The KIS Academics Story
Our Purpose:
To provide every student with an amazing, personalised education experience
Our Vision:
We envision a world where one day, technology and genuine human connections can facilitate a unique education for every student across the world
Our Story:
Hi there, I'm Manoj.
I'm the co-founder of Keep It Simple Academics (Or KIS for short). I currently run KIS alongside Dylan Kay.
We started this company with the intention of doing education a little bit differently.
The first question we asked ourselves was: Why is education important?
Why Education is Important:
At KIS Academics, we strongly believe that education is super valuable for anyone and everyone. Most people accept that education is important, but not many people really ask WHY it's important. It's time we cleared things up and explained why education is so vital, and why we're so passionate about it.
So, here we go:
KIS Academics stands for "Keep it Simple."
We like to use first principles thinking to break complex questions down into simple answers.
And the most complex question of all just might be the question I'm about to pose:
How does one live a fulfilling life?
Okay, I know it seems completely unrelated to education but stick with me here - I'll explain everything to you.
I think it's safe to assume that everybody wants to live a fulfilling life.
We believe that to live a fulfilling life, one needs to spend a lot of time doing things that are enjoyable, but also have a greater purpose.
Both criteria must be fulfilled. I enjoy eating cupcakes, but this does not necessarily have a higher purpose.
Meanwhile, devising new quantum physics theories might have a higher purpose, but I won’t enjoy it if I hate maths.
Hence, we as humans need something that give us both: Enjoyment and Purpose.
However, finding this sweet spot is very difficult.
For most people, things like maintaining relationships and having a family tick both of these boxes.
But it's much harder to tick these boxes when it comes to your career (which will also make up a big part of your life!)
The last thing anyone wants is to find themselves in a dead-end job at 40, barely tolerating the 9-to-5 hours, forced to work in a soul-sucking industry you have no passion for, just to put food on the table because you have no other options...
This is why finding something enjoyable and purposeful is so important.
In order to find something that is truly fulfilling, each person must explore and experience a variety of different areas to find a career that fulfils our two key criteria. Here's how we see this whole process:
Let's be real, it's not easy to know what you want to do with your life when you're still in high school. Being confronted with the decision to choose a degree or career path can be extremely daunting.
At the end of the day, we want students to have as many choices as possible about what path they choose to go down - and in order to do that a strong educational background is necessary.
For some this education means developing the right skills and connections during school. For others, it's about obtaining a high enough Year 12 score to gain entry into a university degree or program that interests you.
The more options you have, the more opportunities you have, and the more you can explore until you find the pathway that is just right for you: something that you enjoy and find purpose in.
This is why education is so important. It doesn't just teach you values and skills - it gives you the freedom to choose what you want to do with your life. The freedom to choose something that truly fulfils you.
This is why we're so passionate about education, and to play our part in it, we insert ourselves right here:
We believe that it is our duty to help students get the absolute most out of their education, and get access to the best opportunities.
In this way, we can help students lead fulfilling lives and do things that they can find purpose and enjoyment in.
So, I think we've made it pretty clear that getting a good education is important.
The question now is, how do we do it better? How can we make education ✨amazing✨
The Tailored Education Experience
Because education is so important, students deserve to get the best education possible. Our job at KIS Academics is to give our students the best, most personalised education possible, which will then afford them freedom to explore as many options as available to them.
How can we provide the best education you ask?
It's simple. We make it all about the student.
It starts with attention - making sure the student gets adequate attention from the teacher.
Attention is vital. Why?
Because every student's brain works differently, and every student has different strengths and weaknesses, and every student has different goals and aspirations.
Cookie-cutter classrooms are horrible educational environments for most kids. Students don't get the attention they deserve, or the help they need because their schools are stuck in the dark ages.
For the last hundred years, classrooms have been rows of desks with a whiteboard (or an interactive whiteboard, but what difference does it make?) and a teacher trying to tame a class of 30. No wonder students struggle at school.
Think about it like this:
At KIS, we prioritise having 1 tutor to 1 student, meaning that the student gets 100% of the tutor's attention.
In a small group class with 2 students, each student will get 50% of the tutor's attention.
Whereas in a school classroom with 1 teacher and 25 students, each student only gets a minuscule 4% of the teacher's attention.
And in a lecture hall with 200 students, the students get 0.5% of the lecturer's attention.
So, by increasing the number of students, all you are doing is reducing the quality of the educational experience for the student.
The funny thing is, the institution is actually making a larger profit by allocating more students into a single classroom, so it's in their best interest to fit as many students as they can to the one teacher. Schools and universities no doubt try and find the sweet spot of: "How many kids can we fit into a single classroom to maximise profits, without them complaining and going elsewhere."
This model of teaching results in students falling through the cracks, failed by the education system that was supposed to facilitate opportunities and exploration for them.
That's why at KIS academics, we're big believers in maximising the amount of attention each student gets from their tutor.
Then, once we give students adequate attention, we focus on personalising the learning experience for them.
Each and every student is unique, with different passions, interests, learning styles and strengths.
Rather than forcing students to adapt to their education system, we adapt our education system to the student.
We're the exact opposite of most schools.
We provide an antidote to generic classrooms that treat students like sheep. We put the time and effort in and invest in our students, learning about their goals, dreams and passions. Then, armed with this knowledge, we pair them with the perfect tutor.
Someone who's young and relatable.
Someone with a stellar track record and the brains of a genius.
Someone who cares just as much about your success as you do.
Someone who will inspire and motivate you.
Someone who will do not only teach you basic content, but study skills, life lessons, scholarship application advice, and so much more.
But we don't just invest in our students - our tutors are constantly improving as well. We prioritise developing our tutors as individuals and we:
- Give them teaching experience that is invaluable in any line of work
- Provide them with worksheets, practice exams and other resources they can use during lessons so they can focus on what they’re amazing at: teaching students
- Create further job opportunities within KIS for tutors to develop professionally and help students
- Train them to be brilliant and professional tutors who can deliver classes online or in person, and cater to every individual student's needs.
- Deliver transparent communication so they know what's happening behind the scenes at KIS.
- Write references for jobs or internships tutors apply for and provide glowing reviews
- And sometimes even some help with a rental application or two 🏡
By leveraging the power of technology and training the best tutors in the country, we can provide any student, anywhere, with a rich and unique learning experience that combines one-to-one lesson time, online self-directed programs, and broader study skill productivity techniques.
What we've achieved
KIS Academics has grown from humble beginnings to become an Australia-wide education company. We have helped hundreds of students achieve their academic potential through our student-centric, personalised learning system. Through these last few years, We've learned a thing or two about how tutoring works. Now it's our goal to grow KIS Academics and help more students across Australia access opportunities through education to find out what what will give them purpose and enjoyment.
In the last few years:
✅ We've helped over 800 students both online and in-person
✅ We've hired over 100 top performing tutors
✅ We've helped C students get straight As and build their confidence
✅ We've helped wannabe doctors get into Australia's best medical schools
✅ We've helped students who live in rural towns go to metropolitan universities.
✅ We've helped students who hate maths find their passion for it
✅ We've supported our amazing tutors apply for jobs and internships
✅ We've even helped some students get into an IVY league college.
We relentlessly focus on providing the best education experience possible for all our students. In doing so, we take a step closer everyday to achieving our vision of a world where technology and genuine human connections can facilitate a unique education for every student across the world.
So, what are you waiting for?
Let's get started