The Beginning

FKS, started on February 8th 1997. It started with 20 students on a 4,000 square feet rented space with one teacher and five support staff.

Shailaja has a skill in finding real time solutions to problems faced by people, and her ability to understand children. Her childhood was spent as an uncared student at school. She concluded, "If this is not what I want of a school, there must be others too who feel the same way as I do." The answer was FKS.

FIRST HURDLE:
The first major hurdle came in 1998 when Shailaja was asked to vacate the rented premises during an academic year just when her father passed away. Nothing deterred her, in no time another building was rented and the school shifted despite all pressure. From here she operated the nursery and Playgroup. By 1998, Shailaja had eight teachers and 80  students. More and more parents were convinced by her operational style and F.K.S. They saw the school as "parent friendly" and "child focused."

DILEMMA:
Even in 1998, she had parents from Chennai and Nasik enquiring of franchise of FKS Shailaja faced the dilemma of whether to grow vertically or horizontally. She chose a vertical growth. By 1999, Shailaja was ready with Standard I. Now the challenge was not getting parents to believe in her style but recruiting the right teachers. Children got enrolled as word spread by "word of mouth." By 1999, Shailaja knew that she had "arrived." Then eventually the challenges of procuring land, setting up buildings etc were encountered one by one. In her own words "This is not a problem, it's a challenge, let's look for alternatives"

THREE CHEERS TO THE TEAM:
Dr. Ratnaja Goggula faculty at ICFAI along with her student participated in a case chase competition held by ISB in association with Wadhavani centre in a CASE CHASE competition. They had to submit live cases of entrepreneurs. Dr Goggula saw Shailaja as a social educational entrepreneur. As many as 160 cases were presented from all over India. Of these 30 were selected in the second level and finally 15. FKS case study was one of these. These cases are uploaded in EUROPEAN CASE CLEARING HOUSE, which is a laboratory for cases. Business schools take up these cases in their curriculum as and when they require them.

ACCOLADES:
Shailaja Rao, Teacher, director and founder of FKS, received the Rotary Vocational Excellence Award in 2000 from the Rotary Club of Bhagyanagar for outstanding service and exemplary standards. The award recorded that she was a living example of courage, determination, conscious idealism and positive leadership.

I am deeply grateful and am indebted to my wonderful colleagues and parents who have stood by our tryst. I am sure change is permanent and unstoppable; we at FKS will constantly put in the best we know at any moment. We are ever willing to do our bit for we believe "BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE AROUND YOU." ---- Shailaja Rao