Hey, you know how education can be super stressful and overwhelming, right? Between school and coaching classes, students are often stretched to the limit. But what if we told you there’s a way to make learning more fun, more effective, and less stressful? That’s what Innovartan is all about. They’re on a mission to revolutionize the way India learns by providing holistic solutions that empower schools, teachers, and students to reach their full potential. The School Empowering Program is designed to integrate competitive exam prep into the regular school schedule, so kids don’t have to juggle between school and external coaching. They’re also all about empowering teachers with the right tools and skills to inspire and motivate their students. So, they’re not just preparing students for exams; they’re preparing them for life. It’s a big vision, but the spokesperson Prashant Sharma, founder, Innovartan believes it’s possible, and they’re excited to be on this journey!
It gives schools a chance to get their children back, not coaching. What does that change actually look like in practice and how does your concept fit in with traditional education?
We think that ambition should never be outsourced to schools. Our approach restores the school’s ability to foster high-performance results rather than adding another layer of coaching. This begins with integrating parents intimately, providing teachers with technology, training, and content, and coordinating competitive exam preparation with the school schedule. In practice, this implies that more kids will stay behind to study with their own professors on their own campus rather than vanishing to tuition classes after school. The school becomes more than just a location; it becomes the ecology.
You’re trying to replace parallel coaching systems with in-school competitive exam preparation. How do you ensure rigour and results without mimicking the very coaching model you critique?
The problem with the coaching model isn’t rigour—it’s reductionism. Coaching trains students to crack exams by charging hefty fees and putting them under tremendous stress; we train schools to equip their students to do it by themselves, without the additional stress at a fraction of the cost. Our pedagogy doesn’t discard structure—we bring in tools for assessment, analytics, doubt-solving, and performance tracking. But we place equal weight on joy, mentorship, and belonging. We’re not removing pressure by removing expectations; we’re replacing fear-driven performance with purpose-driven progress. And that makes all the difference. We provide White-labelled content and LMS to schools so they can take credit for their students’ success.
One of the promises is to ‘empower teachers.’ What does that empowerment involve—curriculum design, tech training, classroom culture?
Empowerment for us is three-fold: autonomy, capability, and respect. We offer teachers well-researched content, AI tools, and performance dashboards, but more than that, we give them back agency. We tell them, “You’re not just a subject deliverer. You’re a mentor, a coach, a system-builder.” Yes, change is hard, especially in systems used to top-down diktats. But when teachers see students succeeding under their care, not a faceless coaching centre, they rise. Every time. Till now, there was no quantitative parameter for school owners to measure their own teachers’ performance, but with Innovartan, schools will now be able to do so. Teachers also lacked a formalised method to upskill themselves to train students as per the requirements of competitive exams, but we are offering such long-term training to them under our programmes.
The phrase ‘Coaching-Free Bharat’ is provocative. Is the ultimate goal the end of all private coaching—or a redistribution of educational trust back to schools?
We’re not anti-coaching. We’re anti-dependency. Coaching-Free Bharat doesn’t mean no one can take extra help. It means a child shouldn’t have to leave their school to dream big. Our real aim is to restore trust, dignity, and capability to schools and their teachers so that they can be the default, not the fallback. When schools thrive, coaching becomes optional. That’s the future we’re building.
You’ve developed AI-driven tools for JEE/NEET prep within schools. What role does technology play in bridging the vast quality gap between urban private schools and under-resourced rural institutions?
We haven’t developed these AI tools for JEE/NEET prep- but rather as a tool of self-improvement for teachers who want to adapt themselves to students’ needs. Tech alone doesn’t transform. But the right tech, when embedded into pedagogy, can scale mentorship, personalise learning, and reveal insights a chalkboard can’t. Our AI tools aren’t just shiny dashboards; they help teachers know which student needs what and when. They help principals plan interventions, and parents stay informed. Most importantly, they give confidence to schools that they too can produce toppers, not just metro cities.
