In the 19th century, children were exploited in coal mines and factories as cheap labor. Now they are exploited as pawns a phony-baloney school system that targets vulnerable families in developing nations. For just six dollars a month, a child can get a private school education at Bridge International Academies! Look past the grandiose promotional materials and staged images of wholesome cherubs at their old wooden tables in room with corrugated metal walls and one sees the picture of children who, despite their dutiful compliance with directions, will not receive a first class education.
Brochures and internal reports about Bridge feature smiling Black children in tidy plaid uniforms and charts that depict the staggering difference between student achievement at Bridge schools and student achievement at non-Bridge schools. However, very little in the literature offers details about what makes Bridge schools superior. Do Bridge students have a higher rate of high school graduation, enrollment in college, or higher incomes as adults? Are they especially skilled in critical thinking or have an advanced understanding of science? There is also little said about the summative objective of a Bridge education. Cynics suspect that it to produce a cadre of individuals who will be obedient bureaucrats in a nation run by executives who are puppets of the West, or to be robotic middle-managers in Western-owned corporations. There is no evidence that a Bridge education will enhance the sovereignty of former colonies, liberate them from debt, and make them more self-sufficient.
Bridge International Academies is a self-described “social enterprise,” a for-profit chain of elementary schools. Its parent company is new Globe Schools, an entity founded in 2008 by Harvard graduates Shannon May, Jay Kimmelman, and Phil Frei. Funding is provided by Chan Zuckerberg Education, the Bill Gates Foundation, Pearson Education and other billionaire tech moguls and bankers. The schools serve impoverished populations in India, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Liberia. Far from being a philanthropic public service, Bridge is in the classroom to make money.
Spinning education into gold is not easy anywhere, and it is especially difficult in developing nations whose Gross Domestic Product is less than $3,000.00 per capita as compared to that of the United States which is around $13,000.00 per capita. Parents in developing nations have little to spend on their children’s education, but many are willing to make great sacrifices to give their children literacy and numeracy which they have been told are pathways to upward mobility. Universally, the most expensive item in all education is the faculty and staff. Bridge found a way around that. With only a modest level of literacy, no advanced degrees, and no pedagogical training, teachers are born with Tablets in hand and contracts to do exactly what the nice Tablet tells them to do (Widekar and Grim, 2023). The Tablet is loaded with standard “curriculum” and directions for instructors. It tells the teacher when to explain something, when to illustrate something on the board, when to walk around to monitor student work, what to say to encourage students, and how to assess and report student progress. There is no need to write lesson plans, or be prepared to synthesize, analyze, or orchestrate critical assessment of ideas in discussions because there will be no such discussions.
The Bridge paradigm embodies Neo-Liberalism’s confidence that privatization of everything is the salvation of civilization. Neo-Liberals hold that the market economy holds the key to prosperity, liberty, and individuals’ ability to reach their full potential. They posit that governments are best when they are “small,” which means they value only limited regulations of the market, banks, and corporations, and believe that government welfare programs breed entitlement and abuse of tax dollars. Neo-Liberals have no quarrel with education, but they want it to indoctrinate students with respect for free market economies and respect for the authority of the state (Marginson, 2009). To this end, Neo-Liberals tend to discourage free and open inquiry and debate, which flies in the face of Classical Liberalism’s respect for intellectual freedom and critical pedagogy.
In 2022, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation announced it was terminating funding for Bridge schools. Some objected to profiteering from education which they believe is a basic right of everyone regardless of family income (Education International, 2024). Child molestation has also plagued Bridge schools and teachers are poorly paid and supervised Widekar and Grim, 2023). In Uganda, the government sought closure of dozens of Bridge schools as they were unlicensed and operating in ramshackle buildings with poor sanitation(Segawa, 2017). Education International’s study of Bridge curricula found that is ill-aligned with national standards and that many Bridge schools used questionable, non-transparent methods for documenting student progress, which signaled fraud in the schools’ representation of student learning (Reip, 2019). Bridge teach us that we live in a world where highly educated people spend lots of time and talent figuring out how to exploit the uneducated, and then, profit from peddling ersatz under the label of a nutritious and life-saving meal.
References
Education International. “World Bank to Exit Investment in For-Profit School chain Bridge International Academies.” June 17, 2024. World Bank to exit investment in for-profit school chain Bridge International Academies.
Marginson, Simon. “Hayekian neo-liberalism and academic freedom.” Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, January 1, 2009. Hayekian neo-liberalism and academic freedom.
Reip Curtis. Education International. What do we really know about Bridge International Academies? A summary of research findings? Education International. February 2019. Research exposes private education provider in Africa.
Segawa, Nakisanze. “Uganda Leaves a Company’s Schools in Limbo And Parents and Students Unsure, Confused.” Global Press Journal.” January 31, 2017. Uganda Leaves a Company’s Schools in Limbo And Parents and Students Unsure, Confused.
Widekar, Neha and Ryan Grim. “A is for Abuse.” The Intercept, March 23, 2023. Bridge Saw Big Profits in African Education. Children Paid the Price.
