DHAKA, Bangladesh– Private schools in the U.S. and other developed nations tend to be associated with high income families, Ivy League universities and the privileged few who can afford tuitions of $40,000 a year per child. However, private schools in developing nations, especially African and South Asian countries tell a very different story. In these countries, private schools mean an opportunity for some of the poorest people in the world to escape plight and deprivation, and perhaps a chance at a comfortable life.
Throughout the world, more and more children are going to school, which places a huge burden on government to staff, resource and manage public schools. In the last two decades, new actors are taking the lead in educating children at a minimal cost. “And by showing what can be achieved in schools where teachers actually make an effort to teach and where principals actually care about results, they are laying the basis for a revolution in global education.” One of these actors, not surprisingly, is the organization BRAC.
BRAC, the largest non-governmental organization in the world, has been providing services to 110,000 million people in areas such as health, micro-finance, agriculture and water. But more impressive is that since 1985 it has been running private schools, indeed, “the largest secular nongovernmental educational system in the world.” With 700,000 students currently enrolled in their schools all over Bangladesh, and some more in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uganda, South Sudan and Sierra Leone, BRAC currently operates 40,000 schools in total.
BRAC’s model of private education focuses on children that were pulled out of school to tend to domestic or farm work. In other cases, the only schools available were located in other villages nearby making a daily journey extremely taxing and even in some cases dangerous (as is the case for girls). These schools are made available to children who where pulled out of primary school or who reached the limit starting age of 8.
The organization currently spends approximately $20 a year per student, versus the $30 a year spent by the government on public education. However, the results are more promising. To find teachers for their schools, BRAC taps the potential of female educated women within each village. This keeps the cost very low, while at the same time empowering local women, and dissipating any fear parents might have about male teachers.
Moreover, a study of BRAC’s student performance on government tests found that they tend to do 10 percent better than students that come from the public school system. In addition, BRAC students were more likely to complete fifth grade than their public-school counterparts (94 percent of BRAC students vs. 67 percent of public school students). The study also reveals, that BRAC teacher’s educational level did not affect their students scores as much as their experience with teaching did.
While doing well on government tests cannot be hailed as an achievement of universal education, remember, these children would not have had an education at all if it were not for the BRAC schools. The model of private education implemented by BRAC is a move in the right direction, as it can be seen by the countless other schools worldwide that have copied their model.
Sources: The Star, The New York Times: Opinionator
Photo: Educate a Child