Let’s talk about success metrics. Coaching centres celebrate ranks and top scorers. What does success mean and how do you measure it?
Of course, the importance of rank as a success metric cannot be ignored today. The ultimate indicator of brand value is the number of rank-holders it can produce. Our priority, however, is that selections from schools must be more than those from coaching institutes. Every topper belongs to some school, and the credit must go to them. But at the end of the day, ranks are an outcome. For us, retention, confidence, and school-led success are bigger wins. If a child who was planning to shift to Kota now chooses to stay back in school and still clears JEE, that’s success. If a school teacher starts solving NEET doubts on her own—without feeling “less than”—that’s success. Yes, we track selections and marks. But we celebrate dignity and direction just as much.
Many education reforms get lost between idealism and scalability. How are you building a model that’s both deeply values-driven and operationally viable across India’s fragmented school systems?
All competitive boards have the same fundamental concepts taught to students. Teacher training is based on these fundamentals that benefit students of all backgrounds. We do operate on a common curriculum, but our work is no different from how hard it would be to run coaching centres. We built one foot in pragmatism and one in reform. Our content, systems, and tech are modular, not monolithic- so we can plug into diverse curricula and boards. We train local teachers, work with school leaders, and offer tangible, school-level ROI. But our north star remains unchanged: every school should be capable of preparing its students for the best opportunities, without outsourcing dreams to coaching towns.
It is fundamentally about system repair. But can innovation within schools truly work if boards, curricula, and parent expectations remain locked in outdated structures?
Change is slow, but it compounds. When parents see results from within the school, their trust shifts. When teachers start owning outcomes, the culture shifts. And when schools show the boards that real learning is possible without burnout or coaching, the policy eventually shifts too. We’re not waiting for the perfect system. We’re showing that even within current constraints, renewal is possible—school by school, mind by mind.
There’s a quiet but growing backlash against the ‘Kota model’ after years of mental health crises and suicides. How does corporate student wellbeing—not just performance—into its pedagogical framework?
Mental health isn’t a module for us- it’s baked into our system. Students study with their friends, on their campus, close to loved ones, under the mentorship of teachers who’ve seen them grow. That sense of community, identity, and support is our first safety net. We also expect teachers to look for burnout signals, design timetables that allow breathing space, and counsel parents on pressure. We’re building a system where success doesn’t have to come at the cost of self.
Education in India has long suffered from a trust deficit—between parents, schools, students, and institutions. How does it rebuild that trust? Where do you begin?
We begin by delivering results from within. When parents see their child succeed from their own school. When students realize their own teachers can guide them through JEE/NEET and when teachers feel proud of what they’re enabling, we start healing that trust deficit. It’s slow, it’s local, but it’s real. Trust isn’t rebuilt through slogans. It’s rebuilt through outcomes that honour relationships over long periods of time.
Most startups chase scale, funding and market dominance. You’re pitching a very different story—reform from within. How have investors responded to a model that defies standard ed-tech growth narratives?
Honestly? Some walk away. Systemic reform isn’t as attractive as virality. But the right investors—those who care about legacy, sustainability, and genuine impact—lean in. We’re not a blitz-scaling company. We’re a company that will redefine what Indian schooling looks like in 5 years, not just 5 months. And some investors get that. Thankfully, those are the ones we choose to work with. Additionally, we are an asset-light model, and so we are not heavily dependent on investor intervention, which also works well for us.
Your team includes former teachers, technologists, and curriculum experts. What’s the internal culture like—and how does it reflect the educational values you want to seed in schools?
We’re building the kind of team we wish schools had: high trust, high challenge, low ego. Our culture values humility over hierarchy, experimentation over perfection, and children over metrics. We debate, we learn from classrooms, we check our assumptions—and we never forget who we’re building for. If our internal culture doesn’t reflect our external mission, we’ve already failed. Thankfully, we’re holding ourselves to the same standard we ask of schools: be better each day, together.
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