Delhi teen's start-up promises guaranteed school admission

New Delhi: With school admissions always being seen as a tough task for parents, a start-up founded by a 16-year-old girl is promising "guaranteed admission" for children in the Delhi-NCR region and has added more than 50 schools to its network.

Staria, which started operations in January 2019, said it has already successfully referred more than 100 students for admission in various schools under its network and has set an ambitious target of catering to 1,000 students every month during the next year's admission season. It provides free services to the parents seeking admission for their children, but charges the school for facilitating the admission.

"There is an immense need for improvement in the field of education and Staria decided to answer the pain point of the masses by bridging the gap between parents, children and the institutions," Staria founder Ria Gupta said. "We are taking extreme care that the parents' queries are answered to their utmost satisfaction and they don't feel lost while one of the most important decision of their children's lives," she said.

Gupta, who herself is from the national capital's prestigious Sanskriti School, said Staria has already created a network of more than 50 schools and more than 100 students have been referred so far. "We are aiming to route in 500 students in the next quarter and cater to 1,000 students every month in 2020 admissions," she added. The problem faced by students and parents regarding admissions has been particularly acute in the Delhi-NCR region for years.

Staria, which calls itself the largest school network of the Delhi-NCR region, said its focus is to make life easier in the field of education, for which it has created a model that is highly dependent on technology and on optimisation of the existing education infrastructure.

Gupta said Staria was conceptualised as a platform for "guaranteed admission" when she recognised the struggle parents go through during the admission season. "I saw my family members frantically looking for a suitable school to send my brother to but it was extremely difficult," she said. "Rarely do children get admission in the school of their choice and even if they do, there are numerous complications and uncertainties involved in the process," Gupta said, while adding her effort is to streamline these processes.