Ms. Minal Anand, Founder & CEO, GuruQ reveals Digital Platform in India that Connects Students with Tutors.
Students can avail individual classes or group classes at any given time on any given day owing to the flexible schedules. They can book even 1 or 2 revision classes just before exams. Students can avail a list of tutors located within their residential area and then compare them based on ratings and reviews to get the best one. Parents can track the constant progress of their children and seek feedback whenever they want to. The fully integrated platform has a number of innovative technological features like ‘Find The Right Tutor‘, ‘Post Your Tuition Need‘, ‘Scheduler‘ and ‘Instant Class’. An app is going to be launched soon to make the entire process of finding the ‘right tutor’ more convenient, easy and quick.
- Please tell us about your company, its speciality, and the services it provides.
GuruQ is India’s best tutoring platform that connects students with the right tutors. Students can personalize their tuition classes using the GuruQ platform depending on their budget, mode of class (at home or online), and batch size preference. A platform like GuruQ seeks to remedy the flaws in the education system by enabling students to connect with qualified, certified and vetted tutors who can make the entire learning process wholesome and interesting by focusing on the strengths, weaknesses, and IQs of each student. Students gain a firm understanding of subjects where every doubt is cleared and every concept is explained in detail. A tech-driven education that goes beyond the textbook will allow our students to compete globally and succeed.
We offer tuitions for all learning needs. We have over 35,000 tutors on our platform who teach students in various study areas; school curriculum, language learning, competitive exams, and study abroad. We offer The tutors are available for all the boards, all the classes, all the subjects. We have experienced tutors for foreign languages such as French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian, and Russian as well as tuition for entrance exams such as SSC, Medical Entrance, and Engineering Entrance.
- Please list some of the significant problems that the company has faced thus far.
COVID was a major setback to the education sector, and GuruQ suffered similarly. At GuruQ, we used it as an opportunity to improve. In 2020, GuruQ was just limited to providing offline tutors but due to COVID outbreak, we had to upgrade our product to offer online tutoring and there was no looking back after that. The reach became limitless. For instance, GuruQ could facilitate the top IELTS tutor for a student from a remote village in UP. The response from the students as well as the support from our tutors was very positive. Every business has challenges from time to time, but at GuruQ, we believe that these challenges may pave the way for bigger things.
- What are the company’s mission and objectives? In a nutshell, tell us about your journey since the company’s foundation
GuruQ –one of its kind digital platforms that connect tutors and students, was founded with the core objective of creating an enabling environment for quality education. Today, parents and students are usually faced with the challenges of finding the right tutors, who can provide quality education, are reliable, have a good teaching background, and suit their budget. Tutors too, have their set of challenges like finding students at their preferred locations, managing erratic schedules, timely assured payments, and many more.
The core objective of GuruQ is to bring convenience and ease to the process of tutor selection for students and their parents, and in turn, simplify the work life for thousands of tutors across the country. To build a 21st-century model of education and to attain this level of individualization, GuruQ has used advanced new-age methodologies and the latest technologies. GuruQ intends to provide a plethora of avenues for the holistic learning and development of students.
- What is your company’s most distinguishing feature that sets it apart from competitors?
The GuruQ platform is focused on how students can make the most of their limited time and resources. Students can use various search parameters to quickly and easily find tutors to match their exact requirements. Students can get on-demand tutoring anywhere, anytime. To deliver true quality, GuruQ helps students make informed decisions based on unbiased reviews & ratings of tutors by other students and parents. Moreover, the GuruQ team continually monitors and ensures that all tutors are meeting the Quality Standards that we demand from our tutors.
GuruQ does not offer video tutorials. It is the ‘Skype’ of teaching and learning. GuruQ doesn’t follow the ‘one size fits all model because every student is unique and has different needs. Students have the flexibility of customizing each class with their tutor and studying exactly what they want to. In addition, they can also make custom study plans with their tutor. The objective of this platform is to make life easier for students’ parents and tutors.
The key ingredient of quality tuition is the tutors. GuruQ is forever on the lookout for enthusiastic, experienced, and qualified tutors with the right aptitude and attitude. Tutors undergo a stringent multi-level vetting process (including verifying their knowledge, qualifications, experience, skills, teaching techniques & background) and only the best tutors are inducted into the GuruQ community. Once part of the GuruQ family, the tutors are then given a proper orientation in which they are familiarized with the GuruQ quality standards, modern global teaching tips, techniques, and methodologies. The tutor has the liberty to set their working hours and we don’t limit them in a price bracket. The tutors set their price/hour varying based on their qualifications, experience, and teaching methodology. We in true essence personalize the tutoring experience for our students and tutors.
- How is the IoT/Big Data/AI/Robotics sector evolving today? What are the most significant trends you observe emerging around the world?
Technology is playing a pivotal role in improving education quality and taking it to the next level. During COVID, the world has witnessed how technology proved to be a savior in Education. At all levels whether school or higher education. Now there are embedded technologies like AR, VR, and gamification which can make learning more involved, engaging, and fun.
Technologies in AI and ML are helping teachers evaluate their students in a better way along all aspects of cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains and setting up a customized learning path for an individual student. At GuruQ we are breaking the barriers and boundaries of location, geography, and timing when it comes to tutoring. Our App and Web platform help thousands of students to find tutors for their specific needs at the price they can afford. We are working on creating a robust system that would be mapping the student to the exact tutor just in a couple of clicks.
- What growth goals do you have for the upcoming year?
We are not at liberty to reveal the exact plans but we have the kind of functionalities and technological advancements to be adopted, that will change the game for the tutoring business. We specifically have in mind the convenience of our students and how can we further meet their tutoring needs. The new technological launch will personalize the choices of students.
We also have geographical expansion plans to reach remote parts of India and have already hit the overseas market. We are working on making the technical and the review part more robust before that. GuruQ is also looking for collaborations and acquisitions to make the platform a one-stop solution in the tutoring segment.
