Pallavi Nirula Nath, the COO and CPO of Kido, is a dynamic pricing and revenue management expert by education. Her business family background and grooming ingrained in her the fundamentals of running an enterprise from a very early age. She is a yield management entrepreneur and an ACTA Certified trainer - industry and training medium agnostic. Pallavi has also taught Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, Hospitality Interactive Marketing and Revenue Management at the Singapore Institute of Technology to final year undergraduate students as well as New Ventures and ESG and Ethics to Executive MBA students in Singapore.

In a conversation with the Global Woman Leader Magazine, Pallavi talks about the business landscape with a special mention on children with regards to Kido. She articulated about the learning management system (LMS) that the educators follow within the institution, emphasising on the growing competition in education. To know about what she said, read out the entire article below.

How do you perceive the relationship between product innovation and the growing demand for personalized customer experiences?

Our key values at Kido are listen, lead, and learn. These extend to care, curriculum, communication, and customization, with customization being a core principle. In the early childhood space—primarily daycare, nurseries, and kindergartens—each child is unique. Customizing their learning experience is one of our key pillars.

When it comes to product development, customization is always top of mind. If someone presents a product for our schools, my first question is, "How can we customize it?" Children learn in diverse ways—some thrive through active participation, while others benefit from hands-on experiences or a variety of learning methods. For example, teaching counting is common for the 2–3 age group. Educators typically use classroom tools like blocks to count, but if a child isn’t engaged with that, and we know they’re interested in insects, the educator might take the opportunity to count ants during outdoor play. This kind of customization and personalization is central to how we deliver our curriculum.

How do you envision the evolution of teacher training to accommodate new delivery models? What challenges do you anticipate in implementing these training programs?

We recently built an inhouse learning management system (LMS) for our educators to support their training requirements. We're incorporating new technologies like video-based learning with short videos and quizzes to address a key challenge in online education—assessing whether educators are truly absorbing the material without face-to-face interaction. We’ve also integrated AI into our content creation and language translation efforts, as we work with educators from diverse linguistic backgrounds—UK (English), US (English and Spanish), India and China. AI helps us bridge these differences effectively.

Our ultimate goal is to make educators’ jobs easier, focusing on inspiring children to learn rather than just teaching them. However, one challenge we're facing is the lack of integration between different systems. For example, if an educator struggles with an issue in the class—like repeated biting incidents in class—the current system requires us to manually guide the educator toward relevant behavior management resources. Ideally, our systems should be connected with the LMS to automatically detect such issues and recommend appropriate training modules.

While we have the content and analytical tools, connecting them seamlessly remains a challenge. We are addressing this through ongoing improvements, including video-based solutions. Our focus is to make training relevant and accessible without overwhelming educators with lengthy lectures. It’s a journey—we’re not there yet, but we are actively working on solutions to enhance the experience for our educators.

How can curriculum adjustments influence perceptions of value among diverse student populations? What strategies should organizations employ to maintain quality while addressing students' diverse learning needs?

Two key aspects come into play here. Economic uncertainties are a factor, but we focus on inspiring our teams to prioritize both child and parent care. For children in this age group, care is as, if not more, important than education. A happy, secure child is ready to learn—learning happens naturally when these needs are met. To maintain quality, we have teams across locations that regularly visit schools to ensure that care and curriculum standards align with our goals. Our robust audit system goes beyond checking resources; it evaluates how effectively educators are performing. Additionally, we believe in learning from our educators. If an educator introduces a successful practice, we recognize it and adopt it across our schools. Many curriculum innovations have emerged this way, driven by educators from various locations.

With growing competition in education, institutions can stand out through curriculum innovation and educator training. In early childhood education, curriculum innovation is closely tied to delivery, which relies on continuous educator training. Our curriculum team stays updated with the latest pedagogical developments to ensure relevance. For example, traditional philosophies like Montessori and Reggio Emilia have laid foundations, but we integrate the best aspects from these and other modern research. We emphasize personal, social, and emotional development to help children become self-sufficient. Educator training is critical because even the most advanced curriculum loses value if educators aren't equipped to implement it. Many schools adopt new curricula but neglect proper training, leading to ineffective delivery. We prioritize training to ensure educators are prepared to deliver the curriculum effectively.

