Divya Gokulnath, the co-founder of beleaguered edtech startup Byju's, claimed that her husband and CEO Byju Raveendran would travel nine cities in a week and even take classes in packed stadiums to teach students Maths. Gokulnath was tracing the journey of the company in a video that she had shared on LinkedIn a month ago.
Recollecting the start of the company as Byju's Classes in 2007, Gokulnath said, "With just a rented classroom and a single batch of 40 students, we embarked on a journey to revolutionise education in India. But because what we taught and how we taught was unique, that one batch led to so many more batches and soon, we had to shift to big auditoriums."
"Byju Raveendran would travel to nine cities every week to teach students across India seven days of the week," she added.
Gokulnath said that as more students enrolled in their classes, they began taking classes in stadiums. "We hired a stadium. It was packed to capacity. Byju would stand in the middle of a six-sided screen and take Math classes. Kids would sit in pin-drop silence and listen to Math in a series of workshops," she said.
Calling these sessions "Math concerts", Divya Gokulnath added that her husband took classes in stadiums such as the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi and turned them into the "world's biggest classroom" with 25,000 students. "Nobody thought it was possible, but we did it," Divya Gokulnath said in the video.
Now, however, there are reports of Byju Raveendran breaking down in tears while defending his company from multiple controversies following the resignation of three of its board members and its auditor. The company has also vacated its largest office space in Bengaluru, as it seeks to cut costs and shore up liquidity amid a delay in funding.
In June, Byju’s came under the scanner of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) over non-payment of PF dues. The company paid provident fund (PF) only for 738 employees for June, despite agreeing with the EPFO to clear payments before July 15. In another cost-cutting initiative, Byju's also laid off more than 1,000 employees last month.
Read more: ‘I’m screaming because…’: Byju’s employee’s meltdown over incentives. Viral video
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