Meena Shah, a teacher with over 30 years experience started Starchild Education and Learning which designs customised worksheets for students and takes away the boredom from learning. Learning concepts through quizzes, crosswords and puzzles, isn’t that fun ?
When did you start your teaching career?
My career in education began when I was 20 years old and I have never looked back. Apart from hands on teaching in a school, I have been part of a teacher training institute and a curriculum planner. I have also conducted workshops for children with the concept of “Fun N Learn” to make specifically English and Maths less tedious and more interesting for them.
What made you switch from being a Teacher for 30 years to an entrepreneur?
While teaching my son, way back when he was in Class. 5, I realised that there was a dearth of workbooks for ICSE students. I started compiling Starchild Companion and Workbooks for Class 5. Since then, I have compiled several educational workbooks for children. I believe that I am a teacher and will always be a teacher. So my entrepreneurial venture, could not have been in any other field apart from education.
How did Starchild Education and Learning happen?
When my son Kahan left for higher studies, I had a lot of time in hand so I began tutoring children at home. I often wanted to give them ready worksheets which would save their time as well as mine and challenge them with a variety of questions and prepare them thoroughly. I could not readily find anything, so I started preparing worksheets. I would break up each lesson into smaller sections and prepare questions using crosswords, word searches, puzzles and pictorial questions, which are quick to answer as well as stimulating and fun. Children found the worksheets interesting as it helped them in remembering the concepts easily.
Then I realised that this could help a lot many students, parents and even teachers. This would allow busy parents to involve themselves easily in their children’s studies by using the worksheets. Later the same sheets could be used as reference material before exams.
This knowledge combined with the fact that the internet could connect me with many more parents, led me to start Starchild Education and Learning. (www.starchild.in). I believe Starchild Education and Learning is the first of its kind to offer interesting worksheets as per the Indian education system.
What challenges are you facing in growing your venture?
Since I have little knowledge about the Internet and building a website, I am trying to learn as much as I can. This has been a journey of growth and learning for me as well. I attend workshops and read on the net to understand more about social media marketing. This is a relatively new concept for parents, so helping them understand this also requires effort. My husband, Chetan, has been my biggest supporter and motivator along with my son Kahan who is now 20 years old and studying in Pune.
Plz find the link of the interview - https://goo.gl/Bqk5ah