Low cost education has potential to play significant role in poor communities

If low cost private education is to contribute towards achieving the universal primary education (UPE) target by 2015, then such schools must be provided with quality teachers, supervision and the necessary teaching/learning materials by government.

It is also essential for them to follow the national education system’s curriculum, the Commonwealth Secretariat’s education adviser Florence Malinga has said. She added that while low cost private education may not be the typical “top of the range” education, it is a better alternative to having no education at all.

Low cost private education, also known as community education, refers to private schools set up by poor communities. Some of these schools have basic physical facilities with some lessons conducted under a tree with a pupil–teacher ratio (PTR) of 100:1.

“Low cost private education has played a significant role in ensuring that a disadvantaged community can give some education to their children even though it may not be top quality,” said Ms Malinga. “Because of demand for education, and appreciation of the benefits that come through education, some parents send their children to these schools.”

Ms Malinga, a former teacher and education planner with over 20 years’ experience, gave an example where there were not enough classrooms, books and teachers in Uganda when universal primary education was launched in 1997 with a PTR ranging between 55:1 and 100:1. She believes that despite this situation, “if it is a choice between having 100 children taught by just one teacher or those children remaining out of school looking after goats and cows, then it is still better to have some education than none.”

Ms Malinga feels that low cost private schools are critical as some 75 million children worldwide were not enrolled in primary education in 2006, according to the 2009 EFA Global Monitoring Report. UNESCO estimates that one child in three has never been inside a classroom.

Governments should endeavour to ensure that all their citizens access quality education as this is a human right to which all states have committed themselves.

The impact of low cost private schools was examined in a new Commonwealth Secretariat publication, ‘Low-cost Private Education: Impacts on Achieving Universal Education’. Edited by public policy adviser and lobbyist Bob Phillipson, it looks at the impact of such schools in Uganda, Nigeria and India – which have many such programmes targeting poor communities. The publication looks at access of children to schools, enrolment, teachers, infrastructure, quality of education and impact of the transition from primary to secondary education.

Click here to buy ‘Low-cost Private Education’

Millennium Development Goals

The United Nations Millennium Declaration, adopted in September 2000, commits countries to reduce extreme poverty and sets out targets with a deadline of 2015. These targets are known as Millennium Development Goals. They include universal primary education, promoting gender equality and ending poverty and hunger.

Goal 2: Is for all children to be able to complete a full course of primary schooling by the year 2015.

Goal 3: Is to promote gender equality and to empower women.

Source: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

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