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Session Submission Summary

Highlighted Session: How are Commercial Private Schools Doing in Practice? Update

Tue, April 19, 3:00 to 4:30pm CDT (3:00 to 4:30pm CDT), Hyatt Regency - Minneapolis, Nicollet D3

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

The rapid growth of commercial actors in low-fee private schooling have been at the center of debates on education and inequalities for the last two decades. Those in favour of this phenomenon argue that commercial models present a potential “solution” to the problems confronting so-called developing countries. On the other hand, this large-scale expansion of commercial actors has been criticized by many for being incompatible with human rights and has paved the way to the adoption of the Abidjan Principles on the human rights obligations of States to provide public education and to regulate private involvement in education in 2019, synthesizing the existing international human rights norms in the context of commercialisation in education.

Bridge International Academies (BIA) is probably the most well-known and controversial chain among commercial low-fee private schools. It stands out by its scale – over 500 schools and the ambition to reach 10 million children by 2025 – and its use of technology. BIA uses what it calls a ‘school in a box’ model, employing a highly-standardised approach to education. Every school looks the same, the material used is the same in each classroom, and most importantly, the lessons are the same across all the academies of the same country. It uses a system of scripted lessons, and its teachers receive lesson plans on an e-tablet, which they have to follow word by word.

Controversies about its involvement in East- and West Africa have been widely echoed in the last few years mainly concerning issues such as compliance with international and national laws, the school environment, questions related to access and parental inclusion, as well as concerns raised relating to the poor labour and working conditions of teachers employed by Bridge, and the lack of transparency and accountability regarding its operations. Some of these concerns have been voiced in a complaint submitted to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent accountability mechanism for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the arm of the World Bank which has invested in Bridge, in 2018. This case has been followed by subsequent complaints to the CAO in 2020, alleging the sexual abuse and electrocution of children attending Bridge International Academies in Kenya. Moreover, the fact that many Bridge schools have permanently closed shop due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has left many teachers unemployed and many children without schools, deepening structural inequalities in access to education with specific implications for girls and young women.

This panel aims to build on the developments that have taken place since the 2017 CIES panel addressing Bridge International Academies as the evolving model for commercial low-fee private schools. In doing so, it will offer important reflections on what has changed on the ground since 2017 and will present the latest research and empirical data available in the East- and West- African regions concerning the operations of Bridge schools. It will provide an analysis of the current situation in Kenya, Uganda, Liberia and Nigeria from an equality and right to education lens and will investigate through the case study of Kenya, whether the Bridge model upholds the requirements of transparency and accountability towards the communities it serves. Reflecting on the individual presentations, the panel will ultimately explore whether the model of the Bridge International Academies is fit for the very purposes it was founded for.

Sub Unit

Chair

Individual Presentations