We Launched VIBGYOR EduBridge Scholarship Programme To Extend Financial Assistance To Students: Peshwa Acharya, VIBGYOR Group of Schools

Please elaborate about the special interest-free loan programme, developed in response to parents’ demand? What are the features, benefits and other details of the loan programme? 

Keeping in mind some parents’ commercial requirements especially during these times, VIBGYOR is facilitating the parents with Easy-EMI Education Loan, a financial programme to help VIBGYOR parents in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Vadodara who have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The program facilitates education loans of up to Rs 2.5 lakh per student, and up to a maximum of 2 students per household, to meet education-related expenses. The interest rate is 8.25%, which is the best in the education loan segment. There are no collaterals required for the loan and no foreclosure or hidden charges involved. The tenure of the loan is 27 months, including a 3-month moratorium. 

As an additional feature, VIBGYOR is providing 100% interest subvention on the loan, to parents who have current outstanding school fees due for payment. Internally, communication will be shared with parents this week about the programme. Which essentially means this is at Zero Interest Cost to our parents. 

Would you like to talk about other ways in which VIBGYOR is helping parents tide over this difficult time? 

We are mindful of the situation some parents have been going through and have been supporting them in many ways. Accordingly, we have provided them with options for monthly instalments as well as online payments, and have revised the last date several times to allow them greater flexibility. We also adjusted several components of the fees already paid earlier, against future dues. We are ensuring that all transportation charges for this period etc. are also being adjusted. 

Additionally, we launched the VIBGYOR EduBridge Scholarship Programme (which essentially is a fee waiver program), to extend financial assistance to those parents (both salaried and non-salaried/business-owners) who had been financially impacted by the pandemic. Fee waivers have already been extended for more than 3000 plus students, with a maximum of up to 3 quarters waiver.  

How has the COVID-19 crisis disrupted VIBGYOR? How VIBGYOR is ensuring continued education for its students during this time? 

Owing to COVID-19 crisis, classes have moved online. We are ensuring the safety of all our students and staff at this time. To facilitate education continuity for our students during the lockdown, we have developed a Study from Home programme that ensures that the syllabus is being covered while allowing for adequate time away from the screen. We also have VLS, or Virtual Learning Sessions, through which our faculty conduct their pedagogical activities. Sessions are designed to be engaging, with student discussions, lab simulations and various other interactive activities. VLS is based on the fundamentals of blended learning and can be readily combined with traditional teaching, to enable continued learning during the lockdown, as well as provide flexibility to students with respect to their study schedules, in the future. 

We also have a Learning Management System for pre-primary classes, for which our curriculum development team designs interesting sessions using interactive videos. For primary and middle school students, we conduct flipped classes, to hone their self-learning and critical thinking skills.