Hi John,
What do you think we should be spending our international aid budget on? Vaccines? Dealing with climate change? Helping countries close tax loopholes?
I’m guessing you didn’t say profit-making private schools. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the UK government has been doing.
Our research shows that the Department for International Development has been spending tens of millions of pounds on promoting parallel private education systems in the global south – and this approach is failing children.
It's part of our new campaign to tell the government: put pupils before profit!
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When profit comes first
Education is now big business – some estimate that the global education market is worth $5 trillion. Over a quarter of secondary school pupils worldwide are now in private schools. For multinational corporations, this is a huge opportunity to make profit.
But the profit-led model is not delivering for children and young people across the global south. The Department for International Development (DFID) claims that the so-called ‘low fee’ private schools it is supporting open up access to the poorest and most marginalised, but that’s not what the evidence indicates. Our report shows how:
- A £68 million DFID-funded project in Pakistan failed to reach those who most need schooling.
- A DFID-supported private school scheme in Uganda barely touched rural areas, because it wasn’t profitable.
- DFID-supported private schools in Kenya routinely suspend pupils for paying their fees late, even as little as 50 cents.
At the same time, private school companies like Bridge International Academies, which DFID have also funded, use unqualified teachers who are forced to read out lessons word-for-word from e-tablets – a ‘school-in-a-box’ model which can scale up quickly but doesn’t meet children’s needs.
And helping privatisation take place are so-called development ‘experts’, like the UK firm Adam Smith International, which DFID has funded by over £35 million for education work since 2016.
It’s time to put pupils before profit. Will you sign our petition now?
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Fighting back
The profit-led approach to education comes from our government’s view that international aid should be made to serve the needs of business. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
In February this year, Global Justice Now staff went to Ivory Coast meeting campaigners from across the global south who are fighting back against privatisation and standing up for free, quality public education for all children. But they need us to pressure our government to stop going down the wrong road on education.
Will you join me in calling on the International Development Secretary to change course?
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Thank you for everything you do.
In solidarity,
Daniel Willis
Aid campaigner at Global Justice Now
PS. When you’ve signed our petition, please also watch and share our short campaign video on Facebook or YouTube to help ramp up the campaign.
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