Former bureaucrat Deepak Madhok is chairman of the Varanasi-based Sunbeam Group of educational institutions (estb.1972), comprising 13 CBSE-affiliated schools with an aggregate enrolment of 20,000 students and 2,000 faculty, and managing director of Sunbeam Eduserve Ltd (estb. 2010), which provides education consultancy services to all Sunbeam schools.
Newspeg. In April this year, four new CBSE-affiliated Sunbeam K-12 schools sited in the cities of Jaunpur, Allahabad, Ghazipur and Mau — across the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh — admitted their first batches of 640, 146, 422 and 432 students respectively. With the promotion of these greenfield schools, the Sunbeam Group comprises 13 education institutions, including three day-cum-boarding schools, a women’s college affiliated with the VBS Purvanchal University, and a school for the underprivileged. Moreover, Sunbeam School, Lahartara was ranked Varanasi’s No. 1 day school in the EducationWorld-C fore India’s Most Respected Schools Survey 2011 (see EW September).
Genesis.The seeds of the Sunbeam Group were planted four decades ago by Dr. Amrit Lal Madhok and Deesh Madhok who promoted the first Sunbeam School in the Bhagwanpur area of the holy city of Varanasi. In 1990, their son Deepak, an alumnus of Benaras Hindu and Allahabad universities who was a civic administrator in the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission, took the hard decision of quitting the civil service to help his parents realise their mission of “providing world-class English-medium education to children in Uttar Pradesh”. Since then, Deepak has transformed the Sunbeam Group into one of U.P’s fastest growing school chains by promoting schools in Annapurna (1996), Lahartara (2002), Varuna (2002) — all in Varanasi — and Mughalsarai (2004), among others.
Direct talk. “I gave up my job in the civil service to carry forward my parents’ vision of providing affordable English-medium education to children in Uttar Pradesh, who only had Hindi-medium schooling options. Our objective is to equip children from the Hindi belt with first-class education, knowledge and skills which will enable them to succeed in the global economy,” says Madhok, who reveals that 35 students from Sunbeam schools in Varanasi qualified for admission into the IITs this year.
Future plans. Enthused by the excellent response and continuous parental demand for quality K-12 education, the Sunbeam group has drawn up ambitious expansion plans. “A master plan to start 30 schools across India primarily in tier II and III cities and towns where there is growing demand for affordable schools, is almost ready and will roll out next year. Children grow very quickly and opportunities slip by easily. Therefore timely project implementation is very essential,” says Madhok.
Wind in your sails!
Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)