How two friends in Gondia built a pre-school whose kids finish in India's top 3 in national reading competitions and Olympiads, against children from every metro city. Built from savings, with no loan, no posters and no ads.

Gurpreet Kaur Hora and Neelam Agarwal are the co-founders of Fondle Academy, Gondia. Neelam ran a boutique first. The two taught tuition together, announced a school at a Lions Club carnival with 88 schools present and no plan ready, got 10 admissions that day, and painted the school themselves to save ₹1.5 lakh. Twelve years later: two branches, 30 teachers and 10 didis, all women, franchises, and teacher training for schools in Tirora, Tumsar, Amgaon and Balaghat. One job only, set the child's mind to ”I can do it”, and two founders who trained themselves in everything first, then trained the teachers.

They explain why reading is not studying and listening comes first, why phonics is decoding and not memorising, what a child's handwriting tells a graphologist, the mistake parents make when they force a child to read, and what screen time takes from a small child. Then how they ran a school online from June 2020 with craft kits sent by Swiggy and Zomato, and why they will never take a franchise but give one.

Follow Chaos To Clarity so you never miss a new conversation.