Masarat Farooqis a female entrepreneur who provides home tuitions to kids across Srinagar. In a brief talk with Rising Kashmir's City Correspondent Aatif Qayoom regarding her journey of becoming an entrepreneur. Here is what she had to say. 

Tell us about how did you became anentrepreneur? 

This all begin during COVID-19, when whole world was under the grip of complete lockdown and restrictions. The lockdown and restrictions were new to the whole world. Nobody was prepared for this. The valley too was under the grip of COVID-19. People here were worried about their children's futureas the education system collapsed all of a sudden. During this, it came to my mind that everything can be compensated, but the education of children won't be compensated at any cost. I started providing home tuition to the children in Srinagar, and my story began from there. 

How do youhelp students with home tuitions in Srinagar?

These home tutorials are giving students a new environment. Because in crowded places, children are unable to speak. They feel shy at school, coaching centres. At home tuition, they speak to the teacher without any fear. When I started this home tuition, people in general were fed up with the online mode of education as none of the parents were ready to allow their children to spend most of their time with their electronic gadget.  With home tuition, the students get a chance for one-on-one interaction with their tutors as compared to coaching centres where a lot of children attend classes at once. Therefore, focusing on one student is no possible and performance monitoring is extremely difficult. With the help of private tuition, the students get a chance to clear their doubts and to focus more on the subjects where they need more assistance. 

How many teachers are working in smart classes?

Currently, more than 80 highly qualified and experienced tutors working in my organization, including 50 percent females, and the number of students is 200. The number of teachers as well as students is increasing day by day. 

How did this idea come into your mind and how parents are reacting to it?

As already mentioned, it was during the first wave of the COVID pandemic when this idea struck me, as I was working as an administrator of a school. The response of the parents is very encouraging as they have seen marked change and improvement in the academic performance of their children since they started taking home tuition from me. 

Do you have any plans to give home tuition across the valley? 

Yes, I do plan to expand my organisation to other parts of the districts to the rest of the valley in a phased manner, so that parents won't face problems in educating their children. I have started this from Srinagar and in the coming years I am expanding it to neighbouring districts, which include Ganderbal and Budgam. 

Your message to the educated, unemployed youth of Kashmir? 

My message to all the educated unemployed youth of J & K is that there is saturation in the government job sector, but the government has a lot of schemes for educated people who can start a number of small businesses which can help the youth to be self-dependent and not only earn for themselves but can also help others by providing job opportunities.