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Women’s Day Special: Interview with edupreneur Fatima Agarkar

Celebrated every year on March 8, International Women’s Day marks the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. This year, the theme as declared by the United Nations is “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. Women’s rights begin with educating the masses and who better than an educationist to show us the way? Fatima Agarkar, known for her incessant journey in the ever-evolving field of education for the past 18 years is the managing trustee and director of JBCN Education, co-founder of KA Edu Associates as well as the founder of the Agarkar Centre of Excellence. Her passion for teaching-learning and children defines the different roles she has crafted – as an edupreneur, educator and mentor.

On this occasion, here’s a tete-a-tete with the veteran. Excerpts:

What inspired you to become an edupreneur? What are the challenges you faced as you navigated this career?

I started my journey as a professional after I completed my master’s in business administration and wanted to be a part of the banking fraternity. But somehow, I landed up talking about education and helping, organising promoters who were looking to fund schools. But it was not only infrastructure. The fundamental question for me was what are we funding? What is the gap that needs to be fulfilled? Soon I realised, it was the teaching-learning environment that requires a rethought.

I love children and my journey with many children in the school taught me many things. Things that I need to change such as creating an individualised learning platform for them. A lot of things which I didn’t have as a student in school, I wanted to make sure these children had that.

Eventually, I became a mother and it became very important for me to make the world a better place. So, from a need base, compassion and the realisation that nothing was really changing in the education sector, I felt the need to start JBCN Education and KA Eduassociates.

How do you balance your personal and professional lives?

When you are doing startups, there’s a lot of time invested in growing a company and I still had to play the role of a mother, daughter, wife and daughter-in-law which means I had to balance my personal and professional lives. My son is 14 years old and like any mother, I was a part of his journey in every sense. I had to give that commitment and take some time off because it made me a more complete human being. It gave me a sense of accomplishment, individuality and identity. It helped my relationship with my son evolve. I encourage anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur to embrace some of those challenges. When a child sees both his parents are working, they become a role model to him/her and gives a sense of responsibility. Balancing comes with prioritising.

As a woman, what are the challenges you faced while growing up/the liberties you enjoyed as a woman?

My parents were very progressive and were extremely keen on education. I had to convince my parents to send me continents away to allow me to pursue my dreams because they were always worried about how I would look after myself and cope with the unfamiliar environment. For my parents, more than education it was what you do after you take your degree. My father always encouraged me to work and create an individual identity for myself. We never differentiated between a girl and a boy in the house. It was all about individual contributions and work and not going by the notion that you get married off and someone else looks after you.

I support girl child education and I think instead of apologising for being a woman, we should celebrate that and not all of our stories are sad, some of our stories are inspirational and my family is one of them.

What according to you is feminism? As a woman, where do you think Indian women are lagging behind and how can we address them?

In my mind, I do not differentiate between a woman and a man. Of course, there are physical and ability differences but there is an inherent strength in both the sexes. Indian women have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate all their multitasking abilities as ours is a very tradition-based society at large. We are supposed to live up to certain traditions and cultural practices that our family believes in. Indian women are at an advantage because we have to do so much more than western society and that makes us richer in terms of exposure. Perhaps our country could do more to support and encourage women. Unfortunately, men are also stereotyped. I think we need to go away with strong words such as ‘feminism’. Men and women should complement each other.

But in recent times, women have been compromised in lieu of what the male members have done which has triggered a wave of unnerving fear in several parts of the country such as in Delhi. We were on the path of progression and of finding who we were without competing with the men and suddenly the fear factor has set in. I hope that this environment changes and voices are heard. I’m encouraging families to let the girls take as many risks as they can especially in sports because that’s where we bring glory to the country. There’s one Sania Mirza but there are a lot more stories that need to be publicised by the media to create those role models who can inspire others as well.

Your message for women on Women’s Day?

Know yourselves. You don’t have to celebrate women’s day as a special day. I think every day is special when you are enjoying what you do. Let us all come together to support each other, not have reservations for ourselves and celebrate all the good work that we are doing so that we all can give some examples for generations to follow. Appreciate each other’s hard work. I hope the narrative changes and we also celebrate men’s day.

