BENGALURU: Anger management, acro yoga, budgeting. If these sound like topics only an adult would take up, think again. A city-based venture, called PubNinja Academy, is an online platform that offers interest-based classes for children aged between five and 12 years. Currently offering as many as 200 classes, the topics are divided into life skills, art, music and dance, logic and math, health and wellness, science and nature, English and so on.
“We launched this in November 2020,” says Anay Chowdhary, CEO, who co-founded the venture with Nirnay Chowdhary. Having got interested in the potential of online platforms during the pandemic, Chowdhary wanted to offer something that would engage and interest children in a younger age group. But what makes the classes offered by this platform different from any other offerings? He explains, “Generally, a central team designs the curriculum and the same is then imparted to teachers who take the classes. But here, it’s the other way around.
Anyone can come on board as a teacher and we work together to fine-tune the curriculum. Essentially, what a child gets is diversity in options and courses that are more personal and taken by passion-driven experts.” It is this fact, Chowdhary believes, that gives way to the wide range of classes offered. Take, for instance, a class on fashion sketching, taken by a 25-year-old fashion design student herself, or a naturalist whose course helps kids learn more about trekking and diving, albeit theoretically. Citing another example, the 31-year-old co-founder says, “We have one course on an introduction to the game Minecraft.
The person taking this class has played the game so much that he can answer any question that comes his way, if someone was trained in teaching this, they wouldn’t be able to give a holistic view.” Though open to anyone interested in teaching, all applicants have to pose as students first as they prepare to take classes for children. “The teachers have some demo classes with our team first. And even during actual classes with children, someone from our team is always present.
He or she assists the teacher, seeks feedback from parents and constantly works with the teacher to help make the classes better,” says Chowdhary of the bootstrapped company that soon aims to expand to courses for kids till the age of 18. The number of classes offered depends on the scope of the subject or topic, with each session being priced at, on an average, Rs 200-250. Besides helping kids dip their toes into a variety of new subjects, the platform also benefits those who come on board as teachers. “Building this community of teachers is our primary focus,” says Chowdhary.
Currently, they have 150 teachers, including a few retired senior citizens who have taken to online teaching for their second innings. Group Captain S Gowrishankar (retd), who teaches a subject called Bhagavad Gita for a Better Me, says this was his way of giving back to society. The 72-year-old resident of a senior citizen home now looks forward to preparing and putting together slides for his once-a-week sessions and says, “Interacting with kids always motivates me. And through teaching them, I learn more too.”