An organization called Bridge International Academies has plans to take over a large part of state education in Africa and replace it with for-profit schools. Free and universal education is a basic human right, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But in this brave new world, everything is monetized.
To: AFT Media Affairs
Subject: Education International Report Shows Bridge Academies Abuses in Uganda
For Immediate Release
October 5, 2016
Contact:Andrew Crook
202-393-8637
acrook@aft.org
Education International Report Shows Rampant Bridge Academies
Abuses in Uganda
WASHINGTON— Education International, the global union federation representing 32 million educators in 170 countries, released a damning report today highlighting the abuses of for-profit school chain Bridge International Academies in Uganda.
Click to access DOC_Final_28sept.pdf
The report, “Schooling the Poor Profitably: The Innovations and Deprivations of Bridge International Academies in Uganda,” documents in distressing detail BIA’s disregard for legal and educational standards established by the Ugandan government. This includes failing to employ qualified teachers, failing to observe the national curriculum and failing to uphold school building standards.
BIA has expanded rapidly in Uganda since February 2015, with an estimated 12,000 fee-paying students. However, in August, the Permanent Secretary of Uganda decided to close all BIA schools due the company’s failure to meet the government’s educational and legal standards. EI’s research revealed that as many as 9 out of 10 BIA teachers are unlicensed, in direct contravention of Uganda’s Education Act.
The report shows that BIA’s business plan is based on standardizations, automated technology, shoddy school structures, and internet-enabled devices that are used to carry out all instructional and non-instructional activities on the cheap.
BIA is backed by $100 million in funding from global educational conglomerate Pearson, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, the World Bank, the U.S. and U.K. governments, and others. It plans to sell basic education services to 10 million fee-paying students in low-income communities throughout Africa and Asia by 2025.
However, many Ugandan children cannot afford to pay anything for education, much less BIA’s fees, according to officials. Families with an average household income have to spend up to 23 to 27 percent of their earnings just to send one child to a Bridge school for one year. Indeed, the BIA school dropout rate ranges from 10 to 60 percent.
The report highlights BIA’s use of broadband technology to deliver its “academy in a box,” with pre-programmed curricula transferred to tablet e-readers—“teacher-computers”—that distribute knowledge and information to pupils. BIA makes money by keeping overheads low and by employing unqualified teachers and paying them severely low wages.
The physical structures of Bridge Academies are also shown to be below par, with reports of “poor hygiene and sanitation” in school buildings that often do not meet basic requirements and minimum standards established by the Uganda Ministry of Education.Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, an EI member organization, said: “This report serves as a warning about what happens when private education providers put profits above people. BIA’s shameful abuses, cookie-cutter curriculum and cost cutting make for distressing reading but sadly aren’t in the least bit surprising.
“BIA and other for-profit operators need to realize that their compliance with national and international laws and regulations isn’t optional. Every student, no matter his or her country, has the right to a high-quality, affordable education taught by qualified educators. In Uganda, BIA has failed to deliver.”
Education International’s general secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, said: “We call on the government of Uganda to remain steadfast in demanding that Bridge International Academies operate in accordance with Ugandan legislative and regulatory requirements. Every child deserves to be taught by a qualified teacher delivering an engaging curriculum in safe schools conducive to good teaching and learning.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
The new age of colonialism: Exporting the corporate version of education and Friedman’s faith in market-based solutions for almost everything.
The academy in a box is not far removed from the investments in technology here, with one teacher, some teaching aids, and 400 students getting screen-based instruction in a big-box structure not really designed as a school.
Thank you for keeping us all informed of these minimal-competency concepts of education, honed by our mega-billionaires and others who posture so much about helping low-income children of color here…and now in Africa and Asia.
This report about push-back says: “the Permanent Secretary of Uganda decided to close all BIA schools due the company’s failure to meet the government’s educational and legal standards. EI’s research revealed that as many as 9 out of 10 BIA teachers are unlicensed, in direct contravention of Uganda’s Education Act.”
I hope that this courageous move does not destabalize Uganda’s fragile governance.
“The academy in a box is not far removed from the investments in technology here, with one teacher, some teaching aids, and 400 students getting screen-based instruction in a big-box structure not really designed as a school.”
Thank you, Laura, for highlighting the similarities with the competency based education model being pushed here. Let’s hope that our own government will notice the similarities sooner rather than later. I’m not holding my breath.
I’m in an “inconvenient truth” kind of mood. Here we go:
Capitalism: Profiting on the Backs of the Poor.
Like!
