As this article in the Independent (UK) explains in detail, there is an exciting business opportunity in poor nations: developing and delivering scripted lessons at a low cost without government schools. The headline asks the central question: Is this “an audacious answer” to the problems of bringing schooling to the poorest children?
American investors think so. They like the idea of creating for-profit, low-cost schools where the lessons are exactly the same in every classroom, and the teacher is guided by technology to speak as he or she is told. This does not require credentialed teachers, and the training is minimal.
Charging $6 a month on average, Bridge InternationalAcademies, a multinational for-profit chain, is offering schooling about as cheaply as it can be done. Its founders hope to roll that out to 10 million children across Africa and Asia, the key to its own longevity and, it hopes, the global educational conundrum that has bedevilled policy-makers.
Bridge International now has some 400 schools across Uganda and Kenya. Investors worry, however, that the corporation “faces a potent threat to its survival in the shape of radical new teacher training proposals that would drive up the cost and put it beyond the reach of those that need it most.” The government of Kenya is considering requiring teachers to have pedagogical training, which would drive up the cost and threaten the entire enterprise. It would also signal to the world, says one investor, that no one should invest in Kenya.
Bridge currently enrolls 126,000 children; the profit begins when it reaches half a million. The market is promising.
Says the article: Bridge is arguably the most audacious answer yet to the question of how to bring education to the masses in countries where schools are plagued by overcrowding and teacher absenteeism. The lesson plans and script are prepared in the U.S., then delivered by technology to classes in Africa. Its teachers are “most school-leavers” trained by Bridge. School-leavers are what we would call dropouts, presumably high-school dropouts.
Step into any classroom at Bridge and the chances are that the teacher will be uttering exactly the same words that are being uttered in every single Bridge school. A handbook instructs the teacher to look up from the e-book every five seconds, to wait eight seconds for children to answer, and instead of asking the teacher to explain a mathematical concept, the lesson plan takes them through it step by step. “All I have to do is deliver,” said Mary Juma, a Bridge teacher.
While the scripted approach has earned Bridge acclaim, it has also attracted criticism. “It looks hi-tech, but it is really just someone following a lesson plan in a top-down way and not stimulating discussion,” says David Archer, head of programme development at UK charity ActionAid. “It is almost Victorian.”
While global studies of low-cost private schools have produced mixed results, Ms May is convinced that Bridge’s model works. It has commissioned independent evaluations that show children enrolled in its schools significantly outperform their state-educated peers in mathematics and English. The real test, though, will come in November, when a cohort of Bridge’s children will be ready to take the final primary school exams for the first time.
But here is the danger to investors:
Even as Bridge gets its chance to prove whether its model works, regulatory hurdles threaten to be its undoing. The Kenyan government is setting out new proposals that would radically recalibrate the financial calculations on which these schools operate. Most sweeping of all is a stipulation that half of all teachers in any one school should have a recognised teaching qualification and be paid accordingly.
As usual, it is those “wicked” teachers’ unions that threaten this bold and possibly financially rewarding experiment.
“It is almost Victorian.”
You say “Victorian”, I say “Colonial”. Let’s call the whole thing off.
“Most sweeping of all is a stipulation that half of all teachers in any one school should have a recognized teaching qualification and be paid accordingly.”
And why shouldn’t the children of Kenya expect a teacher to really be a ‘”teacher” ?
Scripted content is a cheap way to offer “something” to the poor, but it could also be considered exploitative as corporations reap profit from people in developing nations that can barely feed their families.
This is neocolonialism at its finest. Exploit the people of the community in the guise of “helping” them, without letting those people decide for themselves what they need, and helping them to get marketable skills. The vulture capitalists go with all of the money and can say how much they’re “helping” people, and the community is poorer than before. It’s sick.
The World Bank has also been criticized for micro-lending to women. While it is claimed that the loans will pay for a business that will get families out of poverty, many women have been unable to pay back the loans, or the women’s husbands take the money for themselves.
Interesting that the Kenyan government is tightening up on these people. When will it happen in the advanced(!) USA ?
