It led curious parents to Priyanka Rai and Sai Gaddam, who had then just moved to Mumbai and were looking for alternative schooling options for their own children. As they began to speak to interested parents, the idea of a learning pod (where a small group of children learn together) turned into something bigger but small enough to suit their needs: Comini Microschool.
“Our goal was to build a neighbourhood school, not a fancy building. We wanted to create a space where parents could feel confident enough to pull their children out of traditional schools and explore community-led education,” says Rai, who acquired a diploma in early education and co-founded the school with her husband, a neuroscience and tech expert, in February 2022. They were inspired by Finland’s educational model, which is known for its emphasis on play and personalized learning.
Spread across a cheerful, 1,500 sq. ft sun-filled space, with tall glass windows and playful corners, Comini looks more like home than a school. That’s the idea. From 9am to 4pm, five facilitators lead 25 children through a mix of guided sessions and a routine filled with free play and spontaneous interactions.
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On a bright Friday morning in February, for example, three girls, aged 6 to 9, were busy preparing a puppet show, complete with handmade tickets. Others were busy with books with a facilitator in a cozy reading room. Another group had gone on an overnight farm visit. For Rai and Gaddam, Comini personifies this kind of flexibility, where children can pursue their creative interests freely through exploration.
In recent years, the micro school movement has taken root in India, taking inspiration from global models such as Aspen Learning Lab and Learnlife. With more parents seeking alternatives to mainstream and international schools, there is a growing market for more personalized and flexible learning environments.
According to the National Microschooling Center in the US, where this model has been growing rapidly, over 95,000 micro schools cater to 1.5 million students in the country. While India lacks specific data on micro schools, the market for private education has been expanding, according to reports published by the Central Square Foundation. Nearly 50% of all students in India are enrolled in private schools today, up from 30% in 1993. Market research firm IMARC estimates the Indian school market totalled $54.2 billion in 2024, with 1.55 million K-12 schools serving 218 million students.
The pandemic served as an inflection point for micro schools, says Rai. “Many parents converted to this model because they were shocked by what they saw during online schooling,” she notes.
While the term itself is still evolving, a micro school is generally characterized as a private learning institution with 50 to 100 students. Led by a mix of professionals and community members, its unique selling proposition lies in a low educator-to-student ratio—typically 1:5 to 1:10, which allows for adaptive learning. Instead of relying on textbooks, educators utilize online resources, modules, and curated reference books to design their own curriculum.
Market research firm IMARC estimates the Indian school market totalled $54.2 billion in 2024, with 1.55 million K-12 schools serving 218 million students.
The fee ranges from ₹2-3.5 lakh a year. The range is lower than many larger private schools since micro schools don’t offer the same infrastructure which helps reduce their operating costs; neither are they recognized by any government authority or educational board in India. Micro schools, thereby, fall in an unregulated area with no clear policy.
“While we cannot register as a school, as that requires certain infrastructural requirements, micro schools do need to be registered entities to keep the finances and taxes clean,” says Poornima V., co-founder of Agile Shaala, which runs micro schools in Mysuru and Bengaluru.
Micro schools currently operate under different structures—some are registered as non-profits; others as private limited companies. Some even put themselves under a homeschooling umbrella but there is no formal certification for homeschools either. “It is a grey area. But in the US, some states have clear rules for homeschooling,” she adds.
Learning is tracked through continuous assessments aligned with the Cambridge IGCSE curriculum, and progress is documented and shared with parents, with students setting their own learning goals and becoming independent learners. Students have the option to sit for exams at grade 10 and 12 through IGCSE or the National Institute of Open Schooling.
How children learn
For educationist Lina Asher, who previously founded Kangaroo Kids and Billabong High, launching Dreamtime Learning Hub in Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills was a conscious decision to move away from the traditional school. Nestled in a bungalow with a red-sloped roof, the Hub features vibrant learning stations and wooden benches dotted across the lawn.
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The curriculum is hyper-personalized and grades are divided in a unique fashion: in the ‘Foundational Fantasy’ programme, for example, children aged 3-6 are grouped into categories like wanderers, magicians, explorers, and discoverers. In the elementary years, students can choose identities such as adventurers, incredibles, avatars, or transformers.
“Smaller schools give you the flexibility to experiment with moving parts, without the scheduling complexities of larger schools. So, students can study subjects from grades above or below their current level, depending on their abilities, needs and pace,” says Asher.
“Rather than comparing students to each other, we encourage them to compete against themselves, while also placing equal importance on social-emotional and physical wellness,” she explains.
Micro schools also offer educators an opportunity to provide a new generation of children the kind of education they themselves lacked. In Bengaluru, the Norwegian-style The Papagoya Micro-School emerged from founder and director Helen Issar’s own frustrating schooling experience. “I realized the traditional system had predefined success metrics, and if you didn’t fit into those, you were labelled a failure. There was no middle ground. I also noticed a decline in play during the early years of schooling,” she says.
She wanted to bring joy back into learning. “We believe children learn in unique ways and need to be in much smaller cohorts.”