Did I steal what you were going to say? 😉
Regardless of ones religious beliefs, one must accept that there is such thing as good versus bad, right versus wrong. This manifestation of neocolonialism is pure evil.
Off topic: A few things happened today during class and a department meeting about online curricula that proved to me once again that daily visits to this blog make me a much better teacher. Thank you.
LeftCoastTeacher, could you email me? 🙂
EdDetective [at] gmail.com
I hate to be a wet towel, but I am careful to keep my online identity as anonymous as possible. The school board for which I work once hired John Deasy to run the district! Only five people here have my real name and only three have my email address. Might I inquire as to the reason you ask, Detective?
Thank you, LCT
Oh believe me, I understand. Do you think this is my “real” name/email? 😉
Just to chat, really. We need to build alliances. It’s pretty easy to make another email account for your pseudonym, if you wanted.
OK. I will see you in the email world in a few minutes.
That was interesting.
Evil- The state with the most regressive tax system, where the poor pay, at a rate up to 7 times more, than the rich i.e. Washington, where the 800# gorilla lives and likes the system that screws the middle class and poor.
IF, and that is a big if, the billionaires and reformers cared so much about the poor, and the poor in other countries, they would deliver their products for free, as in, “I’m a philanthropist” and not at a price. Many of these countries to which the billionaires export their products can hardly afford to choose between feeding their kids, and educating their kids. Not that “school in a box” is good for anyone, but would free school in a box benefit children who have little to no education? It just irks that making a profit is always attached. If I had more money than I could use in this lifetime, I would hope that I would do some good with it, instead of exploiting the poor to make even one more dime.
Cross posted at https://dianeravitch.net/2016/10/05/uganda-profiting-on-the-backs-of-the-poor/
with this comment which has embedded links at the post.
The corporate entities within the New World Order, are planning on taking over the ENTIRE EDUCATION OF THE WORLD’S PEOPLE and they are starting in Africa.
While they are successfully destroying and privatizing American schools.
http://www.alternet.org/how-billionaires-are-successfully-fooling-us-destroying-public-education-and-why-privatization
I have posted the links before: look at what the California Billionaires are doing to privatize education and be aware that this is a worldwide takeover of education by the oligarchs who KNOW that getting people as kids, wins the battle to take over any nation.
Anya Kamenetz wrote an illuminating and actually frightening article about Pearson’s ambitious plans to introduce for-profit education around the world.
in “Wired” magazine, Anya Kamenetz wrote an illuminating and actually frightening article
https://www.wired.com/2016/04/apec-schools/
about Pearson’s ambitious plans to introduce for-profit education around the world.
Public schools are disappearing and with it the road to income equality as well as a democracy. Shared knowledge is a requirement for a democracy, and when Billionaire Koch can write North Carolina’s social studies curricula….
See Diane’s posts on privatization https://dianeravitch.net/?s=PRIVITIZATION
and my series using information that Diane Ravitch provides about the state legislatures which are taking over the local schools, with nary an educator on board, and giving them to charters, with not a shred of oversight! Here is a link to Diane’s posts on charter school corruption
http://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
That wouldn’t be the same Bridge International Academy that is being hyped by the Clinton Global Initiative, would it?
Heaven forbid.
With Podesto in Clinton’s campaign, what other scenario would be predicted?
None, none whatsoever…
I think it’s scary because it’s private corporation as state actor. That’s hugely disturbing to me. The private entities seem to get more and more powerful- to the point where governments become almost irrelevant.
That seems like a hugely profound error. A big mistake that will be all but impossible to roll back.
Just a head’s up- Summit Charter Schools are the latest hugely over-hyped charter chain:
http://educationpost.org/facebook-is-teaming-up-with-district-and-charter-schools-to-make-high-school-a-little-less-boring/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Choice&utm_content=TwChoiceFacebookDistrictCharterSchoolsEs1
As usual, the Obama Administration is walking in lockstep with ed reformers. They push Summit Charters at the US Department of Ed too.
I really wonder if there’s coordination or if it’s just an echo chamber so it occurs organically- where they’re all pushing the same things at the same time.
Anyway, looks like every public school will have “blended learning” jammed down their throat.
Here’s the President promoting rural schools purchasing laptops:
View at Medium.com
Someone should tell them a lack of devices is not the most pressing need rural schools face- they have lost funding every year since the Great Recession.
They’re cutting basic instruction-the LAST thing they should be doing is spending tens of thousands on devices and online tracking and testing. Can we get field trips back instead of a laptop?
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.