hands-on, and warm environments, where we have one teacher and a maximum of five children. The ratio of the environment and what we can do in the environment is very different. We have a lab with 30-40 computers, so the procedures and controls for the lab are very different from those for the franchisees. English, as the British use it and as the Americans use it, is very different. In India it is important to have a lecture section as well as the lab section in schools. In the franchisee model, activity and presentation happens together in an interactive manner. In large schools, there is a lecture set of instructions and a lab set of instructions. We rarely have a lecture set in the US. Our approach to learning is less structured, and a lot more is emphasised on creativity and collaboration.

'We try to localise the content to make it more meaningful to children'. We have a team of about 20 people engaged in localisation and modification of content in Chennai. We are not just bringing products into India, but also working towards product development and outsourcing of the content development from India. India also has a lot of similarity with some other markets with large population.

What are the global trends in the children's computer education?

One of the biggest trends is getting away from tutorial software. It is the easiest thing for a school to do--buy some software, hardware, train the kids and wait for something special to happen. We have spent billions of dollars on this and clearly wasted a lot of money. Because of this, we are in the third generation of hardware and software now. We see a problem of staff and the teachers themselves not having the necessary skills. In US and many other countries, the focus is on training the staff, the people who impart education to our children. Another trend in the higher education is that more and more schools are requiring students to carry laptops to all their classes. Another trend we are seeing is education in terms of computer skills, such as reading and writing. Introducing computers to children and enhancing their skills is becoming more important, it cannot wait. Countries like Singapore have been aggressive in bringing technology to children and have been reasonably successful.

The idea of staff development, the idea of not relying on the software and hardware is something magical, which isn't good for all the software companies. That's why many IT education companies have had to drop a lot of their products in the last five years. Studies show that 80 per cent of educational products are not educational, but are sold as educational products. Another trend is that you are seeing an integration of topics in the development of computer skills. Whether it be science or English, we are seeing teachers co-operating on different themes going on in the school.

What kind of research is going on in the children's computer education?

India is a fragmented market with not many professional players. Lots of players think it is about opening shop like the Fourth R. But they will realise that it is more than just playing with computers. Eventually, you have got to have a higher value proposition. Otherwise, it will not work in the franchisee model. In schools, it is a learning curve. You have to spend time with children to know their needs. There has been a lot of interesting research on topics such as gender, but not enough.

Compared to schools in the US, how far have Indian schools reached in providing quality computer education to their students?

Many private schools in India have done what we have done at same stage--set up a lab. But what we really have to look at is what they have got. It is more artificial, they could have got more than that out of the same infrastructure. We have to give the tools to the instructor and change philosophies. Private schools in India are only one or two years behind the public schools and the private schools in US are probably four years ahead. That's assuming that a steady stream of innovation and money will be spent in India and US. Computer education in K3-12 is receiving a maturation of technology with the ability to change.

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