Mr. Pravin Maharaj, a new age Entrepreneur and a visionary is a committed family man who is married to Geetha. They have four boys and a baby girl.
Pravin Maharaj established Oval International during the very traumatic apartheid era twenty six years ago. From humble beginnings Oval has grown into a formidable force in the private education sector with many campuses in strategic provinces within South Africa. Oval International, a registered and accredited private provider, is not only involved in Higher and Further educational services, but, due to Mr. Maharaj’s entrepreneurial spirit Oval has also ventured out into various business ventures and into corporate training and Skills Development.
In view of the technological thrust in education, Mr Maharaj has created and launched two important companies to accommodate the blended learning concept namely WISCOR TECHNOLOGIES and WISCOR PUBLISHERS.
Wiscor Technologies, with its team of experienced professionals including Instructional Designers, Project Managers, Content Specialists, Graphic Designers, Creative Visualisers, Programmers and Quality Control Specialists work in unison to deliver its end-to-end eLearning solutions to the Business, Government, VET and Higher Education sectors. We assist client organisations to scope their requirement, align these with their company vision and plan a step by step rollout for its Adoption.
In order to support the functioning of Wiscor Technologies, Mr Maharaj has also launched Wiscor Publishers in 2014. Wiscor Publishers is a new era digital publisher set apart from the traditional publishers. Combining the best of tradition and cutting edge technology, Wiscor Publishers ushers a new engaging experience with print media.
His most recent significant development was the creation of the platform for the Virtual Study Room (VSR).
Virtual Study Room: Single Integrated Learning Platform
In June 2014, Wiscor launched phase 2 of its successful Infiniti Place 2.0 – called My Virtual Study Room (My VSR) at the EduTech Conference in Brisbane Australia. Delegates were given the opportunity to experience an array of digital learning tools, all developed on a single integrated learning platform. Students will be able to engage with the latest learning resources in eBook interactive format; take notes on a dedicated lesson by lesson writing editor; save these on a personalised MYeP Life (ePortfolio); and watch videos aligned to academic programs; engage in virtual quizzes (short burst tests) aligned to prescribed eLearning resources; complete Activities or Assignments in real time on the interactive writing editor; access the Training Packages (integrated into My VSR from Training.gov.au); undertake additional research with an integrated Google Search Engine; chat with faculty or student groups on Live Chat; send emails to faculty or the organisation – all on a Single Integrated Learning Platform. It provides a comprehensive set of features for students, management and community that forms the bedrock of qualitative ‘anywhere-anytime’ education.
Organisations within South Africa and abroad recognized the passion in Mr. Maharaj for transformation and change within the Education and Training Sector for the betterment of the South African society, especially its disadvantaged community and hence the invitations from far and abroad to attend conferences and seminars and also to present papers at some of these. Outlined hereunder are just some of these attendances:
- Attended ACPET’S (the South African equivalent of APPETD) National Conference in Cairns, Australia between 24 and 26 August 2006 and delivered a paper entitled “Opportunities for Partnerships”.
- Mr. Maharaj was invited and attended the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) National Conference on Skills Development on the 10 August 2009 held at ITC Maurya, New Delhi. The theme of the conference was “Understanding the National Skills Policy”, which is highly relevant to the South African scenario where currently we are engaged in robust discussions about skills development.
Recently, Mr Maharaj has attended the following important conferences both as a delegate and a presenter in pursuant of his mission to learn more and develop new ideas in technological innovations:
- Attended the ICT Indaba in June of 2012, held at the Cape Town Convention Centre and presented a paper on Infiniti Place 2.0
- In August 2012 attend ACEPT National Conference in Sydney
- September 2012 delivered a paper at the GovTech in Cape Town
- November 2012 attended the NSA(National Skill Authority)
- In March 2013 was sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry(DTI) to attended the Cebit Fair in Germany
- July 2013 was once again sponsored by DTI to participate in the Nigeria Trade Fair to present the Infiniti Place 2.0 and Matric Portal
- In June of 2014 Wiscor was one of the major sponsors for the EduTech National Congress and Exhibition held in Brisbane, Sydney.
Mr. Maharaj and Mrs. Maharaj who is the CEO of Oval International have built the Oval Group of Companies into a formidable institution of note through sheer hard work, enthusiasm and determination and have shown their commitment towards the upliftment of the South African society through education, training and skills development.