Meet Prajwal T P and Krithika Karnam from Bengaluru. Three years ago, with an aim to tutor students at home and give them extra care and attention, they started their group The Circle Home Tutors. While Prajwal is pursuing Computer Science at Dayanand Sagar Engineering College, Krithika is pursuing BSc. "We are a group of like-minded people who believe that concepts and formulae should be simplified for students instead of forcing them to mug it up. By doing so, they can remember the concepts after the exams also."
But the duo did not partake in any sort of advertising to become popular. They started tutoring one or two students at home, but as the word spread in apartments and gated communities, there were many others approaching them. After a point, Prajwal approached a few of his friends, who were interested in tutoring, to join them. Currently, there are 40 students and 200 tutors who are in this group. "When we first approached parents asking if they need home tutors, they were sceptical. They would ask us many questions. It took some time to earn their trust. The requirements vary too. Some students might require us to teach them only one subject like Math or Science, while some might choose all the subjects. Most of the classes happen in the evening, even as late as 7 pm for students who attended extracurricular activities," says Prajwal.
Explaining their mode of functioning, he says, "Our phone numbers have been circulated on our social media page. Parents connect with us and, based on their requirement, we connect them to a suitable tutor. Usually, the group has a large number of undergraduate students and a few postgraduates who are also willing to work with us. Similarly, when we hire a tutor, we make it a point to meet the candidate in person and interview them to ensure that they are actually capable of doing the job. There is also one demo class that they must conduct in the presence of parents."
So far, Prajwal and his team have received a good response from the students. Recently, a boy passed his class X exams and his parents even called Prajwal to thank him for helping their son. He had scored 70 per cent which his parents could not believe. "Whenever we teach the students, we check their marks to know if they have actually improved. In case if they score lesser marks than expected, we ask the parents to decide if it is good to continue tuitions or not. This helps us improve the teaching methods that we practice," says Prajwal, whose group is currently working with an NGO called Smitham and a few government schools to teach children free of cost.
