Supporting Low-Cost Private Schools in Ghana through IDP’s Rising Schools Program
At the recent Brookings event, “Education and the Post-2015 Agenda,” Gene Sperling, Director of the White House National Economic Council and founder of the Center for Universal Education told a moving story about the moment when he knew he was committed to education. He visited a school in a village in Senegal that was just for first graders and second graders. The village was so proud to have this school, and the American visitors were celebrating the existence of a school in such a poor village, even though it was for first graders and second graders only. But then a boy—in shorts, barefoot, dressed up for the American government official in a ragged suit and a ragged tie—asked a question, “Do you think next year we could have a third grade and a bathroom?” Powerful first-hand accounts such as these remind us that amidst the celebrations of all that we have achieved in addressing the global education challenges, much work remains. We must continue to fight so that children not only get some education, but every year of education they desire and to which they have the right.
The IDP Rising School Program
This is why the IDP Foundation. and the Ghana-based Sinapi Aba Trust conceived, developed and implemented the IDP Rising Schools Program, an innovative initiative that supports the efforts of community-members who establish social enterprises. By providing training and access to capital, the IDP Rising Schools Program helps these low-cost private schools serving poor people to expand access to education in Ghana—to help children move from second grade to third grade and beyond.
Lily Ahwereba Baah is one such community-member who has benefited from the IDP Rising Schools Program. Lily, a trained teacher, started Baah Memorial Community School in Apaaso, Ghana in 2005 with six students in nursery. As she struggled to keep her school open while maintaining low school fees, Lily opened a cleaning agency to support the school and accepted farm produce to be used in the school’s canteen as payment from some parents. Lily’s enrollment grew as parents saw that children were performing better than in other schools. Training schools in financial literacy In 2009, Lily became part of the IDP Rising Schools Program, where she received training in financial literacy and school management accompanied by access to microfinance loans. Since joining the program, Lily has taken four loans to build 11 additional classrooms, which have allowed her to add grade levels, and to buy a new school bus to help transport children to school. Baah Memorial’s enrollment grew from 195 students in 2010 to 580 in 2012, now educating students from nursery through Junior High School; Lily’s first class of Junior High School students will soon take their exams to enter Senior High School. Social enterprises like Lily’s exist across the developing world. With capacity-building and access to financial markets, these school proprietors can continue to help students like the second-grader in Senegal, not only reach third grade, but complete their primary education and beyond.