Aid spent on private schools doesn’t reach world's poorest children, MPs say

The Guardian
Rebecca Ratcliffe

Pupils at a Bridge International Academies primary school in Uganda. Photograph: Aurelie Marrier d'Unienville/Alamy Stock Photo

Parliamentary committee advises caution over development funds channelled through private education, citing insufficient evidence of boost to learning

There is a lack of evidence to support spending aid money on private education providers, said MPs on the international development committee (IDC).

In its report, the committee cited concerns that private schools are not accessible to the poorest and most marginalised children. More research is needed to determine the role of private schools in widening access to education, it said.

The committee also warned education had been sidelined in the UK’s overall aid spending.

The report, which is released as the Department for International Development (DfID) reviews its education projects, said the amount of aid money dedicated to schooling has fallen over recent years. In 2011, 10% of DfID’s spending went on education projects, but this had fallen to 7% by 2015. MPs call for a “significant increase” in the amount invested on education, especially early years projects.

“Education has not been given the level of priority it deserves and the big message from this report is the world needs to rise to the challenge,” said Stephen Twigg, chair of the IDC. Other donor countries and recipient governments also needed to increase their investments, he said.

The report urges the government to pledge $500m (£381m) to the global partnership for education, an international fund that supports schooling in developing countries. In February, Senegal and France will host a summit for the partnership in which donor countries and governments from developing countries will announce commitments on widening access to education. MPs have called on the UK to announce its commitment urgently, to encourage other governments to follow suit.

Campaigners have repeatedly warned that global education projects are underfunded, and that governments are not on track to meet the targets set out in the sustainable development goals. Around the world, 263 million children and young people are out of school, while an additional 330 million are in school but are estimated not to be learning the basics. In June, Unesco, the UN educational, scientific and cultural organisation, released figures showing the number of children and young people missing out on an education remained unchanged between 2012 and 2015.

According to the IDC’s report, the very poorest children, girls, those with disabilities, and those affected by conflict and emergencies are the least likely to access education. More than half of the world’s registered refugees of school age – 3.5 million – are not in school; though as this figure only includes young people who are registered, the actual number is likely to be much higher.

The lack of schooling for disabled children, who not only face physical barriers but whose teachers often do not receive adequate training, was a major concern. “We know that the exclusion from school, particularly in some of the poorest countries in the world, is greater for disabled children,” said Twigg, adding that there is “a massive way to go to ensure anything close to fair and equal access for disabled children”.

Private education providers have been heralded by some – including the former international development secretary Priti Patel – as a way to improve access to education in some developing countries. But the committee recommends such initiatives should be treated with caution.

The report refers to a study commissioned by DfID that found “moderate evidence of private schools achieving better learning outcomes compared to state school counterparts”. The same research also reported suggestions that girls are less likely to access private schools, and weak evidence that such schools reached the poorest children.

The committee’s report also points to Bridge International Academies, a private school chain offering technology-driven education, which has provoked controversy among education experts. In Liberia, a trial of a public-private partnership, in which management of some state schools have been outsourced to the private sector, including Bridge, has found positive outcomes for students. But the report says that while “elements of Bridge’s model are innovative, impressive and scalable”, there are concerns about the quality of its schools in some countries.

“In Uganda, all Bridge schools have been threatened with closure by the education minister after inspectors reported that children were being taught in ‘substandard facilities and unsanitary conditions’,” the report said. Bridge’s operations in Kenya are still being threatened due to an alleged lack of compliance with government regulations, it added. Concerns have also been raised about the higher cost of fees in Bridge schools.

The report recommended that DfID should support governments to regulate private schools, and that more research should be carried out to assess how the private sector could be used to improve free, government-funded schools.

Bridge said in a statement that it welcomed the recommendations. “In a world where the majority of children are not learning the basics, we think it is absolutely right that we partner with governments to help them quickly improve education access and quality for some of the most marginalised children in the world. As the report acknowledges, there is ‘a demand for Bridge schools from parents’,” it said.

“Ensuring a regulatory environment that enables a range of providers from NGOs and charities to the private sector and public systems to deliver effective education systems is key. Of course, we too want to see governments properly regulate affordable schools and we have been helping the Kenyan government to design such regulations for many years.”

DfID said in a statement that it does not currently fund Bridge academies, and that more than 95% of its support for education programmes goes to the public sector.

“DfID is increasing its focus on getting the world’s most vulnerable children, including refugees and those with disabilities, into school,” it said.

“Many of the world’s poorest countries rely on privately run schools to provide an education where state provision is failing. Without privately run schools, millions of children would be denied an education.”