Low-Fee Private Schools for poor children are indeed sustainable. Hundreds of thousands of these schools in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are already up and running. They are managed by edupreneurs that have bootstrapped their way to three or six classrooms. Although it is hard to imagine that schools charging $3-$15 per month can cover all costs, provide a livelihood to the proprietor and provide quality education, they actually do. But we can help them do more.

Professor James Tooley, the world’s foremost authority on Low-Fee Private Schools, concluded a seven-year study where he found put that the quality of education in the schools is substantially higher than in government schools. Children from these schools consistently scored higher on national, standardized tests than children from government schools. There is much room, however, to improve the education quality further, and school proprietors are eager to receive guidance to make such improvements.

While we understand the need for governments in developing countries to commit to ensure quality public education for all, we are very clear that “education cannot wait”. We cannot leave children stranded without an education while we continue to advocate for free public education hence we also work with Low-Fee Private Schools that cater for children from low-income families. The points below provide the basis for our work in this sector and we hope that you resolve to walk this journey of transforming the education space with us.

264 million children, adolescents and youth remain out of school, 94 million of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, where we started our work, the country ranks No. 1 with the highest number of out-of-school children globally with 13.2 million children. Local, social entrepreneurs from the same disadvantaged communities as these children start Affordable Private Schools to tackle this challenge. Most poor parents have voted with their feet and choose to send their children to Affordable Private Schools rather than Public Schools in search of greater accountability. Affordable Private School are given derogatory names and termed low quality, but no one neither provides them with information on their strengths and weaknesses nor supports them with a defined roadmap for improvement. It is easier for a tomato-seller in the local market to access credit than for an Affordable Private School owner to improve the educational environment of their school. Despite these schools filling the gap to educate poor children and the cost savings they clearly provide for Government, they are still not provided the enabling environment to operate.