What happens when private equity comes to schools

Last week, over a call, a friend told me he pays more for his younger child’s school than for his older child’s college. I had called him to talk about two large private equity deals in India’s school sector that were announced within days of each other. His remark, unconsciously, put the two deals in perspective.

The Indian education sector has spent the past decade living through two completely different investment philosophies. The first held that schools were ripe for disruption. Technology would unbundle the classroom, personalise learning, replace textbooks with tablets and software, and democratise education. It took a while to resonate, but once it did, there was no turning back.