Regarding technology, communication is essential. When we founded Kido Schools, we were all parents of young children. As parents, we noticed that children often say they did "nothing" at school, leaving parents in the dark. To address this, we use technology to keep parents informed. Our app and online platform, Kido Club—currently available in select countries—offer activities and videos to support learning at home. These tools help parents engage meaningfully in their child's learning journey. We are continuously exploring new technologies, including apps, to strengthen parent-child relationships and deepen engagement in learning.

How should organizations approach teacher training and curriculum development to resonate with diverse community values and expectations, keeping in mind cultural sensitivity?

It's interesting you bring that up because we started as a multicultural organization. We began in Hong Kong and expanded to different countries. From day one, we had to think about being multicultural—we didn't grow in one country and then expand; we started multicultural.

This focus is essential for two reasons. First is the context of the child. In education, understanding the child's context is crucial. For example, early on, we used Skype for multi-country calls, as Zoom wasn’t available yet. I remember a call between students in Dubai and India. One student in India asked the child in Dubai if there were camels outside, reflecting the perception of Dubai as a desert. Making learning real and relevant for children is vital. We also celebrate festivals, but not everyone observes the same ones. They have the option to participate, but naturally, Diwali and Dussehra are significant in India, while in the US and UK, Christmas and other holidays are more prominent. In our Spanish language immersion centers in the US, children also participate in a Spanish Culture program, that is geared towards exploring festivals and celebrations across the Spanish speaking world. It's important that children feel comfortable in their environment, even as they are exposed to new cultures.

Multicultural sensitivity is also essential in our communication with parents. The way we communicate and structure report cards or assessments varies because different communities have different expectations. Cultural sensitivity is at the core of what we do, even in educator training. Some training content is common across countries, but much of it is customized. We follow what we call the "copy-paste special" model, where the foundation remains the same, but cultural aspects are adapted to ensure relevance across regions.

As we witness rapid changes in workforce demands and skill requirements, how can educational institutions strategically adjust their curriculum to remain relevant? What role can advanced IT solutions play in building stronger bridges between educators, students, and parents to future-proof educational success?

A strategically aligned curriculum is essential to stay relevant. It’s important to ensure we remain at the cutting edge of what’s available for children. We conduct extensive research and collaborate with companies worldwide to evaluate if new products align with our students' needs and enhance their learning experience. If a better solution exists, we are quick to adopt it. This approach reflects the vision of Aniruddh Gupta, the school chain's founder, who strongly believes in driving continuous improvement.

Regarding advanced IT, we believe face-to-face interaction is crucial, especially in early childhood education. While online learning or AI-driven teaching might suit higher education, younger children benefit most from in-person engagement. However, we empower our educators with rich content to enhance the classroom experience.

We’ve also launched Kido Club, our online platform, which offers weekly content across various domains along with all necessary resources. The goal is to make it easy for parents to engage with their children’s learning. When parents are involved, the learning becomes more meaningful for the child. Instead of delivering a purely technological solution, we leverage technology to create a personalized learning experience between parents and children at home.

Messages for Readers

In schools today, children either excel at learning ABCs and 123s or develop strong conversational, creativity and critical thinking skills—but rarely both. As parents, we asked, "Why do we have to choose? Why can't we have both?"

For example, in early childhood education, dinosaurs are a popular topic. We use thinking-based learning tools to make the subject engaging. Instead of merely memorizing dinosaur names, ages, and diets—things they can learn anywhere—we approach it through inquiry. We ask, "If dinosaurs lived today, what changes would we need to make to our houses?" This encourages children to explore concepts like size, habitat, and requirements through questions, fostering creativity and inquiry-based learning.

Our curriculum includes "Skills Days" focused on literacy and numeracy, ensuring children learn to read, write, and do math in fun ways. For instance, instead of traditional counting exercises, we often integrate movement—like claps, jumps, or stomps—for children who prefer active learning. Additionally, we have "Explorer Days" centered on open-ended, question-based learning, helping children develop general knowledge, creativity, critical thinking, and questioning techniques. To support educators, we use bot-based assessments where simple questions about a child’s progress are analyzed by our system. This helps identify learning gaps and suggests targeted improvements for each child.