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Verifying Bridge International Academies’ claim in the country where it has operated for the longest, Kenya

Mon, March 6, 5:00 to 6:30pm, Sheraton Atlanta, Floor: 1, Georgia 7 (South Tower)

Proposal

The key to Bridge International Academies’ rapid expansion is the Academy-in-a-Box approach – through a franchise system where all the academies are the same. Bridge uses scale, technology, and standardization in all aspects of its business to reduce costs, and it asserts, to improve quality. It claims that, thanks to this “innovation”, it can give children “a world class education that will prepare [its] students for the 21st century” (Bridge international Academies, 2016a) on fees that are 70% are lower than the cost of the other low-cost private schools in the same communities (Bridge International Academies, 2016b). Moreover, a central argument put forward by BIA is that the for-profit model forces each school to contain costs and makes Bridge accountable to the parents.

Yet, there is little information available publicly about Bridge’s operations apart from the company’s own data and marketing material, and a number of questions about the validity of BIA’s claims and the impact of its model have emerged, such as: Can BIA promote equity and be a tool against inequalities? Does the commercialization of education they involve not affect the humanistic nature of education and its public good dimension? Is the cost of what BIA does – in terms of labor standards, or else – acceptable in regards to the benefit it may bring? To respond to these questions and promote an informed debate and reflection with policy-makers, investors, and education stakeholders about commercial private school chains such as BIA, it is essential to have independent, quality, information about the model, impacts, and results of the company.

Kenya is the country where Bridge International Academies opened its first school in Mukuru kwa Njenga informal settlement, in Nairobi in 2009. It has expanded rapidly in Kenya, to reach 405 schools, its biggest presence worldwide. This growth in Kenya has been the basis for the further expansion of the company since 2015. BIA’s presence in Kenya therefore provides the most comprehensive field to research the company’s impact and operations, and understand its development process.

This presentation will present the outcome of a research on BIA in Kenya conducted in 2015 and 2016. The research involved a mix of qualitative analysis of over four hundred interviews in eight communities across five regions in Kenya, and of investigative data gathering. Five key stakeholder groups who interface with BIA, students, parents, teachers, head teachers or academy managers and key informants, were interviewed about their perceptions and lived experiences of BIA. Key informants included public officials and former BIA staff. Some quantitative methods were also employed, including a short answer survey, in order to provide a descriptive account of contextual issues. The research aimed at responding to the key questions about Bridge mentioned above, with a focus on establishing whether the claims put forward by the company in terms accessibility, quality, and benefit of the use of a commercial model are verified empirically. The research finds that data collected for this study cannot verify or contract BIA’s claims on all these dimensions.

References
Bridge International Academies, 2016a. About. [online] Available at: http://www.bridgeinternationalacademies.com/company/about/ [Accessed 16 July 2016].
Bridge International Academies, 2016b. Mission. [online] Available at: http://www.bridgeinternationalacademies.com/company/mission/ [Accessed 16 July 2016].

Authors