To bridge that gap, her school was designed on the ‘pedagogy of play’, with just 50 students from grades 1 to 6 and a clutch of facilitators who are called ‘playmakers’ on campus.
While micro schools are typically small in size, they broaden their learning environment by dipping into their surroundings. Goa’s rich biodiversity and easy access to beaches and hills, for example, provide the perfect backdrop for The Learning Centre (TLC), housed in a 150-year-old Portuguese bungalow.
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Learning here extends beyond the classroom: a math lesson might take students on a neighbourhood walk to explore concepts like addition, subtraction, and negotiation in shops. Swinging on a banyan tree near the centre could become a hands-on lesson in pendulums. Life skills such as first aid, waste management, handling reptiles, and cooking for the community are integral to the in-house curriculum.
To offset the lack of infrastructure, like large on-site sports facilities, micro schools often tap into community resources such as parks, and tie up with sports centres and pools. This approach makes it cost-effective and sustainable.
Enter the funders
While some micro school models are deliberately small-scale and non-profit, their rising potential is now attracting investors. This month, Dreamtime Learning secured a Pre-Series A funding from Gruhas, the investment firm co-founded by Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai, to support the expansion of its network of micro schools. Sudipta Saha, the founding chief business officer of Dreamtime Learning, attributes this growing interest to the crucial gap such schools are filling.
“Schools and colleges have become like factories, moving students from one grade to the next with success measured solely by marks and entrance exam results. Yet, today’s generation is among the least employable. The root cause is the emphasis schools place on qualifications rather than fostering a genuine love for learning. Our vision was to promote learning for the sake of learning, not just for marks,” Saha explains.
“The total cost to build a school like ours is ₹3-4 crore, and we plan to open one to two micro schools each year, with a new one set to open in Pune this July,” he adds.
Schools and colleges have become like factories, moving students from one grade to the next with success measured solely by marks
—Sudipta Saha
Driven by a similar concern to address India’s “broken education system,” Dr Aniruddha Malpani, a Mumbai-based IVF specialist, has been funding innovative educational initiatives to support micro schools like Comini and a network of digital learning pods under the platform Apni Pathshala.
“This is the future of education. Traditional schooling will eventually reach a breaking point. While homeschooling and unschooling (self-driven informal learning) are great, they tend to be boutique and elitist. Micro schools and learning pods show that education can be both frugal and effective,” he says. “AI and technology have made smaller learning models possible, making education more democratic, affordable, and accessible. Pods can be set up anywhere, from Dharavi to gated communities,” he adds.
Parents take the plunge
Parents across the country are recognizing the benefits of micro schools too. For some, alternative models like Waldorf and Montessori, once popular, no longer offer the flexibility they need.
At Dreamtime Learning Hub, Asher notes that her micro school attracts parents who are well-travelled and seeking a community-driven, globally-aware educational experience. “These parents, drawing on their diverse expertise, are involved in the school’s activities,” she adds.
Some micro schools also offer parents an opportunity to escape the hustle of city life. TLC in Goa is an example—its parenting community comprises many families who have relocated to reconnect with nature and enjoy a slower pace of life. “It’s a collaborative space, with parents also stepping in as part-time facilitators,” says a TLC parent who helps out with admissions and chose to remain anonymous.
Since such schools are not accredited, it can feel like a gamble for some parents. But handholding and allowing them to be a part of the experience has been helpful.
Says Aben Andrew, whose children attend Comini, “The international school our son previously attended was overwhelming with its academic demands. Before enrolling in an alternative school though, we wondered if we’d be raising ‘tree huggers’ without a solid foundation and what kind of professions they would choose. But joining Comini has been life-changing—I see my kids grasping concepts beyond their grade level. We have also connected with like-minded parents, who each bring something valuable.”
The idea of involving parents in the learning process and facilitating sessions at Papagoya is designed to help children recognize the strengths within their own community, explains Issar.
What’s in it for teachers?
For teachers transitioning to micro schools, the appeal is similar: the opportunity to engage with students more personally, without the overwhelming numbers typically seen in traditional schools.
Teachers who previously worked with formal schools undergo training in-house. Some are experts in different fields, such as performing arts, and join as part-time facilitators.
Aruna Rao, principal at Dreamtime Learning Hub, known to students as a ‘Hub Champion’, says that during morning assembly, they discuss thought-provoking questions like, ‘Is there such a thing as a perfect human being?’ or ‘What qualities should a person have?’ “The answers I get often amaze me.”
Many micro schools lend themselves well to being inclusive, offering a soothing environment for children who struggled in mainstream schools due to neurodivergence, anxiety, or bullying. Agile Shaala is one such school. It follows a hybrid model of learning, with students free to choose if they would like to attend a session online.
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Initially, Agile Shaala was bootstrapped, raising ₹70 lakh from family, friends and advisors. “We make sure to pay our teachers corporate-scale salaries. Our goal is to expand globally, with learning centres every 5–6 kilometres, and to utilize the franchise model to collaborate with like-minded people, guiding them in setting up their own centres,” she says.
As micro schools continue to spring up across India, one factor could further support their growth—India’s education policy officially recognizing alternative learning networks.
