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#StartupStory: Ratings For Schools - a one-stop site to choosing the perfect school for your kid
8 Feb 2023
One of the biggest challenges parents face is deciding where to send their child to school and choosing the right school can make all the difference in their little one's successful academic career. When finding the school that fits the child's unique needs, there are a number of factors to consider which includes your location, your budget and your child's needs, amongst others.
It is for this reason that Greg Ofori and his wife, South African media personality Carol Ofori of East Coast Radio started Ratings For Schools, a platform that offers parents, students and educators the opportunity to find schools based on their individual needs.
Greg Ofori. Image supplied
We chat with Greg Ofori to find out more about Ratings for Schools...
What inspired you to start Ratings For Schools?
Having moved from Johannesburg to Durban for an exciting new career prospect, Carol and I needed to find suitable schools for our children quickly. Searching for schools took a lot of work. We eventually got some great recommendations from colleagues, but knew there had to be an easier way.
This got us thinking – what if there was a centralised platform that could help streamline the process of finding schools in South Africa? That's when we came up with the idea of creating a free, convenient and user-friendly platform for parents to easily find schools, no matter where they are.
When and how did you get started?
We began developing the idea for the platform in early 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. As parents of school-going children, we quickly understood the challenges families and schools face during the search process. Leveraging our insights and experiences, we identified the functions that would add value to the platform we planned to create.
Explain the core function of Ratings For Schools.
At its core, the primary function of Ratings For Schools is to connect parents and users to schools that best fit their unique needs.
Additionally, ratings for schools act as a digital marketing platform for schools to increase their online presence to a highly-targeted niche of parents searching for the perfect school for their children.
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Briefly explain how it works
Using ratings for schools is incredibly easy. Log in to your free profile, and use any of our four available search forms for Pre-school, Primary School, High School and our new Online school search.
Type in your location to quickly find schools in your area, and narrow down your results even further by filtering according to curriculum, cultural and sports offerings, boarding facilities and much more.
With a few clicks, you'll be able to easily compare schools and find the best one for you and your family.
What other services does Ratings For Schools offer, if any?
Ratings For Schools offers 360 virtual tours, website design, and social media marketing services at highly competitive rates. Our team is dedicated to providing quality services that help you reach your goals and maximise your school's visibility.
What did you have to do to get your site up and running in the beginning stages?
The initial stages of the project were quite challenging. We needed to find reliable and trustworthy website developers to turn our vision into a functional product. Unfortunately, we soon realised how costly this exercise was, and I decided to take on the task of building the website myself.
Despite the rocky start, I was determined to make it work, and I'm proud to say that we succeeded.
What are some of the challenges you've had to face getting started?
The early days of our website development project were filled with challenges. Developers often needed to catch up on deadlines, resulting in costly hourly charges, and sometimes the wrong changes were deployed to the site.
Frustrated, I decided to take matters into my own hands and build the website myself. After countless hours of work and two catastrophic site crashes, we finally launched a fully functioning product. It was an arduous journey, but the outcome was well worth the effort.
How successful has Ratings For Schools been?
Ratings for Schools launched officially in January 2022. In just one year, we have seen tremendous success, with our active user base growing to an impressive 30,000 users per month. Moreover, our database of verified schools has seen great growth since our launch.
We look forward to continuing to serve our users with the best options for schools in years to come.
Where would you like to see Ratings For Schools in the next few years?
We are determined to keep growing and strive to become a household name in the years to come. As South Africa continues to develop and prosper, the need for good schools increases and Ratings for Schools is committed to connecting South Africans with the schools that best suit their needs.
We strongly believe that every child deserves the opportunity to receive the best education, and it is our mission to provide parents and guardians with the resources to make informed decisions about their children's educational future.
