It just takes a single question for him to get started on topics from abacus to politics and world philosophy. He then comes back to where he began and leaves everyone awestruck with his intellect, wit and simplicity.
That is Dinesh Victor for you, the man behind the SIP Academy, a children’s skill development organisation. The academy, which was started in 2003, has been transforming lives of young children by enriching their learning skills through fun based training.
The IIT and IIM graduate, who hails from a middle class South Indian family, left his high-paying corporate job and started the Genius Education and Learning Systems in 2003 in Chennai along with a few friends. This later came to be known as the SIP Academy. “I found my calling here,” he says with a smile. Aiming at social development, SIP Academy believes in creating and distributing world class programmes such as abacus and brain gym for children.
These programmes are aimed at increasing children’s confidence, concentration, visualisation, retention, recalling abilities, speed and accuracy.
These directly improve their overall academic performance and reflect in their personal behavior too.
“Imagine a kid multiplying three-digit numbers in a split second. This not only involves speed, but accuracy and visualisation,” he says. “We target the fresh minds, especially students from grade three to seven. We believe that all kids are capable. We use brain gym techniques that ease their minds and help them focus,” he adds.
With a decade’s experience in the field of training that is on a par with international standards, he challenges that his company can improve a kid’s ability by five times in a short period.
“Prior to training, we conduct a pre-test. The results of this test are compared with those of a similar test conducted after the first foundation level. We bet, you would be able to see a visible change. We even promised the parents that we would refund Rs 5,000 if their children did not perform well, but till now nobody has approached us for a refund,” says Dinesh, beaming.
At SIP Academy, teachers are trained more than the students as they believe that a child’s performance depends on how good the teachers are. “They spend 30 hours a week in training and then weekends with students. Every teacher has to pass through the test in Foundation, Advanced and Grand Module levels before being allowed to teach,” he says.
Besides giving career opportunities for women as teachers, the company helps women become entrepreneurs through their franchisee. The academy has more than 600 franchisees across the country which are handled by women. These are spread across 18 States, in more than 250 schools. It also has its presence in more than 10 countries.
The Academy organises a Global Art program to improve the creativity of kids through drawing and designing activities. They also conduct Accelerated Mental learning (AMAL) to improve children’s intelligence and a phonics-based English language learning programme to improve their language skills.
Apart from this, the academy also focuses in enhancing sports skills among children and has been producing winners at the Limca Book of Records since 2007.
“There is a long way to go. We want to provide training within an economical budget. By next four years, we want to reach one million students and make them five times smarter,” he says.