By Ashina Mtsumi and Zsuzsanna Nyitray at the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
On 3 March 2022, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) divested from New Globe Schools, better known as Bridge International Academies (BIA). This delivers a blow to all those involved in commercial practices in the sector.
BIA is a for-profit school chain operating in India, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Uganda, currently reaching approximately 750,000 children with ambitions to reach 10 million by 2025. It has received funding from governments and major international investors including France, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, Pearson, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for a total amount estimated to be over US$ 100 million.
The IFC is the largest development finance institution providing support for private actors through its impact investing activities. Out of an education portfolio of almost US$1.2 billion, most of its large projects in education technology were directed to non-state actors, while it allocated 15% to private school chains, as shown in the 2021/2 GEM Report on non-state actors in education. As of December 2020, it had invested a total of $13.5 million in BIA since 2014, with the intention of supporting the company’s expansion from Kenya to other countries.
Although a divestment of this nature is highly unusual for the IFC, when put into context, it should not be surprising. To begin with, it comes after several scandals surrounding BIA and a series of serious complaints submitted to the IFC’s independent accountability mechanism, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, regarding IFC’s investment in the company in Kenya. The allegations in the complaints range from the company’s lack of compliance with the rule of law, violations of labour rights, child sexual abuse involving BIA staff and students, and inadequate health and safety measures that led to the tragic death of one child and the injury of another. Civil society organisations have raised similar concerns and have been calling on the World Bank, the largest external funder of education in low- and middle-income countries, and other investors and financial institutions since 2015 (and in 2017, 2018 and 2019), to exit from funding BIA and other commercial actors in education.
In addition, the harmful effects of low-fee commercial school models, such as BIA, on the realisation of the right to free, quality education for all, have been highlighted by civil society actors, human rights bodies and UN Special Rapporteurs alike in recent years. For instance, as referenced also in the 2021/2 GEM Report, BIA has failed to follow national education standards and registration requirements in Kenya and Uganda and has been paying considerably lower wages to their teachers than public schools.
This growing body of evidence has led to a shift in a number of international institutions’ funding policies. In a resolution of 2018, the European Parliament declared that development aid money must not be used for the funding of ‘commercial educational establishments’. In 2019, the Global Partnership for Education included a clause in its private sector strategy banning the use of its funds to support for-profit provision of core education services. In 2020, the IFC announced a freeze on investments in private, fee-charging preschools and primary and secondary schools, “in response to concerns by external stakeholders about the impact of private schools on education quality and access”. These decisions have likely had a bearing on the IFC’s decision to divest from BIA. Moreover, they reflect a growing consensus that profit-making and commercial practices in education should be banned, as also recommended by the 2021/2 GEM Report, and that education policy should be better aligned with the human rights standards applicable, which are compiled in the Abidjan Principles, especially in the context of the growth of private actors in education.
Civil society organisations are instead calling on these donors and investors to expand their support to strengthening public education systems. The 2021/2 GEM Report emphasised that “support to strengthening public education systems has to be a priority” for States. States have accepted and are therefore bound by international law to prioritise the funding and provision of free, quality, public education, and may only provide financial support to private actors under strict circumstances, as detailed in the Abidjan Principles.
Strengthening public education systems should also be a priority for development finance institutions and donor States when formulating their education financing policies and strategies. Their financial support for education must also be focused on building strong and free public education systems, and should not be diverted to commercial interests, in particular through public-private partnerships. Public education, managed and delivered publicly and in the public interest, is the most effective way to build just, inclusive, and sustainable societies, and to meet SDG 4 and human rights commitments.
Interpreted against this background, the IFC’s decision to divest from BIA blends into a larger policy shift described above and should be seen as a part of a broader wave of backlash against the privatisation of education. It should also serve as a wake-up call for donors and investors to reconsider their funding policies and cease their support for BIA and other for-profit, commercial school chains. Perhaps it is time for these donors, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to reflect on and explore alternative ways to support the sector that would not endanger the realisation of the right to free, quality education for all and would contribute to strengthening public education systems instead.