Author

  • Fatema Agarkar

    Fatema Agarkar, Founder and Chairperson , Agarkar Centre of Excellence (ACE) Veteran of 3 educational start-ups , now Founder of the Agarkar Centre of Excellence, Fatema’s passion for teaching-learning and children defines the different roles she has crafted in 20 years – as an edupreneur, educator and mentor. Fatema who is a State and University topper as part of the prestigious Mumbai based Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics, holds a degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Birmingham (UK), apart from her B.ED and ECCE degrees amassed when she decided education was her calling. Having kick-started her career in the corporate world and working with premier organizations like Commerzbank, Times of India and Egon Zehnder International, she always had an inner urge to bring about an enhancement in the sphere of education.. As an educationist and life-long learner, she has come a long way to intertwine modern methods of learning, teaching and customizing education as per the student’s intellectual requisites thus eradicating stress that stems from the education system. She has been sedulous in making comprehensive alterations in the education field in India. Being a risk-taker, Fatema has been focusing on the generation of innovative educational modules and her in-depth academic know-how, nothing but truly defines her ceaseless passion. Her name is synonymous with successful education models of the country and she is adjudged as Education World’s top 50 Educators in the year 2020. Adding more feathers to her hat, she has also been the recipient of several prestigious awards for her outstanding contribution to the field of education in the years 2013 and 2015. Fatema has been awarded by Giants Group for her outstanding contribution to the field of education in 2012, the Young Achiever’s Award in the year 2017, Singapore based, Best of Asia’s, ‘Enterprising Educator in the year 2018 and as an entrepreneur ‘Best Edupreneur 2019 and Best Leadership’ by Progressive Academic Excellence India (Maharashtra 2019) and one of the 10th finest inspirational educators in 2019 by TKR, India . Her name is synonymous with successful education models of the country and she is adjudged as Education World’s top 50 Educators in the year 2020. Adding more feathers to her hat With close to 2 decades of experience in education, Fatema is the recipient of several honours including the Indian Achiever’s Award 2021. In July 2023, Fatema was also awarded the ‘Mumbai’s top Women Leader’ award by the CMO Asia National Awards’ (10th edition). Fatema is also a Jury Member for Cambridge School Recognition Awards 2025. Having being associated with leading high school brands like DRS International, Hyderabad, NSS Hill Spring International, Mumbai, The Gera School, Goa, D Y Patil High School, Talegaon (Pune), SVM, Ratnagiri by the Gadre family, The Excellere World School, Gurgaon, JBCN International Schools, Mumbai, Fatema has now close to 40 pre-schools and high schools that she has set up from the grassroot level including a school for special needs’. Fatema is on the Advisory Board of several Trusts including EduTech India, Wockhardft Foundation as well as a jury member, Education World Awards, a platform that recognizes the efforts of educators pan India. Fatema is also the Vice President for Early Childhood Association (ECA) and the Mumbai Territory Head for Association for Primary Education & Research (APER) in India. Fatema has been appointed as the global ambassador of the Commonwealth Entrepreneurs Club. . Fatema is on the advisory board of the All-India Gaming Federation (AIGF) and currently appointed as the National Council Member for Financial Literacy & Management by WICCI. Given her access to parents and her ability to provide age appropriate strategies to enable them to make more informed choices, Fatema’s passion remains counselling in the hope that effective parenting will enable children to benefit the most. Fatema is also the special advisor of the Child Chapter Association (CCA), a non-governmental organisation registered as a Section 8. company under the Companies Act, 2013 whose mission is to spread awareness and eliminate child abuse, including child sexual abuse. Her role as a special advisor of CCA includes providing advice and guidance for their special outreach programs for Schools and teachers that tap into the child psyche and help them raise their voice against abuse. Fatema also played an instrumental role in the development of the CCA comic books and characters for their global campaign for child abuse awareness and prevention. Currently, Fatema is the Advisor & Mentor to Finland International School, Race Course and on course to start her own school in 2026. As a TedX speaker, and a avid blogger, Fatema is passionate about sharing her knowledge amassed and inspiring stakeholders be it teachers, parents or students. Her vision includes set up up of Soup Kitchens, Foster Homes and a community centre for the elderly under the Agarkar Foundation in time.

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