Zee Group has firmed up plan to foray into Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) pre-primary school sector in India.

The move is spearheaded by the education arm of the group Zee Interactive Learning Systems.

The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zee Telefilms, has already opened 20 pre-primary schools.

"We have a plan to set up 100 schools by end of this fiscal," said A K Khetan, CEO of ZILS. The company was working on franchisee model to expand its network.

Branded 'Kidzee', the format has not been officially launched yet as the company is fine tuning the franchisee model even though it has already evolved the course manual for kids, teachers and attendants.

"The market is unorganised in India as there is virtually no national player. However, the market is fast expanding. The opportunity is not limited to metro cities but exists in satellite towns," he added.

Moreover, many high schools used to have pre-primary schools for as backward integration. With more such pre-primary schools coming in India, chances are secondary schools would exit from this section giving additional volume of business.

Investment from ZILS will be limited to developing course materials, development of human resource and maintaining uniform quality across the network. Clearly, the strategy is to build on the strong brand pull of Zee in India.

Franchisee would have to invest Rs 3.5-12 lakh (Rs 350,000-1.2 million) depending upon the scale of operation.

The tuition fee would vary between Rs 11,000-18,000 depending upon region. Zee would work on 20 per cent commission of the fee.

Khetan pointed out that ZISL would also venture into the SAARC and west Asian countries.