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A commerce postgraduate of Bombay University, Jesus S.M. Lall is chairman and chief executive of the Mumbai-based Univer-sal Education Group (UEG) and founder-trustee of the S.M. Lall Foundation, a charitable trust promoted in 2008.
Newspeg. The Universal School, Tardeo, Mumbai, is the first K-V primary in India to introduce digital learning devices for nursery school children. Lall claims UEG is the first educational institute worldwide to mandate use of age-appropriate digital devices (iPod/iPad/Macbook) for all students. Nursery to class II children are provided iPods, while iPads are used by senior students.
“Catching them young prepares them to embrace all things digital. As they grow, their comfort with technology will hold them in good stead to find their way around the increasingly digital world,” says Lall.
History. The seeds of UEG — one of India’s fastest growing education groups — were planted by the late Sudhir Madhavji Lall (1947-2002) who promoted a private coaching institute christened the S.M. Lall Institute in Malad (a suburb of Mumbai) in 1968 to give students who failed classes IX-XII a second chance in school board exams. Over the next two decades, the S.M. Lall Institute evolved into the Shri Sudhir Madhavji Lall Welfare & Educational Trust (estb.1987), a full-fledged coaching school which prepared students to write a wide range of public entrance exams.
Subsequently, and particularly since 2002, when Jesus S.M. Lall assumed leadership of UEG following Sudhir Madhavji’s untimely demise, UEG has accelerated its growth and expansion in school and higher — particularly professional — education. Currently UEG comprises eight K-10 schools in greater Mumbai and Nashik, ten junior and undergraduate and six professional/technical colleges in Maharashtra with an aggregate enrolment of 29,000 students and 1,100 faculty.
Moreover, the S.M. Lall Foundation (estb. 2008) has awarded scholarships to 800-plus school and college students over the past three years, and provides counselling and vocational education and training to socio-economically disadvantaged students.
Direct speech. “In the past three decades we have devised our own education system — REAL, an acronym for ‘redefining education and learning’ — an integrated, comprehensive, KG-PG education model. REAL has been designed on five cornerstones of educational excellence — intellectually demanding curriculum that combines academic rigour with practical relevance; robust learning facilities that are exciting, flexible, healthy, secure and sustainable; technology-rich content delivered interactively to make learning come alive; efficient administration that delivers smart solutions for student satisfaction and success; and emphasis on whole-some growth through creativity, values, fitness, cultural literacy and life/career skills,” says Lall.
Future plans. One of the country’s fastest growing education conglo-merates, Lall has drawn up ambitious plans to roll out bricks-n-mortar institutions and full-spectrum services provision together with philanthropic initiatives countrywide, preferably under the public-private-partnership model with state governments. “Our goal is to become a leading private education provider in India offering our services to at least 500 education institutions by 2021,” says Lall.
Wind beneath your wings!
Manas Srivastava (Mumbai)