Howard, It is more likely that the US profiteers supporting this franchise in Africa and India are already doing versions of this franchise system in the good old advanced(!) USA.
Here’s an apologist for this evil:
http://www.teachersolidarity.com/blog/private-school-chain-in-south-africa-incubates-racism
“In the video above its co-founder Ken Donkoh, talks about the ‘Pay as you Learn’ model, where children can come to school if they can afford to pay for the day. He is happy to say that the schools do not employ trained or experienced teachers but high school graduates who are ‘flexible and malleable.’ “
Even on the backs of those who can afford it the least; the privatizers somehow see profit there. Just shameful. Reminds me of snake oil salesmen. Anything for a profit? Perhaps they feel if they can make it there, they’ll make it anywhere, and bring their formula – scripted lessons, unqualified inexperienced teachers, to New York, New York. Oh, snap, isn’t TFA doing that already? Gotcha. Are high school grads the next step for Teach for America? Will the round up those graduates from private distinguished high schools next, pay them $10/hourly, and fund their ivy league educations after 2 gap years?
Donna,
You do understand that teachers in developing countries often get their jobs as patronage positions and have no qualifications for the position at all. You do understand that teachers in developing countries come to teach 50-75 percent of the time, and when the teacher does not show up there are no classes and no consequences for the teacher. You do understand that there are cities with a million people where the government has decided that there will be no government run schools at all.
In this world, the world that actually exists, there are no real “public schools” to replace. In the world that actually exists, there are parents who understand that the best hope for their children is a school where the teacher does not get paid if they do not show up and teach.
I had a feeling after seeing Diane’s troll post the other day, and how it was inundated by those proud to self-identify, as well as apologists encouraging them on, that things would be changing for the worst here. I suspected it meant that people like the morally bankrupt TE would be welcomed back to fight til the death in support of corporate colonialists feigning good will, as they promote GERM and exploit the poor, now in virtually every corner of the globe. I am very sorry to see this is true.
Lately, there’s been a diversity of opinions and ideas posted here by people with heart and a moral compass and, although I certainly don’t agree with all of them, I had been learning and enjoying the blog again. I do not appreciate supporters of profiteers, especially because for-profit schools have long been the primary way that ECE is provided in this country, since we don’t have public education for ages birth – 5, and many low paid ECE teachers have lived a life of poverty because of it. Few ECE teachers get paid sick days either, though professors at public universities who complain about teachers getting paid to not show up typically get them.
If it was not a game changer for trolls to see the recently reported evidence from ALEC, and Milton Friedman’s statement, indicating the purpose of corporate “reform” all along has been to abolish public education in America, it’s readily apparent that conversations with trolls here are huge waste of time.
DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!
ECE,
Do you have any thoughts about my argument or are you just going to call me names?
The problem in the developing world is that there are often no government run schools worthy of the name school. Those that are often charge fees comparable to those of private schools. Context is important when taking a position, and you might wish to read a little about education in the poor places of the world.
I DO NOT FEED TROLLS, especially those who claim to know more about education everywhere in the world than genuine, formally trained educators, and who advocate for privatized education, instead of well resourced public school systems, when privatizers only care about profits. Go work in for-profit education and see how well that works out for YOU, TROLL WHO HAS BEEN LIVING OFF PUBLIC HIGHER ED PAYCHECKS FOR YEARS.
ECE,
Once again, you might want to present an argument against my position rather than simply calling me names. present some evidence that teachers in rural Africa or India are extremely well qualified. Explain that public schools in Kibera are well resourced, and how the government of Ethiopia would like nothing better to educate all the children in the country.
Or you, TROLL who is committed to supporting profiteers no matter what, who you have affinity with since you are all morally bankrupt, should list every country where for-profit education has trumped non-profit public education. Chile? NADA. Sweden? Nope. For-profit education were utter disasters that increased stratification in both countries, so they are trying to get back their systems of public education, which they’re finding very difficult to do.
Diane, I hope you are enjoying the ongoing profiteering promotions from your old troll with no moral compass again. This blog is not where I want to spend my last days on the planet. I’m out of here.
ECE Professional,
You can handle the profiteers and their mouthpieces. Why quit?